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I am degreed, but the reason I'm doing well financially doesn't have much to do with that. It is because I risked my entire life savings on ideas, leveraged other people's money/talents to make it happen, and took great advantage of market timing. I didn't have a steady paycheck. Risk-taking, street smarts, luck and timing are key. College degrees/career paths get you only so far - often a path to a more stable, comfortable upper middle class life with the material trappings that come with it.
10 years into my career, I don't clip coupons now. But I certainly was doing that when I first graduated law school - even though I didn't need to, I figured there was no harm in saving where I could. I don't do it now, but even still I buy most things on sale. That's not to say I deprive myself if I want something, but if I see something on sale that I know I'll need soon -- like laundry detergent or soap or other necessities, I buy it rather than waiting until next week when it's full price. I find it results in me saving $2 here and $5 there, and I have enough self control that I only buy what I will use so it's not like I'm wasting money on junk. Lots of people at my income level don't do it and likely think it's cheap, but the way I see it, if I save $2/week for 50 weeks/yr -- that's $100. Not a huge amount but that's like 2 months of electric bills or a month and a half of cable taken care of right there with almost no effort on my part.
College degrees/career paths get you only so far - often a path to a more stable, comfortable upper middle class life with the material trappings that come with it.
Yeah, I agree with everything except here... because we took this route minus the "material trappings" lifestyle (a la Mr Money Moustache) and it's proving to be a very effective way of moving ahead, definitely beyond "only so far" ... and without the risk.
It always goes back to the same fundamental things, doesn't it?
Don't live beyond your means. The less you live below your means, the more "means" you'll have.
There is something to be said for living in the moment. Moderation in everything as they say.
I'm pretty frugal, sometimes obsessively so. My wife has to bring me back to Earth sometimes by saying "what good will $5 million dollars in the bank do you when you're old, sick, tired and can't do anything?" I think of how much my dad slowed down by the time he hit his 70s. Money is money, but you can't take it with you and you only have your youth and health once.
I had a great uncle - one of my grandfather's older brothers - he refused to do things like buy a new kitchen table, buy new clothes, buy curtains or heat his house properly. All his clothes had holes. He had a working class union job his whole life but he saved like freaking Ebenezer Scrooge. When he died he had over $250,000 in the bank. That was in 1966 - so the equivalent of about $2 million today. My dad got part of the inheritance and started a business.
I'm not sure it was worth it for my great uncle. What did he have to show for his money? He was a miser.
Like some others have said, I don't HAVE to clip coupons to save money or get buy. That's all most people said. I don't think we didn't say clipping coupons is stupid. We also conceded that clipping coupons likely would save money. We just said we don't do it…..for whatever reason…it's not worth the money to us, not worth the time, the coupons aren't for what we buy, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowexpectations
I make enough money that I don't need to clip coupons. You might not like that response but it's the truth and it hasn't ended up with me spending 250k while making 200k. I actually for a year got the local Sunday paper and clipped coupons but after reflecting the majority of things that coupons cover seem to be crap. Locally I never saw them cover fresh fruits, veggies or meat and that's the vast majority of things that go in my cart.
Well, nobody HAS to do anything they don't want to do, the question in play here is, what's more efficient? Should you seek to efficiently manage your expenses or say screw it, I'll pay whatever they charge me?
For example, I don't HAVE to implement tax reduction strategies and write-off everything I can possibly write off, I can just have my CPA/EA file my return with hardly no deductions.
You have TIME to sit on City Data arguing back and forth with myself, rich and others about the existence of the Global NWO...but you don't have 15 minutes to scroll through the paper, sign up for reward programs and clip coupons? Explain how that makes any sense
You have TIME to sit on City Data arguing back and forth with myself, rich and others about the existence of the Global NWO...but you don't have 15 minutes to scroll through the paper, sign up for reward programs and clip coupons? Explain how that makes any sense
Arguing on the internet is more fun than clipping coupons.
Well, nobody HAS to do anything they don't want to do, the question in play here is, what's more efficient? Should you seek to efficiently manage your expenses or say screw it, I'll pay whatever they charge me?
For example, I don't HAVE to implement tax reduction strategies and write-off everything I can possibly write off, I can just have my CPA/EA file my return with hardly no deductions.
You have TIME to sit on City Data arguing back and forth with myself, rich and others about the existence of the Global NWO...but you don't have 15 minutes to scroll through the paper, sign up for reward programs and clip coupons? Explain how that makes any sense
No one said I don't engage in rewards programs. I'm not sure if you failed to read my post at all because I specifically discussed my experiance with coupons and based on my experience of what the coupons were for combined with my actual needs there wasn't much of any benefit. Furthermore I deem any small benefit I might derive from couponing to not be worth my time. I didn't cut my own lawn at my old house becuase it was 20.00 a week for a 11k sqft lot. Now that I've moved it's 25.00 for less than 500 sqft of grass so I cut it myself.
....there are plenty of people out there taking a major risk with their money relying on market profiting to lead them to the promised land and trying to play with the big boys....only to lose a large chunk of it and then panicking figuring how they'd make ends meet when there's a crash....it was seen in 2008 and will happen again.
That's why they invented balanced funds. You don't have to be 100% in stocks, and you don't have to be all cash, either.
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