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Regarding frugality, see "The Millionaire Next Door." It has been years since I read the book, but at the end of the day, those who are "prodigious accumulators of wealth," clipping coupons from the newspaper & never spending on luxury brands frequently are those who accumulate quite a nest egg, frequently measured in the tens of millions.
LOL, well I'm a woman yet I'd like to add:....and kids and grandkids to suck 'em dry!
You can't blame kids and grandkids on your spending. Maybe you spoil them and buy them too much stuff. My grandmothers never did and my mom didn't spoil my kids with a lot of stuff. After they were into school, my mom would typically just send a small check for Christmas and their birthday and that was it. Even their millionaire grandparents didn't do much. Giving kids too much stuff is just spoiling them. The only big gift my kids ever got was a large check for a couple of thou that we put away and helped pay for college.
Just see how people poop away their money and its not hard to see why some people don't have money. There's a Starbucks in my neighborhood. There is a line there all day long, people lined up in their SUV's, idling away waiting for their $5 coffee and $3 muffin. $5 for a stupid cup of coffee. People are too lazy any more to make a pot of coffee?
This is a good thread. My wife and I have just turned 50. We never made very good salaries and we are degreed. We even took a few chances along the way. Some worked some did not. I lost my job a few years ago and it has been tough.
However, we picked up our first investment property when we were 25. We could do this because we lived in a small house and took simple vacations such as camping. We drove our cars until they became liabilities and then would replace them. We never had the newest tv, stereo, furniture, draperies, linens, etc like many of our friends. I still have the same lawn equipment that I purchased as a new homeowner and newlywed. We to this day do not eat out more than once per month for dinner but fairly regularly for lunch. We usually eat out on coupons, share entrees, drink water in restaurants, make our own coffee and exercise by washing our own cars, lawn, etc.
Along the way we built some equity and traded up in real estate investments. My wife has a nice 401k and we consider our rentals my 401k. The Great Recession wiped away some equity but it is slowly coming back. Our home is almost paid off and if we sold a rental house we could retire most of our debt including our mortgage. If it weren't for having started VERY early and taking some risks we would be destitute about now. However, we are now looking at consolidating our property investments, budgeting for tuition and weddings for the kids and then purchasing our retirement home along the coast. It will be a vacation rental for the next 10 years or so allowing others to pay the expense of owning it. If we remain healthy we hope to be in shape to have a fun retirement.
Sorry for the rant but for young people out there who are interested enough to be reading this thread I will tell you this. My in-laws have been very good to my children but they have confused them about the value of money. My daughter especially. The clothing magazines clog our mailbox. She travels to Atlanta to shop with her grandmother, pays to have her nails done, enjoys the Starbucks, the latest phone and the like. My wife and I still carry the flip phones from the free upgrades.
You want your children to have the best but the way this economy / world is changing, kids cannot get out of school without huge debt for many, live at home until they are pushing 30, etc. Don't get confused and don't get discouraged but learn to sacrifice, keep building your skills, take some risks and work as many hours as your body will allow because the day will come when your physical abilities will slow down and your earning power will come more from your savings and investments than your output.
I think it is a generational thing myself. Personally, I would love to see the world, work less and play more, eat great foods and experience great things in my life. Then when it comes time to die, I want to be flat broke. To me, people who pinch pennies are nothing but hoarders (money hoarder) which does you no good when you die. I do have a little savings for emergencies and the like, but other than that, my wife and I are having a ball with life as much as we can.
Because of the great depression, people squirreled away anything they could get their hands on because they didn't know if another depression was coming along. If you have 50 cents to your name, all you want is a dollar. Then when you get that dollar, it just isn't enough so you want that 5 dollars. Then when you get that 5 dollars, you realize it just isn't enough so you want 20 dollars and so on. Having a million dollars for some reason still just isn't enough.
To the OP, I think this is why a lot of his assets were hidden. Possibly the fear of losing it or having it taken away. If nobody knows about it, nobody can take it from you.
