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As a single person who lives alone ho often are they going to cook when they come home from work?
I'm single and I cook at home most nights. Sometimes that's just a frozen dinners with some additional veggies added in....but I definitely eat at home most of the time.
Don't be so lazy! You'll be shockced to find out how much money you can save just by eating at home most of the time. And eating out will be more of a treat if you only do it once or twice a week.
Exactly. People who find this shocking have never been broke.
Not true. I was broke/in debt from ages 18-24. I declared bankruptcy at age 21. I know all about it, the pscyhology of it, you name it.
But I finally woke up, dumped my emotionally unstable boyfriend who could never hold onto a dollar, and started getting my act together. It turned out for me I was neglecting a lot of things in my life that were hurting my ability to earn money. I had problems with confidence. I had to get over a lot of fears. I think my experience with being broke/in debt had a lot to do with overcoming fear in various forms...which is probably true for most people. It helped that I came from a family that always emphasized the importance of saving and avoiding debt (other than a reasonable mortgage). I initially abandoned those values, but I since I was taught that value system, I kind of knew what I had to do.
And yes, I still find it shocking that so many people are broke. Once I started earning a half decent income, I couldn't imagine not saving any money.
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 05-30-2011 at 12:55 PM..
thats rediculious..... let me tell you we have had profiles done in money magazine on us as well as fidelity investments magazine. we are are still up on the cnn website with all our financials in full display.
in the 5 years since we did the articles i can tell not even a charity called us.
when we first thought about doing the articles we werent going to do it.
then we logically thought about all tyhe ramifications of having our info posted.
you know what? except for the thought that we may get calls from charities we couldnt think of not one reason.
folks talk about religon and sexual preferences all the time and if you want to be dis-liked by others that will trigger a whole lot more negative reactions than whether you have a bigger nest egg than someone else.
Last edited by mathjak107; 05-30-2011 at 02:23 PM..
But they aren't telling us that. So they could have skewed this to find what they wanted to prove.
Honestly, I don't like broad sweeping generalizations. They usually aren't really true.
Look at my life -- among the people I know well, the vast majority of them use credit cards wisely, and pay off their credit cards monthly, or at least in 2-3 months for bigger purchases. The vast majority of them save a little money monthly, and invest in their retirement accounts. And the vast majority of them make over 100K a year -- not much over, but over.
I know this isn't true for the rest of the country.
And I know a couple of people who have no credit cards because they've run their financial life horribly, with charge offs and BKs and car repos.... who also make just over 100K a year....
I know this isn't true for the rest of of the country. Just like I'm pretty sure someone will be gobsmacked that people that make over 100K a year can be bankrupt -- but you live out here, too so you know as well as I do; 100K with 5 kids and renting a house isn't a lot of money.
A very interesting, informative, and well-reasoned post. To me, it is an example of the best thing about public forums - the insight I can gain into people and viewpoints different from me and from my viewpoint. My reaction is, first, that Tallysmom has a lot of friends and acquaintances who earn very good money - I wouldn't call them rich, but 100K is substantially above the median family income in this country. Second, while the final sentence which I bolded is true in a sense ("a lot of money" would need definition perhaps), I have trouble feeling much sympathy for such people. 100K living in California with 5 kids may not be paradise, but even here, having that much income should enable people to avoid excessive debt and bankruptcy if their heads are half-way on straight as to their spending habits. I am 67, college educated, but in my entire life I have had only one single year with an adjusted gross income of over 100K. Millions and millions of people are struggling on far, far less but managing somehow.
Look at American Funds. For someone who started at 18 and retired at full retirement at 67. I am pretty sure he/she will get $1M very easily.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mysticaltyger
I agree with your post except for this part. 12% is NOT average. It's the one thing I can say I REALLY dislike about Dave Ramsey. The S&P 500 has had an annualzed return of 9.89% from 1926 to 2010. And most mutual funds don't beat the index. If you do a total stock market index fund (which includes the small companies), you can probably get a bit over 10%...but that's still not 12%.
Over the last 15 years, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index has returned 6.77% (that is, if you're lucky enough to have access to the super cheap institutional share class), and it beat 74% of it's peers (and did slightly better than the S&P 500 Index). One can hope future investment returns will be better than that, but I'm not holding my breath.
Boil some lentils. Get some whole wheat pasts. Chop up some carrots. Boil the pasta & carrots together. Heat up your favorite pasta sauce. Mix it all together. Have a glass of red wine to drink if you like. And voila...you have a cheap and nutritious meal. Make extra so you can have some for lunch/dinner the next day.
I don't know for sure about the dating sites, but I think a lot of them are a waste of money...but that's my perspective as a gay person...maybe they're better for straight people. But I think it's better to meet people in person. People are just too flaky online.
Brown bag rules.
All dating sites that charge money is a waste of money.
yep 12% is way off.. the problem with these average returns is they only mean something when your in your savings mode or accumulation stage .
they dont mean a thing when your retired and in the decumulation stage. the order those gains and losses come in matter greatly and an average return is a meaningless term. a fund can have a 7% average annual return and still leave you broke depending on the sequence of those returns.
Eh, I don't find it shocking at all. I've been there before; barely had a $1 in my savings account. I was living paycheck to paycheck at $4.75 per hour. Ah, those were the days.
My sibling who is finishing residency can't even afford a flight home and living paycheck to paycheck.
So it's not surprising for me that a lot of people can't come up with $2k. Of course, that does not mean they will always be living paycheck to paycheck.
$4.75? What year was this?
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