Frugal couple accumulate large nest egg by choosing not to live beyond means

Seattle Times ^ | 01/04/04 | Kathleen Lynn

[raybbr]

Most of what he says in the article no longer holds true. Mortgages are down to 5.8% (mine); cars are available at very low rates; investments don't yield what he claims they do. I have read similar articles before. I am not a stock broker nor do I have the time to track investments like one. I don't buy his thesis.

[Polybius]

Owning a house free and clear isn't a terribly smart move, at least in asset protection terms. If some kid scales your wall and drowns in your swimming pool, your home insurance policy limits could be blown off and the deceased kid's parents would end up owning your house.

So be it.

I own two houses free and clear. One of them now pops out $1,400 per month in rental income and the money that would have gone every month to the bank on the other house gets plowed into building our wealth every month.

A life spent in perpetual fear of lawyers is a life not worth living.

[goodnesswins]

YEP....we use the house we own....to mortgage other properties, and make other people PAY our "mortgage." Leverage, my friends, leverage. (Responsible leverage.)

[spectre]

I hear you. BUT, a few weeks ago, a sister of a friend of mine died quite by accident. She was a spinster and notorious in the family for being "frugal"...

So she lived in a tiny little house, with adequate furnishings, shall we say "modest".

She'd always intended on making out a WILL, but just didn't get around to it and she was 74 when she died.

As fate would have it, the entire estate...well over a MILLION dollars in cash, plus home and furnishings, etc., are now passed on, by law...to her brothers and sisters. See?...One day, you come back on and let us know if I am right in your brother in law's case....

Regards,sw

[Walkingfeather]

I know you are a crappy date too. : )

[proxy_user]

I thought someone might ask that. Fortunately, I have a spreadsheet for everything.

In the period from 1984 through 2002, I received about $80K from my parents, or roughly $4-5K a year. Now the flow is reversed, and I am helping to put my niece through college, so I cannot save as much as I formerly did.

Looking at the current year, my total income from all sources, including salary, capital gains, interest on retirement accounts and 401Ks, stock dividends, etc, etc was about $135K. This breaks down as follows: savings, $80K, taxes, $31K, living expenses, $24K. A single guy can live decently on $2K a month if he owns his own place and has no debt.

[proxy_user]

No only that, but you can get a $5M umbrella polciy for relatively little, although your houses might cause the price to go up a little.

[B4Ranch]

"You don't get this much ahead just by driving a modest car and shopping at KMart and living in a rundown neighborhood...They're selling a false hope."

"Don't date or get married either, live in a studio apartment and eat nothing but oatmeal."

Probably the one thing that the journalist didn't write is that these people use every discount coupon that comes their way. My wife cuts our food bill by an easy 40% every month using them.....steaks and prime rib aren't uncommon in our home either. Rundown neighborhoods weren't our style, but neither are the classy ones.

I bought used everything (except bed mattresses) when we were married 26 years ago. I still do but now they're called antiques. LOL

Last month I bought two used, one year old, SUV's, value 60k for 40k, cash. Our crerdit card balances are zero every month. Neither of us ever earned more than $25hr. We always took homemade luches to work. We sent two daughters to college and managed to retire ten years ahead of schedule. Both of us dress reasonably well, no need to look like hobos.

I've never tried to keep up with anyone else's ideas of what good living involves. We always lived within about the 80% level of our take home income and kept the rest invested.

Believe in yourself, not the other guy and you'll be a winner.

[giotto]

I'd rather have children than money. What fun is retirement withour grandchildren?

[IndyTiger]

You hit it right on the head. My wife and I could be on easy street right now if we had decided to forgo having kids. But our two daughters have brought much joy to our lives, and I can't imagine life without them.

[Hildy]

I understand this, and I know I'll be flamed..but what good is money if you don't enjoy it once in a while? I don't know....I live my life a little differently.

[meyer]

"At a time when the average American family has credit-card debt estimated at $9,000..."

Am I the only one deeply troubled by that statement? How on earth can anybody amass a credit card debt so large?

[Hildy]

I don't HAVE CHILDREN, but I consider my life rich and rewarding. I have friends and family who love me, I volunteer and give to charity. I also get to enjoy my money more...you have children, and I get to do things because I don't. I don't understand why people with kids always have to judge people who don't.

[cyborg]

I agree with you. I am not rich, and I learned my lesson with college credit cards. However, I can't be cheap. I have to enjoy money. What the heck are we working for???

[dennisw]

Total bullshit since they have no children.

[jslade]

I've neever owed anyone a cent other than a mortgage and it was paid off 14 years ago.

You still don't "own the house". You still pay the government "rent" in the form of property taxes. And, if you don't pay, your "free and clear" home is gone. Got it!

[meyer]

We don't have childern either but I paid my nephews way through college and what might be left after we die will go to nephews, nieces, and FR.

I can always tell when the Freep-a-thon is taking place. :)

J/K, of course. Nieces and Nephews make up the bulk of my beneficiaries, though I fully expect to have spent a good deal of my wealth prior to passing on. As soon as I accumulate an appreciable amount of wealth, of course.

[Dec31,1999]

Or anywhere else. Please name countries that honor the concept of free property. Thanks in advance.

[Dec31,1999]

I don't understand why people with kids always have to judge people who don't.

They don't. It's just that it seems obvious in most cases that they've killed their unborn children. But they might be wrong.

[ironman]

Some people like to work.

Yes that is certainly very true. We just had a celebratory party for a collegue who's still at it at 90! But for me I imagine I'll do something a little less stressful far away from where I'm at now (DC).