Unknown financial hero

[Sunset]

Parents were frugal in part because they were poor, so I stretched my Halloween candy for the entire year.
So largely I credit them with the LBYM's attitude.

The investment part came from a Gym teacher in high school, back then they also had to teach health class.
Somehow he decided that household budgeting, investing and mortgages were more interesting to us than more sex classes.

I always wonder why home finances and investing are not part of all high school mandatory classes.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I always wonder why home finances and investing are not part of all high school mandatory classes.

Me too. There are a lot of things I learned in high school I have never used, but nearly everyone needs a basic knowledge of home finances and investing for their entire lives. I volunteer to help teach those at my kids' schools- through Jr Achievement, and I am going to try to teach personal finance classes at the local colleges when I retire

 

[foxfirev5]

Self taught. While I had some well off relatives all of them retired and lived off the interest. Funny after nursing homes and other costs it all faded away. I might mention a very long life. GM and her sister both made the 100 mark.
My frugality goes back to third grade, saving half my lunch money and selling bait to fishermen. From there it was always saving part of my paycheck. The biggest factor was marrying my wife of 38 years who brought a new perspective. While liking the good times she will not let a perishable go to waste. With both of us on the same page the plan is easy to implement.
After being invested heavily in a 401k even before they existed I was able to retire this year just shy of the 60th birthday. My only regret is that I should have done it a little earlier. In retrospect I guess I should thank my old Pennsylvania German ancestors for a little frugality and a willingness to take a positive approach and invest.

 

[OneDay]

My grandparents for sure, they raised a dozen kids and dozens of grandkids on their 90 acre farm, they never made for than $12k a year, they grew 50-75% of what they ate, kept cars for decades, never borrowed money, saved every dime they could get their hands on and invested in CDs. I remember sitting on the front porch with them breaking beans out of their huge garden, I also remember my granddad straightening bent nails in his part time that were gave to him.
My dad got a lot of that frugal mentality from grandparents and took an early retirement at 48, and his lived very well and never made over $35k a year.
Me I'm 46 and will be fire at 50-52 and live comfortably, could have been fire at 40 if I would have took more advice from dad and granddad.

 

[jazz4cash]

Yes. Although DH and I have always been savers, I learned about my employer's 401k from a temporary supervisor when I was 25 and pregnant with our daughter (1983).
He thoroughly explained the program and encouraged me to sign up.


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Good one. You must've worked for an enlightened employer. 1983 was very early to have 401k available. I'm impressed your boss actually understood the program, or maybe they were just trying to transition from a more costly plan.

One of my heros is the older secretary at megacorp who signed me up for the optional pension plan. When I had 6 months on the job she put some papers on my desk and ordered me to "sign these!" 15 yrs later I had colleagues ask me "what optional pension plan?"


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[akck]

I had a professor in graduate school who on the last day, told us all to have a when the SHTF or escape fund, which was in essence an emergency fund. Next, I had a boss who sold me on a job with a pension. That was the best choice I made.

 

[aja8888]

Poor parents with no education, just got by. All grandparents dead from black lung and bad choices. I swore I would not end up like them so I went in the military and learned discipline and saving money. Went to college on my own dime after Viet Nam and then worked, saved and got here by researching investing and LBYM.

No mentors, no freebies, no inheritances, no marrying into money. Somehow, I (we) made it (so far).

 

[joesxm3]

I don't have one major mentor, but I had several people over the years point me in the right direction.

When I worked at the Volkswagen parts counter (my second career after being a cashier at the 7-11 store after graduating college), my manager said to me, "That mechanic, Walter, now he really knows how to make his money work for him." He did not elaborate, but the concept was planted.

The guy who lived next to me in the dorm got a job in an insurance company HR department. He told me, "You would make a good computer programmer. If you go to one of those six month schools, I can get you a job." Not exactly financial advice, but his getting me into the IT business is probably the single largest factor in my being able to FIRE last month.

When I was involved with starting up a company to sell computers to dentists, our first beta customer was a fatherly dentist close to retirement. He said, "Joe, you know, money invested in a good mutual fund will grow over time and you will be surprised how fast you will have a nice amount."

