I've known you here on FR for a long time now. We run across each other's path now and then and I always thought you were a smart guy.
Once again you just proved why ... if you don't live to impress the neighbors.
Exactly right. We've lived well below our means for many years. The Bible tells us to prepare for the hard times, which we've always done. I've been fortunate that in the 27 1/2 years I've been married, I've only lost my job once. Even then, I was re-employed within weeks and that was during the 90-92 recession.
I don't drive the best or newest vehicle (mine is 11 years old, wife's is now 6) and we don't live in a house that one might think I would with my salary. We live in a very modest home in a modest area. I'm the guy most people look right past thinking I don't have the money and savings I do. Frankly I prefer it that way.
For a period of time when my kids were growing up, all their friends had the latest and greatest of everything. My kids always wondered why they didn't have "like their friends did."
This recession has caused quite a few of their friends to move out of their homes when mommy and daddy lost their job and couldn't afford to keep the house along with the rest of their lifestyle. Between my two sons, six or seven friends "had to move" when their homes were reposessed.
My kids NOW see why we live the way we do. They get the value of money, and they're learning entrepreneurial skills. The two of them cleared over $1,100 each shoveling snow this winter. From that, they built a customer list of lawns they're going to mow for the summer. See, they cannot find jobs around here. All the adults are working McDonalds, Panera Bread, and all the retail level jobs the kids would be working. So they've had to "make their own way" and find things to do to make money. They even scrap metal using their bicycles to haul metal back to the house. They probably collect about two tons a month which nets them about $500/mo ($250 per ton) also.
You and me, we have the right idea. The trick is to make sure kids learn the lesson also so they don't come back after college is over, live in our basements and play x-box all day, hihi!
So true.
When I remarried 17 years ago I got a hard working business woman for a bride who does have her hobbies but she can be fiercely regimented about knocking down bills and expenditures. She retired early but only after we paid off our principle residence.
We probably could have bought and lived in a home three time the cost of what we had, we certainly would have “qualified” for it in the 90s. We kept the one we had, kept it up and had all we needed for a nice suburban newer home.
The key to our retirement will be that we both put away in 401k and other savings over ten percent of what we made and I still do that today even in my last year of work.
It took a long time for me to develop that discipline — I was a guy who needed a choke chain and a leash in my youth, new sports car at 22 — party animal. But doesn’t life have a way of showing us our errors?
I think we’ll be retiring next year. We sold stock several years ago, and I am very thankful we saved that money.
My husband was diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago, then he was laid off. He’s got some new serious medical problems now.
After my girls graduate from high school, we’ll be moving out of California and hopefully to Texas.
We’ll buy a modest house there. My husband will probably do contract computer work as best he can. The only thing I worry about is the cost of medical care. I think it is around $40k a year for insurance and deductibles. I think if I canfind any job with benefits, that would help a lot!