Next year you'll be one year older (a debt/lifestyle thread)

[BizJetGuy]

Consider yourself lucky. BoA(nuspounding) got my mortgage when CountryWide went tatsoop. No issues there yet, but I absolutely loath those people for all the crap I went through back when I had a checking account with them.

Agreed. We cut the cord with BoA and will never go back.

[luvtolean]

I hear ya, but I'm looking at my 401k report. My Maxim S&p 500 Index is -1.09% for the last 5 years, +.48 since 2003. I would have been better in a plain old savings account. I think I would need to hold on (as I am in the 401k, thats a 30 year plan to me) longer than the 5-10 years that I would need to access this money, hence why I am not sure I would be comfortable doing that. Plus, I will not have a large sum of money so the compounding will not be that great so the actual return on a 2% (realistic with CD's and such) vs possable of greater returns with alot more risk. I think I'll look into the local credit unions as Chase is pretty sucky right now.

Something else to think about:

Stock and investment tips - let's hear what you're thinking.


Dividend yield they pay you in cash if you like (or reinvest it if you chose), and if there is market appreciation, you get that free. (dividends are taxed though) Of course, if the market goes down, so does your investment.

Later in that thread I posted an ETF for Singapore.

As you allude to, just decide how much risk is worth to you with the money in this bucket (consider the upside and downside risk and decide if it's worth it to put money in the market)...rates on saving are going to slowly go up...

[G-ForceJunkie]

I found a financial plan, that appears it might work: SNL Skit: Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford - The Consumerist
(watch the video)

[08silvercbr]

I found a financial plan, that appears it might work: SNL Skit: Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford - The Consumerist
(watch the video)

That just doesn't make senes to me.. I don't get it, is it in English?

[G-ForceJunkie]

Sigh. Most Americans still unprepared for retirement - survey - Mar. 9, 2010

[luvtolean]

Sigh. Most Americans still unprepared for retirement - survey - Mar. 9, 2010

I've read a bunch of stats on this stuff now, and it continually amazes me that more than half the country has inconsequential or no retirement savings, and the economy has a relatively minor impact on this.

It'd be interesting to know how many of those welfare retiree planners begrudge serial welfare collectors...

[luvtolean]

Speaking of this thread, I found this story disgusting and very disgraceful to a woman who worked and sacrificed to take care of herself, and then gave it all away.

how-a-secretary-made-and-gave-away-7-million: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

[ND4SPD]

Couponing Is an Extreme Sport, Fueled by a Recessionary Spurt of Frugality - WSJ.com

Several friends are doing the coupon thing, sometimes saving as much as $400/mo or more for a family of 4.

[SheepOfBlue]

Speaking of this thread, I found this story disgusting and very disgraceful to a woman who worked and sacrificed to take care of herself, and then gave it all away.

how-a-secretary-made-and-gave-away-7-million: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

I don't think they understand her. She had everything she desired so why cash out the investment. Had the risky part driven it to zero she would have still been who she was and not suffered. If you are investing for retirement their points are valid I don't think she was.

[luvtolean]

I don't think they understand her. She had everything she desired so why cash out the investment. Had the risky part driven it to zero she would have still been who she was and not suffered. If you are investing for retirement their points are valid I don't think she was.

The article subheading was luck, and most of the article was about how "wrong" she was to diversify, and made light her lifestyle sacrifices not to cash in that money along the way.

That is serious discipline, no matter what some idiot reporter says...

[CBR929RE]

The article subheading was luck, and most of the article was about how "wrong" she was to diversify, and made light her lifestyle sacrifices not to cash in that money along the way.

That is serious discipline, no matter what some idiot reporter says...

don't you mean wrong NOT to diversify? the reporter is an idiot for saying she made her investments for her retirement. as Sheep said, certainly didn't seem like that. I think she probably intended to donate it no matter how much it was.

[luvtolean]

Yes I do, thank you for the correction.

