Advice and Tools for the long haul

[DrRoy]

"Spend Less than you Make"

That and a spreadsheet made FIRE possible.

This is what I did. I have a very long quote, which is coincidentally a book. "Your Money and Your Brain" by Jason Zweig.

 

[pb4uski]

This is a 2 part question.

What quote or piece of advice has hung onto to you throughout your accumulation years and beyond ?

And

What tool, whether be a spreadsheet, app, website, etc. has helped you track and manage your finances and budgeting ?


I’ll answer first. The old saying “It’s a marathon, not a sprint” and It’s not what you make, it’s how much you keep, have always stuck in my head.

Having all of my investments visible on 1 site(Vanguard for me) has made it easier to manage my total portfolio. Still looking for a good budgeting method, besides pulling out previous years statements.

1. Pay Yourself First... essentially have your savings programmed to come out of your paycheck... for me in my earlier years, if it was in my checking account it was inevitably spent.. so the only way that I could save was by diverting it from my checking account.

2. Definitely Quicken... I have everything on it and almost everything linked to the relevant financial institution. I can do a One-Step Update and it goes out and fetches transactions since the last time that I updated for me to review and accept so it is very easy for me to monitor our finances. I used the Lifetime Planner to plan our retirement and then used Quicken to monitor our progress.

And similar to your it's a marathon not a sprint my signature line includes "Slow and steady wins the race".

 

[Gumby]

Advice: You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want. You need to make hard choices about how you spend your money.

Necessary tools: Pencil and paper, and perhaps a calculator if you're bad with math.

 

[Dalmore]

My grandmother told me when I was young: "Save 10% out of every paycheck, and always pay yourself first." I took that to heart and saved more.

I never really tracked my savings until about 10 years ago when I discovered that we were worth about $1M and I need to get an umbrella policy to protect it. I know I made a few mistakes along the way (like putting good money into a crap annuity that I can't touch for another 4 years), that tracking would have caught sooner, but that's water under the bridge.

 

[calmloki]

I always liked both meanings of "Live Well Below Your Means". I understand but hate "Pay Yourself First". Focusing on paying my debts first has always been a good move for me - especially when interest rates were 9%+. Made for a fair amount of free and clear rental properties.

Tools? Decades ago there was a free program called Zilch, which showed what paying off the highest interest loan first, then rolling those freed up payments into the next highest loan did to total amount spent and time to having debt be paid off. That was pretty much an obvious and natural thing for me, but was a lightning bolt moment for the gal, who is by no means a spendthrift. After Zilch she became as or more rabid about strategic debt payment. Quicken is forced to jump through hoops for her - I record everything in it, but she can tease all manner of reports from it.

 

[doneat54]

I use a spreadsheet monthly that computes portfolio size based on month end fund balances.

I do that also.


We have a budget and basically stick to it. Also use American Express anytime we can, they have a good website that let's you categorize your purchases and get monthly reports.

 

[teetee]

Make sure you know what is needs and what is wants to spend the money on.

A borrower is a slave to the lender.

The person's maturity is evaluated by their ability to delay gratification.

Be intentional.

 

[JDARNELL]

All I needed was what Pops told me before I left home. There were 3 items only;

1) "Son, you can make a million a year but if you spend a million a year you ain't gonna have (s word for feces)", so save some dough.

2) When you've saved enough buy a house. The mortgage should be your only debt.

3) When your savings recover from the down payment start buying stocks. That's where you make the most gains.

I've used no tools, never balanced a checkbook or had a budget. I looked at my bank statement each month for feedback.

Those are pretty good!

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

I would say diversify, diversify, diversify. Right now I am sitting on capital gains {long term capital gains}, from stocks that have become too big a percentage of my portfolio, so I am in the process of spreading the risk out. Unfortunately everything seems expensive right now, but I feel it's better to sell gains when you have them and what I don't need to repurchase for income goes in my cash pile.

 

[brett]

Apart from all the solid financial advice I would add some personal behavior that can drastically alter you career, lifestyle, and financial goals.

Be a life long learner. Do not be afraid to stretch yourself and move into new challenging job related territory. Your job peers are not always right and they may not want so see you move forward. Consider their advice from that perspective. Sometimes going with the flow or with generally accepted advice can be the exact opposite path to follow.

Learn to recognize opportunity. Be willing to accept responsibility. Understand your industry, be flexible, and do not turn your back on those opportunities that may involve a move away from your current home of your comfort level. Take a chance when there is little or no downside. Keep your resume, your contacts, and your job interview skills current. Be honest with yourself and with your colleagues. Never forget those people who helped you along with your career. You have an obligation to do the same for others behind you on the ladder.

If you find yourself in a job or career that you dislike make a change whatever the cost. It is so important to like you job or your career. Best think I ever did was walk away from a career choice early on because it was not right for me.

 

[bearkeley]

1) “You can always make more money, but you can never make more time”

2) Personal Capital...good app to track everything

 

[Bamaman]

I had a customer that everything he touched turned to gold. We'd often eat out, and he always paid--the $5 special at a fried chicken place.

I once asked him his secret. He said, "Just live like you're poor." That was an exaggeration of sorts, but he was saying live frugally. And I have and continue to live that way.

In ER, I play the equities in FIDO's very best funds. And I check them from time to time. Otherwise, I am essentially on cruise control--not obsessing on anything.

It's not good enough that one invests in 401K's to the max. You've also got to consciously use the very best available funds for your risk tolerance.

 

[beernutzbob]

For years my primary tool was Excel and it still is an important part of my financial planning and tracking.

However a few years ago we adopted You Need a Budget (YNAB) and the ~$80/year subscription has literally saved me thousands of dollars.

When I was contemplating retirement I tried a number of tools/calculators including FireCalc, iORB, and the Boglehead forum RPM spreadsheet, however I've settled on the Pralana Gold retirement calculator and use it at least once a week to stress test retirement scenarios.

My advice would be LBYM, max out your retirement accounts especially after 50, and buy/hold low cost index funds and rely on compounding. That strategy got me into the top 5% of net worths in the US according to DQYDJ (somewhere I NEVER thought I would be) though you'd never know it to look at us.

 

[rt-texas]

Q1 Answer: LBYM
Q2 Answer: Quicken

Same here.

As well as when I started my business in "87" and accountant who schooled me on SEP's, IRA's, and mutual funds. Bless you and thank you Pat!