I think it is a generational thing myself. Personally, I would love to see the world, work less and play more, eat great foods and experience great things in my life. Then when it comes time to die, I want to be flat broke. To me, people who pinch pennies are nothing but hoarders (money hoarder) which does you no good when you die. I do have a little savings for emergencies and the like, but other than that, my wife and I are having a ball with life as much as we can.
Because of the great depression, people squirreled away anything they could get their hands on because they didn't know if another depression was coming along. If you have 50 cents to your name, all you want is a dollar. Then when you get that dollar, it just isn't enough so you want that 5 dollars. Then when you get that 5 dollars, you realize it just isn't enough so you want 20 dollars and so on. Having a million dollars for some reason still just isn't enough.
To the OP, I think this is why a lot of his assets were hidden. Possibly the fear of losing it or having it taken away. If nobody knows about it, nobody can take it from you.
I wish you could down vote a post. headingtoDenver make sure you don't hurt your back,legs or arms or you'll be screwed!
I think it is a generational thing myself. Personally, I would love to see the world, work less and play more, eat great foods and experience great things in my life. Then when it comes time to die, I want to be flat broke. To me, people who pinch pennies are nothing but hoarders (money hoarder) which does you no good when you die. I do have a little savings for emergencies and the like, but other than that, my wife and I are having a ball with life as much as we can.
Because of the great depression, people squirreled away anything they could get their hands on because they didn't know if another depression was coming along. If you have 50 cents to your name, all you want is a dollar. Then when you get that dollar, it just isn't enough so you want that 5 dollars. Then when you get that 5 dollars, you realize it just isn't enough so you want 20 dollars and so on. Having a million dollars for some reason still just isn't enough.
To the OP, I think this is why a lot of his assets were hidden. Possibly the fear of losing it or having it taken away. If nobody knows about it, nobody can take it from you.
That is the other side of frugality, it can develop into the love of money easily.As a Christian I have to keep this in mind and at the same time not be foolish with the money.As for my Grandfather you may be right.
I wish you could down vote a post. headingtoDenver make sure you don't hurt your back,legs or arms or you'll be screwed!
I really wouldn't care if you down voted my post or not. My wife and I are extremely happy with our lives. If you want to live as a hermit in your house while worrying about every 'what if' scenario you can think of, more power to you.
Regarding frugality, see "The Millionaire Next Door." It has been years since I read the book, but at the end of the day, those who are "prodigious accumulators of wealth," clipping coupons from the newspaper & never spending on luxury brands frequently are those who accumulate quite a nest egg, frequently measured in the tens of millions.
I'm not knocking frugality, but it typically takes a lot more than just frugality to have a net worth over $10M. That almost always requires someone to be either a business owner or some other kind of star in their field of expertise.
I think it is a generational thing myself. Personally, I would love to see the world, work less and play more, eat great foods and experience great things in my life. Then when it comes time to die, I want to be flat broke. To me, people who pinch pennies are nothing but hoarders (money hoarder) which does you no good when you die. I do have a little savings for emergencies and the like, but other than that, my wife and I are having a ball with life as much as we can.
Because of the great depression, people squirreled away anything they could get their hands on because they didn't know if another depression was coming along. If you have 50 cents to your name, all you want is a dollar. Then when you get that dollar, it just isn't enough so you want that 5 dollars. Then when you get that 5 dollars, you realize it just isn't enough so you want 20 dollars and so on. Having a million dollars for some reason still just isn't enough.
To the OP, I think this is why a lot of his assets were hidden. Possibly the fear of losing it or having it taken away. If nobody knows about it, nobody can take it from you.
You completely misunderstand some of the highest motives for saving. When people save and invest large percentages of their incomes, then they have the ability to work less and play more without being dependent on the tenuous world of paid employment. Not to mention frugal folks generally waste less of the planet's resources.
You completely misunderstand some of the highest motives for saving. When people save and invest large percentages of their incomes, then they have the ability to work less and play more without being dependent on the tenuous world of paid employment. Not to mention frugal folks generally waste less of the planet's resources.
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