Poll:Have you been a Scrooge to reach FIRE ?

[cyber888]

Ok, gotta admit I've been watching the Scrooge marathon on AMC, LOL. So, I wanted to know if you have been a real Scrooge to reach FIRE ? I'm running a poll

 

[brett]

Don't care how much my spouse spends on herself. Not that she is a spendthrift or anything. But I tend to be very careful about what I spend on myself.

I never buy on impulse. I buy my summer clothes in the fall when they are on clearance and take them on our winter vacations. I will buy some new winter clothes in late January during clearance sales prior to leaving for warmer climes. Cannot help myself! Not certain why this is. I believe that this attitude toward money, investing, finance etc. was the key to retiring early and being financially secure.

 

[Hermit]

Whats this "Salary" stuff

 

[cyber888]

Whats this "Salary" stuff

Oh, it means, the person is very generous and gives 10% of salary to charity or more. Salary during retirement means your withdrawal. Say if you withdraw $80,000 a year from your nest egg, do you give more than 10% of that to your favorite charity?

 

[Hermit]

Oh, it means, the person is very generous and gives 10% of salary to charity or more. Salary during retirement means your withdrawal. Say if you withdraw $80,000 a year from your nest egg, do you give more than 10% of that to your favorite charity?

Thanks! Sometimes we retired folks have a difficult time relating to those "work" terms.

 

[cyber888]

Thanks! Sometimes we retired folks have a difficult time relating to those "work" terms.

haha .. got it.

So Hermit, you are retired in the Colorado mountains. That's nice! Was in Breck, Aspen, Vail, and Avon last year. It's nice up there. Had to get use to the altitude the first 2 days.

 

[prudent_one]

I was a Scrooge at one time. Poor growing up, poor when we got married. But we started to give a little to worthwhile causes - $10/month at first. Then the more we gave, the more our income grew (not the other way around). It's one of the things that weighs on me - we'll have to cut back on giving when I retire, and I'm really not excited about that.

 

[JoeWras]

I was a Scrooge at one time. Poor growing up, poor when we got married. But we started to give a little to worthwhile causes - $10/month at first. Then the more we gave, the more our income grew (not the other way around). It's one of the things that weighs on me - we'll have to cut back on giving when I retire, and I'm really not excited about that.

Exact same experience. It is something I don't like to talk about too much. I was amazed how we were able to give more as we gave more. But I don't want to blow trumpets ahead of me about this. 'nuf said for now...

We are trying to add to our donor advised fund to get a cushion that we can smooth our our giving ramp down during retirement.

 

[Meadbh]

I was a Scrooge at one time. Poor growing up, poor when we got married. But we started to give a little to worthwhile causes - $10/month at first. Then the more we gave, the more our income grew (not the other way around). It's one of the things that weighs on me - we'll have to cut back on giving when I retire, and I'm really not excited about that.

While I admire your generosity, correlation is not the same as causation.

 

[JoeWras]

While I admire your generosity, correlation is not the same as causation.

I'm an engineer and analytical. I understand your thoughts.

But there's a faith element that's hard to explain. I can't speak for prudent_one, but only myself.

 

[Meadbh]

I'm an engineer and analytical. I understand your thoughts.

But there's a faith element that's hard to explain. I can't speak for prudent_one, but only myself.

Science, Mr. White. Science!

So how do you explain the afterlife?

 

[unclemick]

Science, Mr. White. Science!

So how do you explain the afterlife?

The same as Mr Market. I don't get to vote but I do place a bet.

heh heh heh - All praise to 35 yrs index funds and time in the market.. Still betting I can't take with me.

 

[cyber888]

That's the thing. There's an element in life that goes beyond logic.

I'm an engineer and analytical. I understand your thoughts.

But there's a faith element that's hard to explain. I can't speak for prudent_one, but only myself.

 

[prudent_one]

I was a Scrooge at one time. Poor growing up, poor when we got married. But we started to give a little to worthwhile causes - $10/month at first. Then the more we gave, the more our income grew (not the other way around). It's one of the things that weighs on me - we'll have to cut back on giving when I retire, and I'm really not excited about that.

While I admire your generosity, correlation is not the same as causation.

