Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

[rob62521]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

Hopefully life is a little easier for you now, but after reading your blog, I see you still have some challenges! Keep up the good work!

[Broken Arrow]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

I was a teenager back then, with no sense of money. I wish I did though. I would've been much further along in my financial life if I had.

[trainedmonkey]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

I'm not sure where I was 15 years ago but I thought I'd relay a note to the younger crowd. After going through High School in the late 70s and early 80s, I thought I'd be pumping gas for a living. Fast forwad to today and I'm doing computer programming. I went to a Technical-Oriented College and spent 10 years after that basically screwing myself.

I learned little about investing in High School or College. My parents were blue collar and made it day to day.

From 85 to 94 I found myself in massive debt and had nothing to show for all my hard work. Little savings, no investments and basically behind the eight ball. Fast forward to 2006 and I'm debt free with the exception of the mortgage and have gone from $500 in liquid funds to about $70,000.

All I can tell the younger people here is to start early, be consistent and don't always live for today. Make your money work for you and leverage every opportunity you can to invest (savings (short term and long term), retirement, etc). Build an emergency fund, save for those goals and put every dime to work!

[Ima saver]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

Good advice, trained. It is very important that the young people on here start early, but for the others, it is never too late. I did not know anything about investing or mutual funds until I was in my forties. I started my IRA in 1984, so i did not have as many years as many of the young people have, to let it grow. (We could only put in $2000 a year)

[rob62521]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

I concur Ima! Trained has good advice. I think the statement, don't live for today sums it up well!

[Broken Arrow]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

I know far too many guys who would tell me, "Carpe Diem" or "Live as though you're going to die tomorrow."

The problem is they're still here the next day, coming back and telling me the same thing. In fact, I have a good friend who has been saying that for almost the ... 15 years that I know him. Poor guy... seriously in debt too.

I'm sure we can agree that one shouldn't be so cheap that it causes one not to enjoy life. At the same time, one should not blow money away like there really is no tomorrow either.

[WellManicuredMan]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

I know far too many guys who would tell me, "Carpe Diem" or "Live as though you're going to die tomorrow."

The problem is they're still here the next day, coming back and telling me the same thing. In fact, I have a good friend who has been saying that for almost the ... 15 years that I know him. Poor guy... seriously in debt too.

I'm sure we can agree that one shouldn't be so cheap that it causes one not to enjoy life. At the same time, one should not blow money away like there really is no tomorrow either.

There is that country song by Tim McGraw that says the same thing "Live like you were dying"....

(Just for the record I'm not a country fan)

[Ima saver]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

I have a friend I have been harping to for 15 years!! They are still living paycheck to paycheck and have nothing to show for it! Did I say 15 years, I mean 30 years!

[pearlieq]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

I was 11. I had no money to my name, and any money that passed my hands was quickly spent on the first junk I could find!

Thankfully, times have changed!

[Ima saver]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

Good for you pearl!

[boefixepa]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

Fifteen years ago I was fifteen! I was living in Oregon and it was the worst financial time in family's history. I had a 4AM paper route and used the money to supliment the family food budget. We were dependent on donation from our church to help with the rent and the food. My dad finally got his old job back in houston and went down to say with his in-laws (grandma & pa to me) while mom and us five kids stayed in Oregon to finish the school year. Another uncle came and drove us down to Texas once school was out. A family of Seven in a Saburban and the biggest u-haul you can pull. Everything we owned was in that u-haul. It amounted to our beds and clothes...sold everything else. We drove into Dallas with $50 where he meet my dad. Not a good year.....

Now I have a collage education, a decent job, a nice home, three great puppies and a cat, and a net worth of about 62K. Not super, but sooooo much better than where I was 15 years ago!

[Broken Arrow]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

It reminds me of something... I told a friend of mine seven months ago that I want to save my money for the future and he told me to live for today, I only lived once. I disagree with him completely.

Well, to be fair, I do think they're partially right... but only partially. For example, I do agree that you have to enjoy life. I also agree that we can always make more money, but we can never make more time.

However, that is the extent to which I would agree with my own friends' philosophy. What they do is take that idea, run, and jump off the cliff with it by saying, "Well, that means you should live as though there is no tomorrow!" No.

What I really believe in is "Balance in everything". Enjoy life today, but not at the expense of tomorrow. Plan for tomorrow, but not at expense of enjoying life today.

It may be easier said than done, but I do believe such a balance is very possible.

[FrugalBachelor]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

hmm...Do I wanna face that?

I was less informed (before internet) and I was a rock and roll lead guitarist (always drug free for me) so I was careless and never looked past the day I was living in. I am glad that I am at least finally getting interested in investing and forgiving myself for being a careless idiot for so many years.

O actually have turned to some jewish friends (i'm a rebelling catholic) to ask how they treated money and they are for the most part a smart group of people when it comes to the dollar.

I hope by the time I'm 48 I will be able to come back to this board with a nice egg in my posession.

[rob62521]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

To those folks who say live for today...perhaps we should respond everything in moderation. I think there is another board where we responded to what is cheap and what is frugal. Personally, I could probably cut some things out and live more cheaply, but I enjoy having air conditioning and being asthmatic, it would make my life very uncomfortable. On the other hand, I do keep it turned to a decent temp and not at 68 and in the winter we have it between 65 and 67 to save on heating bills. We sometimes go out to eat and buy a few new things. But we also save. We have some retirement savings as well as regular savings for if and when that times comes.

[Dido]

Re: Where were you, financially, 15 years ago?

15 years ago was about my financial low point--I think I was about $13,000 in the hole. I was near the beginning of my working life and still thought that, if I paid the minimum balance due on my credit cards, I'd soon be out of debt. That's just about the time that I qualified for my company's retirement plan, so I was just at the beginning of long-term savings. It wasn't long after this that I discovered Your Money or Your Life, which really turned around the way I thought about spending, saving, and debt.

Now I own a home (and a mortgage), own my car in full, and have a decent--not huge but decent--start on my retirement savings built up.