Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How is your money going to provide a decent standard of life for your family if you don't spend? Reliable transportation, nutritious food, safe housing, dignified personal appearance, class social membership, preventative medical care,better educational opportunities, leisure family time -- the trade-offs for your own personal opulence and luxury of a posh retimrement after your famiily has grown up in want and poverty and gone off of their own.
If your children are ever going to be wealthy, a very large part of the road to that wealth will arise from growing up with privileged schoolmates and their awareness of the mores of of the social class that can open doors for them. Selfishly saving for your own villa in a retirement Mecca and sending your kids to school in rags with a yard-sale pencil box will deprive your family of the opportunity to forge important social ties with influential people.
Very true words.
Sometimes, you got to look at the trade offs. Too much of one thing is bad. Too little is bad.
If your only focus is saving money - you aren't living a life, you're letting your money live it for you.
That said, if your only focus is making money - you also aren't living a life either.
A balance is good. Cutting some spending habits here and there is good, but you got to be mindful that a balanced spending habit just might be good for the wellbeing of you (and your family).
How is your money going to provide a decent standard of life for your family if you don't spend? Reliable transportation, nutritious food, safe housing, dignified personal appearance, class social membership, preventative medical care,better educational opportunities, leisure family time -- the trade-offs for your own personal opulence and luxury of a posh retimrement after your famiily has grown up in want and poverty and gone off of their own.
If your children are ever going to be wealthy, a very large part of the road to that wealth will arise from growing up with privileged schoolmates and their awareness of the mores of of the social class that can open doors for them. Selfishly saving for your own villa in a retirement Mecca and sending your kids to school in rags with a yard-sale pencil box will deprive your family of the opportunity to forge important social ties with influential people.
i can spend enough to provide all that to my children and still save plenty. i wonder if we are really defending our decision to not save as much for the better of our children or for our own enjoyment of spending.
How is your money going to provide a decent standard of life for your family if you don't spend? Reliable transportation, nutritious food, safe housing, dignified personal appearance, class social membership, preventative medical care,better educational opportunities, leisure family time -- the trade-offs for your own personal opulence and luxury of a posh retimrement after your famiily has grown up in want and poverty and gone off of their own.
If your children are ever going to be wealthy, a very large part of the road to that wealth will arise from growing up with privileged schoolmates and their awareness of the mores of of the social class that can open doors for them. Selfishly saving for your own villa in a retirement Mecca and sending your kids to school in rags with a yard-sale pencil box will deprive your family of the opportunity to forge important social ties with influential people.
Well...
In times like these, one have to think outside that box.
If food is ever increasing 30% per year, you grow that food & when on sale back before 2005 prices or earlier (yes, have to spend then but "wisely") you hoard.
Then think... 30% increase is better than leaving that cash sitting in savings account making what % now??? Seriously! think the returns & its reliability????
Can't eat cash, can eat food & cash is used in exchange to buy food for your survival anyways & food is needed every day... not that paper note... think!
If a dozen eggs (should PETA gets their way) were to cost you $5 or more due to taxes slapped on them and how ever many other foods that do have eggs in them also seeing that price hike... you have your own chicken.
And not necessary you even needs that school (say college for that middle class) to meet those higher class people.... with that cost of colleges tuition today... if you the parents were to think outside that box & build a business for your children... so should they choose to work that company & skip that college... their position "grown into" that company will also expose them to "quality" people (who may or may not have gone through private schools, colleges etc...). That social class will be raised via business.
That box, just like that paper dollar which you cannot even eat, is a boundary. Paper dollar is only as good as the promise of what that $1 can get you... and "if"....
today should that $1 not even buy you that loaf of bread (say it cost $5 now on average due to government regulations & you have no choice but to pay that price...) which could really happen (eg. euro & inflation)... what then????
And then think... isn't that $1 that you found on the road worth more than that $1 you made through college & work??? Eg. $1 untaxed... VS $1 taxed and then college tuition loans to make that $1 = how much of that $1 is left for you????
Just sayin... to be ahead nowadays... people have to not be sheep & narrow their mindset the way the herders want them penned... you need to really "look" outside that box.
Hoarding cash, goods, gold, whatever "material commodities" that is "beyond standard" that dictates your way of spending is key. Else if every investors are same... there won't be insiders (non-standard) making all that money.
So budgeting is a good start... it helps to put people's vision into perspective.
Therefore, nothing wrong with that... not wanting to spend.
P.S. W. Buffett... isn't he the one who drives old cars & only lives in his original address???? To accumulate money, is never via spending into the poor house but that old virtue in "savings" (food, currency, scrap metal to trade for cash from the junk yard, copper etc... ), value beyond that paper dollar when that dollar is so unstable (think euro, euro, think greece... spending didn't save them either).
To me budgeting is just part of smart money management. Not a chore at all.
Budgeting is NOT THAT complicated or difficult to manage or organize.
It's basic math. Salary IN....BILLS out....what's left save and/or spend depending on individual goals.
Now, granted, for some, it may be easier when you have more money than you need, and can save and have disposable income for the non-essential you enjoy as well. (Because you're no watching EVERY penny, or at least don't have to or check will bounce and bill won't get paid.)
If I were broke and couldn't pay my bills, I think THAT would be the stressor. Not the budgeting itself.
Also, to me, it's not that much of a hassle. One another thread someone was asking, about separate accounts for bills-- or categories of spending -- some old people used to have 'the envelope method). To me if you know what you're doing, you should be able to keep ONE savings and ONE checking account and maybe ONE Money Market Account/Fund.
You can keep money for special projects or med term spending -- like saving for a trip next year -- or holiday gifts -- in your savings OR MM account/fund where it might earn more interest in the meantime. But INO more than 3 accounts isn't necessary. (not including retirement accounts, of course)
Now, granted, for some, it may be easier when you have more money than you need, and can save and have disposable income for the non-essential you enjoy as well. (Because you're no watching EVERY penny, or at least don't have to or check will bounce and bill won't get paid.)
That is the hard part... I could spend more & not really feel it, but that is less savings..
If I have to dip into savings it bothers me more than it bothers some people to go into debt..
I too enjoy budgeting because in the end, it gives me the freedom to spend the money I want. I budget savings up front so the money I have left over at the end of the month is what I can spend without guilt. Plus I like to see the balances of my accounts grow over the months.
No, but I will hang out at the book store & read it
Haha, I've been known to do that. It's in the spirit of making sure it's the book that I actually want to borrow when I get to the library
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