An older woman that I worked with who was divorced from a seriously rich guy told me, "Joe, you're foolish to be wanting to buy a Porsche when you don't even have a garage to keep it in."

After I got toasted in the dot.com bubble collapse I found this forum that recommended reading "The Four Pillars of Investing" . . .

 

[Revlefty]

When our son was a baby, we opened a small savings account with a local savings and loan. A year later, they were going public and were offering stock to their account holders first. I had a cousin who (in his thirties) lived solely off of investments. He told me to "buy as many stocks as you can afford and never touch them." Great advise. He was right. That original $650 investment grew, split, was bought out, etc. and eventually put two kids through college and weddings!

Later, a friend (who was a very successful stock broker) used the same advise on me every time the market took a downturn--"don't touch it. Leave it alone. It will come back."

 

[jazz4cash]

The unhappy customer that took out all his frustrations on me until I finally proved that I could resolve his issues including the ones not related to my product, took me into his confidence, and told me a smart guy like me should put everything into gold coins and bullion.

 

[scrabbler1]

No big heroes, but I had a few people who helped point me in the right direction.


My uncle (dad's brother-in-law), who was a huge help to my dad in finding a good career, bought me one share of Ford Motor Company when I was born. I would receive a small dividend check every 3 months as I was growing up. It often was for a dollar or less, but it showed me how to make money without doing anything for it, akin to interest in my bank's savings account. I would also check the value of the share in the Sunday New York Times business pages (we had a subscription to it) just for kicks. I later sold the share.


My mother, who in 1990 pointed me toward Fidelity's triple-tax-free muni bond funds so I could earn some investment income without having to pay any income taxes on it. My mother also suggested I stop renting an apartment and buy one instead, explaining to me how the tax deductibility of the mortgage interest and property taxes would offset the added gross payments of mortgage+maintenance over the rent, while building up equity. I was able to shed the mortgage in 1998, 3 years after she died.


Fred Flintstone, the lovable "Yabba Dabba Doo!" cartoon character. In one Flintstones episode, Fred pretended to be some upper-class rich man. When asked for advice on how he made his "millions," he replied, "Buy low, sell high!" Impressionable words to live by when I was 9 years old (and owning that one share of Ford).


My mother and my paternal grandfather were very organized people. I recall helping my mom process the monthly bills which she listed in a spiral notebook back in the 1970s. My dad's dad was very organized with his filing system, too, something I replicated when I got older and had to maintain my own filing system. I know where everything is and can find important papers pretty easily, thanks to them, and this began in the late 1980s well before I bought my first PC.

 

[Shanky]

in the early 80's, some nameless lady in HR. I was a new hire at Megacorp, which had very generous full pensions back then. She suggested I would be stupid not to sign up for the 401K & match that went with it. Said I would never miss it if I never saw the cash. Fast forward 33 years, and the pension went belly up in 2009, but I was still able to retire recently just because that HR lady said I would be stupid not to sign up.

 

[Walt34]

Oh man...I think we had the same ex-wife! Those almost 10 years were the worst of my life. I will never forget her saying, "Well, if we can pay the minimum due, what's the big deal?!?" We divorced about 11 years ago and we loaded up all the crap in the house and took it to her Mom's garage. As far as I know, she *still* lives with her Mom.

What happened with the money left from selling the house is illustrative. When the dust settled we each ended up with a little over $7k - $7.4k I think. She took a six-week trip to England with her sister. I put it in the bank and 18 months later I was living under my own (albeit heavily mortgaged) roof. She found a sugar daddy to take care of that little detail.

 

[Dog]

Good one. You must've worked for an enlightened employer. 1983 was very early to have 401k available. I'm impressed your boss actually understood the program, or maybe they were just trying to transition from a more costly plan.

One of my heros is the older secretary at megacorp who signed me up for the optional pension plan. When I had 6 months on the job she put some papers on my desk and ordered me to "sign these!" 15 yrs later I had colleagues ask me "what optional pension plan?"