All I can say is that it can not be explained logically and rationally... well, maybe if I had been the favorite son of the CEO it might have made sense but that wasn't the case.

 

[rdy2go]

 

[unclemick]

+1

heh heh heh -

 

[Fedup]

I was never a Scrooge and neither was my husband. I was a reformed spendthrift.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[6miths]

My DW and I are quite frugal and live well below our means. We give very freely of our time including spending weeks and months in low resource settings. We pay reasonable amounts of taxes and are very happy that strangers do not go without healthcare and other vital necessities. Personally I have never been a big believer in organized religion or big business charities. I do take pleasure in giving thoughtful things to family and friends but seldom are they big ticket items. Working very hard to instill drive and work ethic in our children.

 

[Lucantes]

Personally I have never been a big believer in organized religion or big business charities.

+1

 

[Bir48die]

I was a Scrooge at one time. Poor growing up, poor when we got married. But we started to give a little to worthwhile causes - $10/month at first. Then the more we gave, the more our income grew (not the other way around). It's one of the things that weighs on me - we'll have to cut back on giving when I retire, and I'm really not excited about that.

I too will have to dial down my giving from a financial standpoint. However I will be making a point to then give of my time in different ways to hopefully make up for this.

 

[cyber888]

I don't know if I'm going to FIRE next year but I'm definitely leaving my job middle of next year, so I'm going to be a Scrooge for awhile. Seeing that 40% of the survey respondent are scrooges, makes me feel feel like there's a reason to feel like a scrooge when there's no positive cashflow coming in.

 

[Calico]

I too will have to dial down my giving from a financial standpoint. However I will be making a point to then give of my time in different ways to hopefully make up for this.

Right now, while I'm still w#rking, I have more money to give than time available for volunteering. After I retire, the reverse will be true - I will scale back on financial contributions but have all the time in the world. We do what we can.

 

[old woman]

I am having trouble being generous to anyone but close family. I try to build generous thoughts then the person I think of helping does something to make me not want to help. I wanted to help the homeless but not waste money so studying ideas that would help. I hired one homeless guy for months and he didn't try to solve his living outdoor problem just splurged when he had money. I joined groups on Facebook but they don't want to do anything to solve anything they want to hand out bottled water and socks, that won't get anyone living indoors or they want the homeless to be given land and building with free garbage and sewers with doing nothing to help themselves. When a landlord evicts I have more compassion for the landlord than the dead beat tenant that did nothing to help themselves. Give that evicted tenant money they will not be able to find a place with an eviction and no job so how do you make them back to living indoors, working and paying taxes. So like Scrooge I think don't we pay taxes, are their no work houses, let them die and reduce the surplus population.

 

[old woman]

I'm an engineer and analytical. I understand your thoughts.

But there's a faith element that's hard to explain. I can't speak for prudent_one, but only myself.

Faith is more than religion there is a feeling of shortage and hoarding, being poor. If you can afford to give away money you feel you have enough so don't need to hoard. You also don't need to lie, cheat or steal to have enough so you are a better person. This leads to people trusting you, customers, family, bosses which leads to more for you. If you feel you can't afford to waste and can't afford to gift you might dress worse or refuse to spend on healthy food or a car that runs so people see you as less successful and you see yourself that way too. Success breeds success and failure breeds failure. I don't believe in god but I do believe in the abundance of nature and money isn't a zero sum game. I won't waste even my charity dollars but I do give to causes that are worth my money like helping a great nephew with college cost and his mom and her cousin to get homes. I gave away 26K this year to three people so when I wanted to spend 10K on a roof it seemed more affordable so I didn't refuse to spend until the roof caved in since I felt more secure that I could afford it.

 

[Slow But Steady]

I put that we give 10%. It's never less, and sometimes quite a bit more. My wife and I have an uncanny way of thinking up the same numbers on these things.

Yesterday we were considering the college youth ministry where my son went to school. I said, "Well, normally I would think of $X, but they were so good to Jake." She said, "That's what I was thinking too. How about 2.5X?" and I said "Done!"

Whether you're religious or not, being part of something bigger that yourself is good for the soul. And giving generously is the anti-greed, because by definition, it makes us think less about what we have and more about how we can help.

YMMV, of course.

Dave