Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Tele man
Money begets money.
Don't have some and you can't grow any.
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Exactly right, and nearly anyone can have some if they exercise sufficient discipline. People confuse needs and wants to justify their poor spending decisions. It's as if people who want
things more than
money have little of either, but those who don't want things but do want money will have both. The wealthy live as if they were poor, and the poor live as if they were wealthy.
I once lived in the back of my Subaru for nearly 2 years. I didn't need to, but I wanted to save money quickly since I was new to the labor force, didn't have a girlfriend, and worked 13hr shifts.
Delay gratification long enough, and you'd be surprised what financial opportunities become available. With my extreme saving and a $40k income, I was able to:
- buy a 4 unit rental property in OK (50% stake in ownership)
- buy a 4 bedroom house and put 20% down
- get married and pay for the wedding and ring in cash
- honeymoon and travel with cash
- pay off wife's student loans with cash
- pay off wife's credit card debt
- sell wife's hooptie Pontiac and buy a Prius with cash
- put wife through a 2 year physician assistant program with cash ($80k total)
- rent an apartment in Portland while she was in school (she had a roommate and I had 2 roommates in the house, and still do)
- loan $50k to a friend
- maintain a 5 year reserve of living expenses
*by cash I mean pay for these with a credit card and pay it off every month, and banking the 2% cash back.
Now that my new job pays ~$70k, I'm able to give $11k/yr in charity, invest 5% into 401k, invest 15% into employee stock purchase program... and I should start maxing out a Roth IRA.
As a tangent thought, people say minimum wage isn't a living wage, but:
1. Who said minimum wage is supposed to support a family? It's meant to introduce new workers (kids) to the labor force.
2. Yes it is a living wage. Most of the world's population gets by on less.