Conversation About Savings

[Walt34]

Reminds me of a friend's DW who LOVES going out and "finding a great deal". She will crow on and on about "I saved X amount of $ when I bought this!" and I recently made a comment to her saying that you aren't SAVING when you are SPENDING. Oddly enough, she doesn't seem to like hanging around me too much anymore.

That sounds like my ex. She came back from shopping and proudly exclaimed that she had "saved" 30% to 50% on everything. I then asked "How much would you have saved if you'd stayed home". That didn't go over well.

I guess that's why we're not married anymore....

 

[HadEnuff]

a dog walking friend of mine, who had 3 little dogs, one with a heart condition, and already 15 years old, told me that he'd taken the little guy to the Cornell Vet school (not uncommon to do this in my neck of the woods) and was told that the dog needed an open heart procedure.
The procedure was only done by a team of veterinarians who would fly in from Japan, and spend a week doing them. He was invited to join the waiting list, and be notified when the next opportunity would be available.

The cost? $27,000. And apparently these docs come in and do them nonstop for a week.

My friend said it was a sad decision, but not a difficult decision.

 

[aida2003]

Even though I don't oversee a 401k plan at my employer, I do see how much the company transfers to the 401k administrator after each pay period. A couple times I divided those amounts by the number of employees which doesn't vary that much month to month. The result was quite disappointing and unfortunately those 401k transfer amounts have been quite stable over the last few years .
However, when the company offered a new benefit for legal expenses this year, I was surprised to see expenses for that to pop up. So, it sounds that people create wills or trusts or meet lawyers for something important, but not sure why they don't save. In addition, half of employees of this particular company reside/work in TX, so no state income tax. Go figure...

 

[AS2019]

I can still remember my Pops telling me about saving;

"Son you can make a million a year but if you spend a million a year you ain't gonna have crap, so salt some away"

I guess the "spend it all" (and more) set never got this informative lesson or maybe didn't listen?

Exactly on point. One of my partners declared bankruptcy last year. Another is retiring at the age of 50 this year. We all three make the exact same income. The difference is in spending. Porsches and fine dining and first class tickets to Paris versus Fords and cooking at home and vacations to local destinations.

 

[Grabberson]

My last 4 years of w*rk (glide path) was at a 40 person company as a mid-level engineer. We received annual statements for the company's entire 401k since inception. After three years, me, one person, represented a full 20% of the entire company 401k. Clearly, most people save little or nothing in the 401k.

 

[Souschef]

Exactly on point. One of my partners declared bankruptcy last year. Another is retiring at the age of 50 this year. We all three make the exact same income. The difference is in spending. Porsches and fine dining and first class tickets to Paris versus Fords and cooking at home and vacations to local destinations.

But there is a middle ground. On our last few trips we flew Business Class to Europe and South America.
The airfare was funded by "companion" tickets and miles on my credit card. I charged everything I could and paid the balance every month.

 

[Scrapr]

But there is a middle ground. On our last few trips we flew Business Class to Europe and South America.
The airfare was funded by "companion" tickets and miles on my credit card. I charged everything I could and paid the balance every month.

11 hour flights from the West Coast are made for Business class.

(but companion tickets help a lot!)

 

[Souschef]

11 hour flights from the West Coast are made for Business class.

(but companion tickets help a lot!)

+100, plus access to Business Class lounges

 

[Yarnstormer]

My last employer offered an 8% match! You would not believe how many people weren’t taking advantage of it, including my highly paid manager that had a truck payment, a camper payment, a house payment, and probably many others I did not know about!

 

[Pilot2013]

Even though I don't oversee a 401k plan at my employer, I do see how much the company transfers to the 401k administrator after each pay period. A couple times I divided those amounts by the number of employees which doesn't vary that much month to month. The result was quite disappointing and unfortunately those 401k transfer amounts have been quite stable over the last few years .

That's a shame, really. Our company provided in 2017 over $1 million in Bonus and 401k/ESOP to hourly employees at my plant alone! There are 10 times as many hourly employees in the overall company, so I think it's safe to assume ~$10 million give or take to all hourly employees in the company. I am proud of this companies approach to its employees financial well being.

 

[Badger]

Neither my wife or I had any matching for our 403b but we made a point of contributing the maximum to those and the Roth IRAs for the 15 years before we retired. It would have been nice to see some kind of matching but the public schools and the college didn't have any plan for that. However, now the only ones that eat cat food are the cats. It is just so surprising that so many people can't see past tomorrow.

Cheers!

 

[RenoJay]

Yeah. I don't know why this stuff is so amazing but it always is.

About 25 years ago I bought my wife a nice car; Merkur Scorpio super-coupe that Ford imported for a couple of years. She was in a similar circle at work and talking about the fact that I had just bought her a car. Someone asked "OK, but who is going to make the payments?" They were flabbergasted when she said "There are no payments. He paid cash."

Couldn’t help but smile. Around 1988 my family got a Merkur Scorpio. Fun car at the time.