No Money worries

J

justavet

Dryer sheet wannabe
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
13
I here so much about how people are hurting these days,being in debt and can not afford the GREAT BIG HOUSE that they never should have purchased to begin with. Tell me is there anyone out there that can shed some light on how they have no money worries because they did the right thing by saving and living within there means. You sacrificed for many years not having the luxury's your friends had and I do mean HAD.A Lot of people are crying because they did not show restraint when it came to spending,and now you and I can live the good life with NO MONEY WORRIES,lets here your story and how you did it. By the way I retired at 59 and now every day is SATURDAY,loving it.!!!!!!!!!!
 
justavet said:
Not much going on here
Click to expand...
"Here" as in the forum, or "here" as in where you are?

I was horsing around with the Green Stamps because your original post said "let's here your story?" as far as not being in debt.

The Green Stamps reference was from my childhood, when my Mom would save those stamps up from grocery shopping and eventually redeem them for things she could not afford otherwise. I was in charge of pasting them into the stamp books. :D

This type of frugality is in direct contrast to today, where too many people have bought things they really could not afford and are carrying an unimaginable debt load. :nonono:
 
Hello there!:greetings10: Does your screen name refer to 1) animals; 2) military service; 3) other? How long has it been Saturday?
 
I loved those stamps. I think we only turned in books for BIG items, like a sewing machine or a typewriter, so we had to have lots of books. For us kids, it was a reward to be the one who got to put the stamps in the books. We had piles of them.
 
How about US Savings Bond stamps? In elementary school in the '50s we brought in 25 cents a week, and when we had $18.75 in stamps in the book, we got a $25.00 savings bond.

I think many of the folks on this board have lived at least within their means without going into a lot of debt and have a lot less to worry about than those who spent wildly.
 
justavet said:
Tell me is there anyone out there that can shed some light on how they have no money worries because they did the right thing by saving and living within there means. You sacrificed for many years not having the luxury's your friends had and I do mean HAD.
Click to expand...

25% of our gross income goes to expenses.
25% of our gross income goes to income and payroll taxes (2009 will probably be the first year for which we spend more on taxes than on ourselves).
50% of our gross income goes to investments. So each year we save 2 years worth of expenses.

We have a medium size house in a middle class neighborhood and 2 used cars (8 and 12 years old). We live on a very low cost of living area. We keep our fixed expenses as low as possible (I hate long term financial commitments) which leaves us plenty of money for a few luxuries. When we get a bonus or a raise, it gets invested for the future.

That's how we are doing it...
 
I still have a guitar purchased with green stamps. Or maybe they were the yellow ones, I forget the name, for a while we kept books of both.

How did we do it? Simple. Spend less than we earned. Duh.
 
Walt34 said:
I still have a guitar purchased with green stamps. Or maybe they were the yellow ones, I forget the name, for a while we kept books of both.

How did we do it? Simple. Spend less than we earned. Duh.
Click to expand...

I remember the the yellow stamps, were they Regal Stamps? My parents saved them all year and used them to buy Christmas presents for the kids.
 
Oh wow, the stamp books. I remember the yellow ones too. Dad would sit at the kitchen table and go over all the bills every Sunday for hours. He would bring out his metal filing box with those dark brown accordion legal folders. Mom would hover in the kitchen over the stove. The building was a six flat, our apartment had two bedrooms, dining rm, living room and kitchen. Mom and dad slept on a fold away couch in the living room. Two boys and two girls shared bedrooms. The bedrooms were ice cold in the winter, one space heater in the dining room and one small one in the kitchen next to the hot water tank. I would often read next to the big space heater and watch the fire bricks glow. On Sundays I would have to walk Ashland Ave with dad as he made payments on the sewing machine, the 25 inch cabinet TV. and his beloved stereo-phonic turntable. How I hated the time he would spend picking out albums with musical instrumentals. Then back home to play what ever symphony orchestra was on sale that day. At dinner time mom would wait until everyone ate then clear the dishes to the end of the table. There she would sit and eat whatever was left on each plate. Then we got to watch 60 minuetes, Lawrence Welk, and Bonanza. I would get mad because an Elvis movie would be playing but dad had full control of the TV. What wonderful memories you stirred. (I still have all the albums)
 
justavet

:greetings10:Reply to CUPPAJOE I have 29 years Air National Guard and its been Saturday for almost a year,I retired july of last year. oh Good Morning everyone .
 
