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Yeah, I have to give you props. You're in a great position.
Thank you. I think universally the most important skill to learn for long term financial success is how to optimize the amount of money you save. Just this alone will exponentially increase someone's chance of achieving a comfortable retirement. I know from my own personal situation that all my other investment knowledge would be moot if I didn't learn to save. Even in my career where most people earn a significant amount; 70% are living pay check to pay check, have to work 5-10 years past the minimum retirement age or have to tap into their 401K to survive. All because of improper money management.
Thank you. I think universally the most important skill to learn for long term financial success is how to optimize the amount of money you save. Just this alone will exponentially increase someone's chance of achieving a comfortable retirement. I know from my own personal situation that all my other investment knowledge would be moot if I didn't learn to save. Even in my career where most people earn a significant amount; 70% are living pay check to pay check, have to work 5-10 years past the minimum retirement age or have to tap into their 401K to survive. All because of improper money management.
Wht are some things you learned to best optimize your saving?
Wht are some things you learned to best optimize your saving?
Lol yeah what stoutboy said. That always helps. How you optimize your savings depends on the lifestyle you choose to lead. The first thing to remember is that unless your making 350K or more, there’s no way save and live a lavish lifestyle. And since making that much puts someone at the 99.57 percentile most of us will HAVE to give up certain things in order to save.
With that in mind, I like to look at life as a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. When you sit down to solve it, it seems overwhelming trying to figure out where all the pieces go. However, if you pay someone for every piece they put in for you, the cost will add up. Instead take the time to teach yourself to solve the puzzle. This way not only do you become a more knowledgeable person but you also save a lot of money.
What I mean by this is research everything you already do and everything you plan on doing in the future to pay as little for it as possible while sacrificing only as much of your lifestyle as your comfortable with.
Also a lot of people have the mentality of "I don't want to figure this out and would rather pay someone to do it." Don't look at it like that. Instead look at it like this: If it takes you 2 hours to research something to figure out who charges the least and you save $100, that means you literally worked and made $50/hour! That’s the type of money a lawyer makes.
Another big one everyone should do is don't ever have a credit card balance if you can help it. Credit cards are basically just a legal way to steal your money if you keep a balance on them.
Just by doing the above you can literally save thousands of extra $$ a year. Some examples from my own life include: savings on food, electricity, house maintenance, car insurance and cable bill. For me savings in those 5 areas add up to about 5K compared to what a typical family in my situation would spend.
I do. I also understand that something elite is not commonplace. They are opposite ends of the spectrum. Do you see the difference?
you claim you see the difference but you don't actually see the difference. The other poster was saying "more commonplace than you think", which doesn't mean "commonplace". You are confusing comparative adjectives with regular adjectives. Let me give you an example of how comparative adjectives are different from regular adjectives.
lets say I own 1 dollar, and you own 2. So you are richer than I am. Does this mean you are rich?
Again, the other poster was saying something is "more commonplace", and you are arguing that same thing is not commonplace, which is totally beside the point.
We could argue this ad infinitum, Amfest. I simply won't agree with you, and in the end we will both be right anyhow.
I suggest you let it go.
Anyhow, my comment was mostly meant as humorous sarcasm because the poster felt the need to mention their "elite" education.
I'm the poster you feel compelled to continue day dreaming about.
I wasn't showing off when I said I went to an elite university. Just like I don't show off when I say I was part of the greatest fighting force this (known) universe has ever seen (I served in the Army after college. Get the parallel?). Unlike some people here (maybe you?), my ego isn't attached to my online profile. Would you prefer a synonym in lieu of elite? Top 10 school? World class institution?
Or would you like for me to lie and misstate the current state of affairs in the bay area and say that anyone who graduated with a bachelor's degree has a job at google and facebook and evernote and linkedin and amazon and...?
The fact is, the bay area is ground zero for a case study in diverging social strata. And I'm not saying that's a great thing. In fact, I would argue it's certainly not a good thing. But it IS a thing. And education - and the university you've graduated from - does matter to (not for) these tech companies, whose compensation models have accounted for much of the chasm b/w rich and not so rich, at least locally in the bay area.
My wife and I have always been savers. I think we've easily averaged +20% per year in savings.
We're in our mid 40's and have a mix of regular brokerage and retirement accounts. Combined current income is about $250k/yr.
We have:
$100k cash
$1.0M in standard brokerage accounts
$1.0M in retirement accounts
$400k in equity for our house
So our net-worth currently stands at about $2.4M
Our goal is to reach at least $3.5M and retire; which basically means just working on whatever we want.
I know our situation isn't typical, but what I can say is that SAVING is key. We wouldn't be where we are if we hadn't saved and invested. We've always max'd our retirements accounts, no exceptions.
^^ That's amazing man great job! What you said about saving is 100% true. I hope I can get somewhere near that. 1.7 Mil at 48 would make me satisfied because I don't make nearly as much as you so anything above that would just be good luck.
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