<p>“Also, at 21, I am glad you are frugal. That doesn’t make you better than most Americans, some of them who are NOT frugal.”</p>
<p>I have never stated in any of my posts that I am better than most Americans, I am just stating that I am more financial responsible than most people.</p>
<p>“MOST Americans are doing just fine.”</p>
<p>What do you mean by fine? The definition of fine varies from person to person. I don’t think MOST Americans are doing just fine. Most people like to hide their money troubles. You might think that people are doing fine, but they are hiding behind their debt.</p>
<p>I have have a very nice car and a very nice hi-fi. Both made me very happy. But you have to enjoy them for what they can produce–not what they cost. I had an expensive watch but it did not keep time as well as my Seiko. I sold it and still have the Seiko which still works perfectly 20 years later.</p>
<p>“I have have a very nice car and a very nice hi-fi. Both made me very happy. But you have to enjoy them for what they can produce–not what they cost. I had an expensive watch but it did not keep time as well as my Seiko. I sold it and still have the Seiko which still works perfectly 20 years later.”</p>
<p>Like I said before, everybody will do what makes them happy.</p>
<p>To me a car is a car and a watch is a watch. Any car will get you to point A to point B and any watch will give you the time.</p>
<p>Have any of you read “Your Money or Your Life” by Joe Dominguez . Read it years ago… can’t say we have done all of it, but it’s the one book that I have read that lays it all out - every one of us makes choices based on the time we spend earning the money we make, You need to make sure that you realize how many hours of your life a certain purchase represents…if it’s worth it to you, fine. If not, why are you doing it?
Some people value experiences, some value things. Don’t judge, just be sure you aren’t wasting your life hours on something you don’t value.</p>
<p>And as an aside; I don’t think anyone values paying interest on credit card debt!</p>
<p>“And as an aside; I don’t think anyone values paying interest on credit card debt!”</p>
<p>That is why I believe you shouldn’t buy something (exclusing a house and a car) unless you can pay it off right away.</p>
<p>Insomniatic, you made your beliefs clear. </p>
<p>Now check back with us in, say, 35 years after you’ve bought a house, raised chidren did or are putting them through college. Then share your beliefs (and experiences.) Don’t be surprised if your beliefs have somewhat changed and become more flexible. Truth is, sometimes in life things aren’t clear cut or simple.</p>
<p>"Insomniatic, you made your beliefs clear. </p>
<p>Now check back with us in, say, 35 years after you’ve bought a house, raised chidren did or are putting them through college. Then share your beliefs (and experiences.) Don’t be surprised if your beliefs have somewhat changed and become more flexible. Truth is, sometimes in life things aren’t clear cut or simple."</p>
<p>This thread has gone in a different direction than what I intended. This thread was supposed to be about saving money.</p>
<p>Saving money is clear cut and simple, but the sad part is that a lot of people just don’t know when their spending is out of control.</p>
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<p>In that case we should have a thread on “1001 ways on how to stretch your budget” … "How to live comfortably and save money " ;)</p>
<p>Something very funny happened a few days ago.</p>
<p>I came home to find a note from my daughter that she had gone to the store. When she got home, I drove her to work. This is her first paid job. She never cared to have one, and she never got an allowance, she just is not “high maintenance” at all. But she did get a job this summer because she is concerned about college expenses and debt and knows that I cannot pay them all.</p>
<p>So on the way to work, she said to me:</p>
<p>“You know, I really don’t want any more of this wrap, but since I paid for it, I’m going to finish it. And you must have brainwashed me with your healthy food thing. I bought myself some chips, but I got myself the multi-grain ones”.</p>
<p>And yesterday “I’m really concerned about student loans. I don’t even know what I want to do with my life and I’m going to have to take out loans to figure that out. I’m almost willing to consider being a residential assistant so that I can get my housing free”. I told her that it was one of the smartest things that she’d said this year. I had suggested to her last year to consider being an RA, because she wants her own room and it would save money, but she didn’t want “to be responsible for telling other people to behave”. </p>
<p>At the same time, she was complaining about having to go to work for 6 hours, how the guys in her office (yeah, she’s got a nice office job, lucky here) keep the air conditioning freezing. She punctuates all of this with “Money is evil! I hate money! That’s all life is, work to get money, to pay bills?! I’m going to pay bills to go to college so that I can enable myself to pay more bills! Money is evil!” </p>
<p>All I can say is “Try living without it…”</p>
<p>Also, on the gardening suggestion: I am all for saving money by making my own food. </p>
<p>I have a garden every year, have done so probably for about 5 years. The best garden I had was the first year, everything flourished.</p>
