kaudrey
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Reading the thread about talking to your family/friends about money got me thinking about how I think about money and influences on me.
For me it's pretty easy. My whole family (ok, except for one aunt), is made up of savers. We lived in a nice house and vacationed on a lake in NH every summer for a few weeks, but we never had designer clothes, never had the latest video games, didn't have TVs or phones in our rooms, but never wanted for anything. My parents paid cash for cars and only got new ones when the old ones were 8 or 10 years old.
What we saw was my parent's working hard, saving, and then retiring at 57.
My dad's sister had a little monetary help from an early divorce from a pretty rich guy, but still worked hard to learn how to invest and went out and got a good job and scrimped and saved and retired at 55. She lives, quite happily, on about $30K a year - and travels around all summer with her husband out west in their RV.
What we saw was an independent, financially smart woman making it on her own.
I want to retire at 52 (15 years to go). I live on less than 1/2 my income. I max out my 401 (k), and save a bunch of money on top of that. I carry no credit card debt. I hate to shop. I'd rather save than spend. My sister is the same way. She and her husband are more frugal than me.
Who influenced how you think about all things financial?
PS: I do spend money on traveling-it's a passion of mine. Off to Costa Rica in less than 3 weeks!
Karen
For me it's pretty easy. My whole family (ok, except for one aunt), is made up of savers. We lived in a nice house and vacationed on a lake in NH every summer for a few weeks, but we never had designer clothes, never had the latest video games, didn't have TVs or phones in our rooms, but never wanted for anything. My parents paid cash for cars and only got new ones when the old ones were 8 or 10 years old.
What we saw was my parent's working hard, saving, and then retiring at 57.
My dad's sister had a little monetary help from an early divorce from a pretty rich guy, but still worked hard to learn how to invest and went out and got a good job and scrimped and saved and retired at 55. She lives, quite happily, on about $30K a year - and travels around all summer with her husband out west in their RV.
What we saw was an independent, financially smart woman making it on her own.
I want to retire at 52 (15 years to go). I live on less than 1/2 my income. I max out my 401 (k), and save a bunch of money on top of that. I carry no credit card debt. I hate to shop. I'd rather save than spend. My sister is the same way. She and her husband are more frugal than me.
Who influenced how you think about all things financial?
PS: I do spend money on traveling-it's a passion of mine. Off to Costa Rica in less than 3 weeks!
Karen