[luvtolean]

Considering the unsustainable debt levels many students are taking on, and the number of parents co-signing student loans, the tax implications of short selling/foreclosures, this is big stuff:

defaulted-loans-may-haunt-seniors: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

The penalties for defaulting on debt are slowly going to get worse...

[G-ForceJunkie]

Bravo, as it should be, because us responsable ones are the ones that get to pay it back eventualy. Borrowing huge sums of cash is a gamble, not everyone can turn it into an education and thus a job that can pay it back. The idea of "You can be anything you want" is horseshit fed to young people. Borrowing $200k does not mean you will ever pass the bar or your medical boards. Borrowing $40k for <insert degree dejour> may mean you still will only be able to get a job at Starbucks. I can't even fathom some one who makes nothing to minimum wage (students) being able, or thinking its a good idea to borrow tens of thousands of dollars.

[SheepOfBlue]

Yes I do, thank you for the correction.

Big education and their run away costs strike

[luvtolean]

Some interesting stats on wealth building:

• 90% of millionaires in America are self made, first time wealthy
• The average time it took to build a million dollars is 17.2 years (no idea where the median fits in)
• During those 17.2 years, they averaged 60-80 hours a week
• Backgrounds are most frequently small business owners and a strong minority of highly educated professionals (ie 19 years education to a law degree, ~24 years to become a doc).

The current tax code, and envious governmental message, is definitely making the professional path harder as it siphons off the unshelterable, and realized, desserts of hard work and sacrifice of the top producers.

Considering current tax rates, you'd have to generate somewhere around $1.5mil to 2mil, pre tax, through investing/saving/compounding/capital gains. This is above and beyond your living and debt servicing costs. (Maybe less depending on how favorable your taxes are and how good your investments do, but for us, especially as our taxes start climbing this year, I'm estimating having to earn a million and a half beyond living expenses to have a million beyond any primary residence equity.)

You willing to pay the price?

[G-ForceJunkie]

phuck it, I'm just going to live in a van, down by the river, and live off government cheese.

[BizJetGuy]

We're on the cusp of some major simplification.

[luvtolean]

phuck it, I'm just going to live in a van, down by the river, and live off government cheese.

I like where you're going with that.

Not the relying on other people's charity for my food or living in a van, but not having a J-O-B...

We both like our jobs, but we also both know we don't want to live the pace of life we have now until 65, and we know earning a good paycheck is going to again become a game of vanishing returns.

So we're trying to figure out at what point, and how, we could exit the Rat Race and move on to the next thing. Without the van and the government begging.

[bda116]

Some interesting stats on wealth building:

• 90% of millionaires in America are self made, first time wealthy
• The average time it took to build a million dollars is 17.2 years (no idea where the median fits in)
• During those 17.2 years, they averaged 60-80 hours a week
• Backgrounds are most frequently small business owners and a strong minority of highly educated professionals (ie 19 years education to a law degree, ~24 years to become a doc).

The current tax code, and envious governmental message, is definitely making the professional path harder as it siphons off the unshelterable, and realized, desserts of hard work and sacrifice of the top producers.

Considering current tax rates, you'd have to generate somewhere around $1.5mil to 2mil, pre tax, through investing/saving/compounding/capital gains. This is above and beyond your living and debt servicing costs. (Maybe less depending on how favorable your taxes are and how good your investments do, but for us, especially as our taxes start climbing this year, I'm estimating having to earn a million and a half beyond living expenses to have a million beyond any primary residence equity.)

You willing to pay the price?

Whatever, all the rich whiteys are just "more fortunate" than the "less fortunate". It has nothing to do with educating yourself and hard work, just dumb luck. So all those "more fortunate" evil rich whiteys should be "giving back" to "their community" and paying their "fair share" of taxes.








I can't even imagine what it's like to actually believe that pile of garbage I wrote, since I felt dirty and sleazy, like a moocher with an IQ near 25 while typing it.

[luvtolean]

Makes you wonder where the bullshit "data" some of our socialist brothers gather claiming we have low social mobility comes from...

Clearly we have unbelievably good social mobility in this country.