<p>Each year, we’ve made it bigger, and now the garden takes up the whole length of one side of my house. We actually now have 12 square foot garden boxes, and a large section to plant squashes. We put in the boxes 2 years ago, and it probably cost us $300 that year to buy the wood and then to have some soil trucked over to put in them, plus our plants/seeds.</p>
<p>Our squash got mildew each year since. And last year, some animal made off with our squash flowers and we got no squash. The rain made everything rot, and at the end of the summer, some plants that were healthy just didn’t make it before the frost hit. I think all I got out of it was some hot peppers. My husband seems to luck out on the peppers every year, and I actually do almost all of the work on the garden.</p>
<p>So, I’ve put some plants in this year, some bought, some from seed. We’ll see…</p>
<p>That is why I believe you shouldn’t buy something (exclusing a house and a car) unless you can pay it off right away.</p>
<p>Interesting that you chose two items to go into debt for, that also require a significant outlay of money for maintenance & insurance.</p>
<p>That is why I believe you shouldn’t buy something (exclusing a house and a car) unless you can pay it off right away.</p>
<p>Interesting that you chose two items to go into debt for, that also require a significant outlay of money for maintenance & insurance.</p>
<p>I am not saying you should go in debt to buy a house or a car. I am saying that those are the only two things that you should buy where you don’t pay off right away.</p>
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<p>It’s not bad from a financial planning point of view to buy a house and going into debt. Mortgage interest are tax deductible and over the long run (10 years or more ) real estate prices do appreciate, so you end up with a decent nest egg.</p>
<p>if you simply fill in the autographs yourself, you might save on travel costs,…</p>
<p>“if you simply fill in the autographs yourself, you might save on travel costs,…”</p>
<p>Don’t know what you mean. Can you please clarify.</p>
<p>“It’s not bad from a financial planning point of view to buy a house and going into debt. Mortgage interest are tax deductible and over the long run (10 years or more ) real estate prices do appreciate, so you end up with a decent nest egg.”</p>
<p>The long run has been pretty long in Japan. Mortgage interest is deductible but you give up the standard deduction.</p>
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<p>There are always exception to the rule. Take into account the rent one otherwise has to pay the owning a home generally make more sense.</p>
<p>“There are always exception to the rule. Take into account the rent one otherwise has to pay the owning a home generally make more sense.”</p>
<p>For your rent, you also get flexibility of job location and the ability to call someone to fix house problems. I run into a lot of people that sold the top of the housing market and believe me, they’re happy renting!</p>
<p>I am a creature of habit. I don’t like to use different brand just because it’s on sales. I only like Charmin, Tide, Windex, certain makeup… We never waste food at home, but it is of good quality. We always turn lights off whenever we leave a room, AC or heat is off unless absolutely necessary. Our house is very nice, not the largest in our neighborhood, but the mortgage is not even a 10% of our gross income. Our family travels a few times a year, but we’ve had some wonderful memories. We probably should have sent out kids to local public school in NJ, but opted for private school because they thrived there. We will not be leaving our kids with any inheritance because we have spent it on their education. It is a gift that would last them a life time.</p>
<p>My parents have always told us to study very hard (don’t have fun in high school) then we would get into very good colleges, then get good jobs and work very hard (don’t spend any money), so we could enjoy our life later. What they didn’t realize is how we enjoy life is different at each point of our lives.</p>
<p>Spending $20 of my babysitting money(used to make $1/hr) to see Meatloaf on stage for the first time when I was 16 is different than seeing them when I could well afford it.</p>
<p>Blowing a week of wage to go to NYC’s top disco when I was in my 20s (could only afford 1-2 drinks) is different than doing it with 40-50 something housewifes from NJ (limo, champagne, private room).</p>
<p>The awe of buying the first Chanel bag is still very fresh on my mind (my husband’s too, he walked around the block a few times before he came back with his credit card).</p>
<p>Spending our first bonus money(should have put it away) to go Europe, staying in very cheap hotels, eating fish and chips, still remains as our favorite trip.</p>
<p>There are so many silly and friviouse things we have done. If we didn’t, we probably would have a lot more money in the bank. But we didn’t want to wait until we could truly afford it. I want to see the world while I am still mobile, I want to try some exotic food while I still have my teeth, and I want to share some of those expereiences with my kids before they have no time for me. I don’t know if our way is better than my parents’ way. I just know if I were to die tomorrow I wouldn’t have too many regrets.</p>