Welcome justavet, and thanks for your years of service!

R
 
Anyone out there checked out the new retro autos ? Camaro-Mustang-and challenger:confused:?
 
To get back to the original post... I retired at 57, I'm now 59. I always lived within my means, had little or no credit card debt, had tons of equity in my house, contributed the max to my 401K and had a healthy savings account. What a good girl I was!
Well guess what happened? My investments lost 25% before I felt forced to pull out of the stock market, my house value went down about 18% and I couldn't sell it. Will I be able to collect Social Security in three years? Don"t know - it may be out of money by then. My pension? I worked in the newspaper industry which is dying. Don't know if my pension will be there in 3 years. Medicare in 6 years? Rumor has it it will be broke in 5 years. I have no health insurance either.
But I'm still one of the lucky ones because I still have what's left of my investments even though they're not earning the way they're supposed to. I still own a home and still have pretty good equity in it.
My point is that I did EVERYTHING right - according to the "experts", and I still lost a huge amount of my financial security. But because I did everything right, I am in better shape than so many, so I count my blessings and try to focus on what I do have, not what I lost. I don't know what I can do about the health insurance though. Not many options on my budget.
It does no good to chortle over the folks who made some poor decisions and find themselves in a terrible bind now. They were, in many cases, sold a bill of goods, just like I was. In their case, as in mine, it was the "experts" that led us down this path. I'm done with the "professionals". They don't really know anything more than I do. It's all a big gamble.
 
FIREdreamer said:
25% of our gross income goes to expenses.
25% of our gross income goes to income and payroll taxes (2009 will probably be the first year for which we spend more on taxes than on ourselves).
50% of our gross income goes to investments. So each year we save 2 years worth of expenses.

We have a medium size house in a middle class neighborhood and 2 used cars (8 and 12 years old). We live on a very low cost of living area. We keep our fixed expenses as low as possible (I hate long term financial commitments) which leaves us plenty of money for a few luxuries. When we get a bonus or a raise, it gets invested for the future.

That's how we are doing it...
Click to expand...

Ditto on that. Except we are only in a "low to average cost of living" area. And the cars are each 9 years old (bought new during college years). And we may spend just a few more % on living expenses and a few % less on taxes.

We are in the position of not worrying about money for quite a while even if DW and I were laid off tomorrow. Unemployment (which we can get for 57 weeks) would more than pay for all our living expenses and still allow us to save some. Under 9 years left on the mortgage. After tax investments would fund at least 5-6 years of living expenses without having to consider touching 401k's, IRA's, HSA's, etc.

My main concern re: money is that the market recovers too quickly and I can't dollar cost average into my investment portfolio at the low low prices as of late.
 
justavet said:
:greetings10:Reply to CUPPAJOE I have 29 years Air National Guard and its been Saturday for almost a year,I retired july of last year. oh Good Morning everyone .
Click to expand...
Wow, 29 years ANG. Thank you for your service. :)

And congrats on the upcoming 1 year anniversary. Please make sure you celebrate it. :D
 
Ratface, your story was fascinating and shows how you've applied the lessons of your youth. Thank you very much for sharing with us. Good stuff to remember, as I grew up in comparative luxury, now that I think about it.

But we still had Greenbax stamps, and I would save them to get stuff all the time. FWIW, Piggly Wiggly still does Greenbax, but you check your balance of stamps online and can print out vouchers for stuff instead of licking the stamps!
 
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