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Yes Jazzcash. I worked for GTE before it became Verizon. They had a full tuition-aid program (including books), ESOP, 401k and a good pension program. Had a training center and a very nice Marketing Management Development Program. I took advantage of all programs!


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[Rustward]

Father became disabled when I was 10. If he had not contributed to SS we would have been stuck trying to live off of maybe $200 or $300 per month cash income my mother made in her small business and whatever was already in the bank, which might have been a few thousand. . . . and some people want the ability to opt out of SS . . . I don't get it. Mother died 10 years later but I was 20 by then. First year was the worst. I was highly motivated to never live that life again. So . . . . all that.

 

[Nords]

For those of you who know Nords, it IS NOT him. I checked his Bio, while Nords was a LT at the time, he wasn't at NFAS. The story would be better if it was him, because I met Nords on a MAC flight a couple of years after reading his book. Then again, I could call this a sea story, then it would be okay to stretch the truth. I hope this is inspirational for those who try to plant seeds and wonder if they grow.

Ha! Great story. Sorry we can't give me the credit.

If I'd ended up at NFAS in any capacity, I might have lost the will to live... too much pressure on the students and too many resultant personnel problems.

 

[RenoJay]

These stories are great. In 1998 I started a dotcom company. My mentor told me the stock market was in a bubble (first time I heard that term In that way) and that I should sell shares in my company at the first opportunity. That opportunity arrived in Feb. 2000, a month before dotcom Armageddon struck. I'll never forget that advice which essentially taught me to think like a contrarian.


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[Helena]

.

My thrifty hard-working family-oriented parents were my example.

We lived modestly but comfortably.

My dad was the sole breadwinner. But every year my dad took NO-pay time off to take us on a learning adventure vacation. No staying in fancy hotels... we camped out... in the desert, in the mountains, in the forests... vacations were awesome.

My dad retired at age 62... with a paid off home, paid-off small farm in another state and plenty of money in the bank.

With God's help, I have done well by following my parent's example.

.

 

[Milton]

When I was 31, I'd just received a huge promotion. My boss pulled me aside and said: congratulations but they won't love you forever. Do one thing for yourself - start a f$$k you fund and then you'll always be in control.

What a great boss!

Supervisors like him, who actually care about their employees' wellbeing, are all too rare.

 

[sengsational]

Not that I don't have anyone to thank, but I'm pretty sure I'd have waited for the second marshmallow.

 

[Music Lover]

I had no particular financial hero, but remember reading a newspaper article when I was about 15 or 16. The story was about paying a mortgage and gave an example of a 30-year mortgage and the first payment was $400 with $380 of it going towards interest. The line "congratulations, you now own a door knob" stuck with me to this day.

From that moment, I've always considered debt interest to be avoided if possible and it helped shape my frugal lifestyle...well, that and earning a low income

 

[Asher Aion]

No heroes or mentors for me either. It has been self motivated and self taught. As a kid I would save my Halloween and Easter candy, eating it slowly to make it last longer. I put most of my allowance as a kid in a savings account, and after I started working a career job, I saved and invested from every paycheck.

Same here, lol. Kept that last chocolate piece forever! I remember my sister saying to me as a teenager that I should "Stop saving money and start spending it, why have it otherwise?"
Lost my saving ways in my 20's and but cranked it up in about 18 years ago when I read the Canadian financial book 'The Wealthy Barber'. That book started me on my FIRE journey.

 

[socca]

Aesop: The Ant and the Grasshopper

Read the fable when I was very young and never forgot it.

 

[Katiek]

My parents were definitely my role models. All during their lives they lived well below their means. While most of my friends moved to bigger houses in the suburbs, they kept our small city apt. But they saved what they didn't spend on a house and were able to help my siblings and me go to the schools we wanted to attend. I learned early on that life is full of trade offs and you have to decide what things really matter most to you.

 

[Helena]

Aesop: The Ant and the Grasshopper

Read the fable when I was very young and never forgot it.

When I was a child, I had a puzzle board of that fable.
It had a big lazy grasshopper laying back playing a fiddle
while hard-working ants were busy storing food for winter.

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