How to become a Millionaire/DCA

[mickeyd]

http://financialplan.about.com/od/investing/a/Millionaire.htm

http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/newinvestors/a/041901a.htm

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Will I still be satisfied if I spend less?

Can I find a version of this product that costs less but is still good quality?

Would I rather have a TV with all the latest technology or would I rather be wealthy?

Would I rather buy a car that is so expensive that I have to stretch the payments out over five years or would I rather be wealthy?

Would I rather take a $5,000 vacation or would I rather be wealthy?

a very good friend of mine never takes my financial advice. before real estate prices started to rise i tried to get her to buy a small 1-bedroom apartment on the beach, but she had to have that larger 2-bedroom, 2-story townhouse inland. while her place has gone up in value, she would have had so much more cash had only she sacrificed a little space for a lot of location.

i tried to talk her into buying a new civic, but she had to have the accord. everytime she consults with me about a future purchase i run some quick compounding numbers for her and show what she'd have later if she didn't spend or spent less now.

what she has done, and i have yet another friend who does the same thing, is rationalize that instead of holding back now, they will simply die early.

live for today. my last friend who died early (who was already retired early) said to me once about his smoking and drinking, "i'd rather be dead than stop." well, congrats, ya got yer wish. you dumb bastid.

i don't know where my parents went wrong with me (hey, i gotta lay this off on someone), but i seem to have chosen in life mainly friends who died early or who want to. i'm starting to take it personally. maybe i should wear a warning on my t-shirts. "death: the spender's answer to early retirement"

 

[haha]

a very good friend of mine never takes my financial advice.

Don't feel bad. Nobody takes my financial advice either; maybe because I don't look very smart. This is helpful to me when I am negotiating, as my contra party often assumes that I am an idiot, until he checks his pockets.

But it is annoying when I would like to be helpful, as people just can’t seem to take me seriously.

I know a woman who inherited $2mm in 1998. She had an 8 year old child. In 1999 she got divorced. I met her in 2000, and after talking a bit I figured out that she was out of her depth, had no job, no health insurance and no plan.

In general, I won't give advice that involves coming down on one side or another of a specific investment, as there is too much room for resentment if I am wrong. Which can easily happen. But here was an easy one. I suggested that she first get health insurance. Second, refinance her mortgage. Third, consider going back to court to get more child support. Fourth, decide if she wants to work, or try retirement. (She was in her late 40s).

So what has she done? Nothing, except make ineffectual, badly informed and money wasting attempts to start 2 businesses, spend way more than she should on living expenses, and lose a  fair amount of money in terrible investments sold to her by some woman salesperson she met at a "business owners" meeting.

A lot of her spending is on hair, skin, clothes, etc.-which I feel might be intelligent if she went hunting for a man in the right places. University Club meetings? Sailing lessons? No way, she prefers karaoke bars.

She also sent her kid to an expensive private school, even though she lives in a really good school district.

What has she not done? Buy health insurance, refinance her mortgage or try to get more child support.

The only thing I learned is that there is no accounting for the way people put things together.

I’ve had no better luck with my son, even though he knows my financial position, and also knows I have recommended over a 7 year period 4 or 5 absolute lock investments. For example TIPS at +3.5; SU at 18 ½; UST at 16-18. Meanwhile, he pays a pretty good sized wrap fee for some idiot who couldn’t make enough money investing to retire even if he had a $1mm head start.

It’s an education in human nature, if nothing else.

Ha

 

[REWahoo]

... people just can’t seem to take me seriously.

Duh! With a name like HaHa, whaddya expect? :

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm - DCA

That's how I did it - crossed the million mark 7/8? years after ER - wasn't really paying attention.

? Earliest mention John Jacob Raskob Ladies Home Journal 1929??

heh heh heh - I'm thinking of the example Ben Graham used in The Intelligent Investor 4th ed 1972 - don't know if he had it in the 1949. 8% including the crash.

 

[MasterBlaster]

HaHa:

Why give advice ?

Nobody takes it and uses it. People have very different values than me. People have to live their own lives their ways and make their own mistakes. Nobody can rescue them from themselves. If they want to blow all of their money and then go into debt to blow even more that's their business. Who am I to try to run someone elses life ?

Sure it's gut wrenching to see somebody you care about make really stupid decsions but they will do what they will do.

I have stopped giving advice. And I learned long ago that my values are not everyone else values.

- Just let em be.

 

[Dawg52]

Hmmm - DCA

That's how I did it - crossed the million mark 7/8? years after ER - wasn't really paying attention.

You forgot one thing, being a cheap old bastard. 

 

[Scrooge]

HaHa:

Why give advice ?

Nobody takes it and uses it.

True, but it's quick, cheap and easy and, besides, you feel like you have done something for the betterment of humanity 

 

[unclemick]

You forgot one thing, being a cheap old bastard. 

True.

heh heh heh heh heh heh - sure was fun.

 

[d]

some of the stories, and certainly the title of the thread, remind me of the old saw:
Q: how do you retire with $1million
A: first, take $2 million, then ...

 

[yakers]

also knows I have recommended over a 7 year period 4 or 5 absolute lock investments. For example TIPS at +3.5; SU at 18 ½; UST at 16-18. Ha

TIPS at 3.5, UST at 18.5...

I will now pause for a moment of silence for lost opportunities


There, I feel better.

yakers, who will pay more attention to HaHa suggestions if this is the kind of stuff he recommends

 

[spideyrdpd]

How come the advice i should of followed would of made me richer and the advice I often followed has made me poorer. Is that one of murphy's laws?

I always say it has more to do with what direction your money is heading in.
Even the times when I lost money I did better than my coworkers who just refuse to invest. You know the people that you ask them what there retirement plan is and they just look at you .
Of course I still have my big screen tv. Somethings you just cant live without  8)

Unfortunately we arent all born as cheap old men 0r women

 

[REWahoo]

Unfortunately we arent all born as cheap old men 0r women

Cheap old men aren't born, the are made. Cheap women, well since I never met one, I dunno...

 

[mickeyd]

Cheap women, well since I never met one, I dunno...

Would you like a few phone numbers?