The American dream seems to me, from running the numbers, as easy as ever to attain, but also easier than ever to squander on consumer debt, frivolous luxuries people now consider necessities (in the 50's, only 10% of Americans had air conditioning in their houses for example), extra large houses and overall poor budgeting.

[SomeStrangeGuy]

I can't even imagine what it's like to actually believe that pile of garbage I wrote, since I felt dirty and sleazy, like a moocher with an IQ near 25 while typing it.

Don't get me started...

[Shenders1]

We're on the cusp of some major simplification.

I like where you're going with that.

Not the relying on other people's charity for my food or living in a van, but not having a J-O-B...
....

So we're trying to figure out at what point, and how, we could exit the Rat Race and move on to the next thing. Without the van and the government begging.

I guess my longing for a simpler life is less unusual than I'd thought. It's difficult to describe how I feel about my lifestyle at the moment - Ambivalence is probably the best word. My job pretty much consumes me. There's very little time for anything else. On one level it's fulfilling, but it is NOT something I want to do forever.

I've done an awful lot of thinking (longing?) for a simpler lifestyle, to the extent that I've calculated the minimum amount we'd need to live on, and done some thinking about the cheapest places to do it....

Probably not going to happen in the next 5 years, but I'm not giving up on the dream.

[SheepOfBlue]

I can say personally while I am not a millionaire that my Dad is better of than Grandpa was (as are ALL of his kids) and I am better off than Dad is (as are my brothers). The whiners of the world really tick me off. Those that say school has to be paid for by someone else I worked to pay mine as did my sister in law (and I had a cube mate that did it while raising two kids as a single mom). Certainly big education has a rate of inflation that approaches medicine but it can still be done (and unlike medicine it does not have an increase in quality and result, rather a decrease)

[abtech]

I'll probably work full time until I'm 85 or at least until I die just trying to make ends meet. The last two years have certainly changed my outlook on retirement and life in general. Spending our entire "life savings" in less than ten months was pretty sobering. Oh well, I can still make basic calculations and IT decisions, so things can't be that bad . . .

[luvtolean]

The last two years have certainly changed my outlook on retirement and life in general. Spending our entire "life savings" in less than ten months was pretty sobering.

I was part of similar last year with a family member. I learned the true importance of insurance, both term life and more esoteric types such as long term care, BOUGHT BEFORE YOU'RE SICK, that's for sure. Financial problems for devastated survivors are so sad.

Also, don't lie on your life insurance. They'll gladly take your money, but they don't pay out before doing due diligence. With increasing electronic medical records, you ain't gonna hide anything from them.

Oh well, I can still make basic calculations and IT decisions, so things can't be that bad . . .

I don't ever really want to "quit", but every year I find the small indignities of even a sweet job situation, which I have, a bit more annoying...so it's definitely a priority to get to where I don't have to work.

[BizJetGuy]

I guess my longing for a simpler life is less unusual than I'd thought. It's difficult to describe how I feel about my lifestyle at the moment - Ambivalence is probably the best word. My job pretty much consumes me. There's very little time for anything else. On one level it's fulfilling, but it is NOT something I want to do forever.

I've done an awful lot of thinking (longing?) for a simpler lifestyle, to the extent that I've calculated the minimum amount we'd need to live on, and done some thinking about the cheapest places to do it....

Probably not going to happen in the next 5 years, but I'm not giving up on the dream.

Thread coming in a few weeks. The plan starts with a shift in career path...

[luvtolean]

So, are you an extreme saver?

http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/fina...s?ywaad=ad0035

Some pretty good ideas in there. We know the last family. (and addition to our garden, my wife is bugging me about chickens too)

[Heavy-Dee]

Well I've got the Mustang out of my head. The FJ is listed on the forum where I bought it and on Auto Trader. I plan to buy something using the equity from the sale.

Next up: College loan deferment.

[SheepOfBlue]

So, are you an extreme saver?

Yahoo! Finance - Financially Fit

Some pretty good ideas in there. We know the last family. (and addition to our garden, my wife is bugging me about chickens too)

Yep I am