Best money advice you've ever received?

[David1961]

What is the best advice relating to money/finances you have ever received? I have two:

1. Live below your means
2. Invest regularly in stocks for long-term growth.

 

[Culture]

The exact quote was "It's not what you make, it's what you save."

AKA LBYM.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Don't spend your money on worthless crap that won't make you happy and requires you to dedicate your life to "The Man". That worthless crap just ain't worth it for your worthwhile worthy lifestyle.

Start saving and investing as a young person, you won't regret it.

Skip the hot stock to buy now nonsense. You can't beat the market. Pick an asset allocation and stick with it.

Index funds - Low fees, usually beats most of the other funds.

Learn to enjoy a simple lifestyle. Pity those that want to live a flashy lifestyle. They get to work till they drop. Living simply for many years will give you lots of good options.

 

[justin]

"Costs Matter"

Referring to investing expenses. That's the takeaway from reading books by Bogle (Vanguard's founder). Plus the OP's #1 and #2.

 

[retire@40]

Making money is easy. Knowing how to spend it correctly is difficult.

 

[jIMOh]

poor people give money
rich people give advice
really rich people make you pay for advice

 

[audreyh1]

Somehow I was raised with a strong aversion to debt. That definitely made life easier! I shudder to think what life would have been like otherwise.

Audrey

 

[ziggy29]

Start investing for retirement early.

 

[kumquat]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

There's a sucker born every minute.

 

[W2R]

You have sound judgment and good mathematical skills, so use these to figure out for yourself how to retire. Your goal is realistic and you don't have to have someone else tell you how to reach it.

 

[Andre1969]

Back when I was in my teens, I had amassed a pretty good amount of money working parttime jobs. I just had it in my savings account and CD's. My Granddad told me that I should find something more aggressive to start investing in. Finally, when I was 21, I bought my first mutual fund. Just wish I had started listening to Granddad a few years earlier!

 

[twaddle]

Plastics!

 

[CuppaJoe]

Since coming to this forum, I’ve been mulling over something Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was quoted as saying: that he never made any real money until he retired (very very young! but temporarily as it turned out) to Hyannis Port and sat by the pool to think about his investments. Whether the quote is true or not, I intend to give some thought to my portfolio after R (as well as now): rebalance, invest in some equities, etc.

Quotes here by MasterBlaster and others who say retirement isn’t rocket science. I’ve been trying to read Ray Lucia’s books and keep coming back to simpler ways of thinking about it.

 

[Eyerishgold]

Who'd have thought a Shakespeare quote would apply to this thread but...


From Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1603:

LORD POLONIUS:​

Neither a borrower nor a lender be; ​

For loan oft loses both itself and friend, ​

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry​

 

[retire@40]

...


From Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1603:

LORD POLONIUS:​

Neither a borrower nor a lender be; ​

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,...​

And as a followup, there's a saying "If you lend someone money and never see them again, it was probably worth it."

 

[teejayevans]

Buy low, sell high!

 

[VaCollector]

"Pay yourself first!" and I was taught to save and then buy it.....not buy it and then try to figure out how to pay for it.....kept me from buyer's remorse on more than one occassion!!

 

[kcowan]

My folks taught me to be frugal. I only bought 2 new cars in my life because used cars were better value. Whenever we moved, I shopped and shopped for a bargain because it was the largest purchase we ever made. When we needed a mortgage, we used a mortgage broker to get the best deal on money. We don't spend money an non-essential items. We are trailing edge on new technologies.

 

[cj]

In 1994, we paid $75 to a financial advisor to assess our financial situation. He sold us a 6.5% zero coupon bond (muni, no taxes) so I guess he made a little more on the transaction, but it was a decent investment.

Anyway, he told us at that time, in no uncertain terms, to max our 401K's and diversify them away from the "fixed income" option. This was by far the best $75 we have ever spent, because we did what he told us to do, and it has paid off & made us FI. We were pretty naive at the time, and he could have taken advantage of us, but he didn't.

CJ

 

[Khan]

Pay bills, then party; not the other way around.

 

[JustCurious]

If you can't afford it, don't buy it.

 

[CuppaJoe]

In 1994, we paid $75 to a financial advisor to assess our financial situation. He sold us a 6.5% zero coupon bond (muni, no taxes) so I guess he made a little more on the transaction, but it was a decent investment.

CJ

I bought into a zero coupon target bond fund (2015) years ago for just a small part of my portfolio. I see it's up again today. Someone asked Bob Brinker what he would recommend for a real disaster (like losing a city) and he said zeros. I would be curious to know what other financial experts here think about them.

 

[Caroline]

I read "Your Money or Your Life" and started to think of the money I earned and the stuff I bought with it in terms of life energy.

 

[MikeD]

The best advice of any kind that I have ever revd was from my mother. It was "No." It was her answer when we asked for stuff. I don't think people heAR THAT FROM THEIR PARENTS ENOUGH.

mIKE d.

(Damn the placement of that caps lock key.)

 

[CuppaJoe]

The best advice of any kind that I have ever revd was from my mother. It was "No." It was her answer when we asked for stuff. I don't think people heAR THAT FROM THEIR PARENTS ENOUGH.

mIKE d.

(Damn the placement of that caps lock key.)

Yeah, my parents gave us an exact dollar amount for X-mas, they covered the tax and shipping costs. It was so much fun planning what to buy looking at the "wish book" catalogs. We would add it up, and change our minds, etc. No to everything else was understood.