3 ms·

> Or saved enough money to retire or semi-retire? This. Do this and one of the other strategies. Just save some freaking money. I know far to many people who a

> Or saved enough money to retire or semi-retire? This. Do this and one of the other strategies. Just save some freaking money. I know far to many people who are up-to-their-eyes in debt and have almost no savings.

daxfohl 10y ago
You're young and single I'm guessing. What you say seems logical. However, saving enough money for yourself to retire (I have) is one thing, but then when the kids come and need braces, school stuff, extracurriculars, college, health insurance, etc., they're pretty well screwed if their parents can't find a job. Especially these days with people waiting longer to have kids, the 40-year-old employability cutoff is a problem.
- rubicon33 10y ago
  If you don't mind me asking, how have you saved enough to retire? Worth asking also might be, how many years have you been saving for? Bay area housing costs seem to make saving very difficult. I'm not sure I'll be able to retire before 40
  - nfriedly 10y ago
    Not sure if you were asking me or daxfohl, but I've always been a saver. I got serious about it maybe 8-10 years ago. My savings rate has been trending upwards during that time, it's around 40-45% of my take-home pay now. I spent a year in the Bay area, but moved back to Ohio for family reasons. That helped, because things are so much less expensive out here. (Bear in mind, though, you can work in the Bay Area and then retire somewhere cheaper ;) http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ has some great articles on how to save money while still enjoying life. My top piece of advice is: do not buy a brand new car. Don't buy any car if you can manage it, but if you must own one, get something that's a few years old and half as expensive. And even then, try to ride a bicycle when possible.
    - rubicon33 10y ago
      "... you can work in the Bay Area and then retire somewhere cheaper" Yes but, while working in the Bay Area you have to live in the Bay Area (assuming you aren't remote). I'm just super curious how we're supposed to save enough to be safe by 40.
      - daxfohl 10y ago
        * Forego apartments and scour craigslist for cheap rooms in shared housing. This will cut rent by 2/3. Look in less desirable (not dangerous, just not primo) neighborhoods, though sometimes deals can be found in primo locales too. Don't buy a house until you need one; some claim it's an investment, but really they're just money pits. * Don't spend more than about 8K on a car. Drive it till it dies. (I drove a $2140 15 year old Saturn without AC or working windows for 7 years). * Learn how to save money while still in college. * Read "The Idiot's Guide to Getting Rich". Ridiculous title, but plenty of sound advice throughout the book. * Use Excel or C to figure out what your savings will be by age N if you save X/mo with whatever inflation/investment rate. You're a programmer so this should be straightforward. * Take those results and save X/mo. Stick it into an index fund with automatic reinvestment. Set it up to withdraw X/mo from your bank account every month. This last part is probably the most important part! It forces you to live like your salary is $Salary-X, and eventually you just come to accept that. * Monitor those numbers and watch it go up. Discover you prefer doing that to buying things. Increase X. * Travel! Okay this is odd advice. But when you take time off work to travel a bit you really learn how to stretch every penny. I spent three years overseas sometimes working odd jobs and it was worth every second. * Don't incur "bad" debt (duh), and pay high interest rates off ASAP. Low interest rates 3% or so you don't have to worry about so much. * Don't play the lottery. Don't expect that there's a "trick" to building wealth. It's just a long arduous boring process of living below your means. * Read "The Idiot's Guide to Getting Rich". Ridiculous title, but plenty of sound advice throughout the book. Yes I said it twice.
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - 10y ago
- nfriedly 10y ago
  I'm in my 30's, married, have a son, and a mortgage. But I also have enough savings to pay off my mortgage in full today if it was an urgent need.
  - rubicon33 10y ago
    ... how? Either your mortgage is very small, or you have somehow managed to save an incredible amount of money. It's really the latter that I'd like to know more about.
    - daxfohl 10y ago
      > It's really the latter that I'd like to know more about. Whatever nfriedly's situation may be ... you won't get to the latter until you understand the former. In other words: You can't "save an incredible amount of money", without first "saving some money".
    - nfriedly 10y ago
      It's a relatively small mortgage, I bought it for $138k. (This was near the bottom of the mortgage crisis, but also the house is ~50 years old and outside of a small town in Ohio). As I mentioned in the other comment, my savings rate has been trending upward for a while, and I now save about ~40-45% of my take-home pay. But, even when I lived in the bay area, earned less money, and paid twice my current mortgage in rent, I was still saving ~15% of my income. I don't consider myself deprived: we eat out, buy fancy phones, etc. We have a separate bank account just for giving that gets some money automatically transferred in each month. Our car is a 15-year-old civic that looks terible, but we don't drive that much and it still runs great. We'll probably replace it soon, but I kind of want to see how long it will go at this point ;) Like I mentioned in my other comment, http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ has a lot of great advice. There's a few sites like that one, but MMM is my favorite.
      - rubicon33 10y ago
        Thanks for the response. What you're doing sounds like what I want to shoot for. I'm almost 30 now, and for the last 2 years I've REALLY ramped up my savings. My goal, is to retire sometime in my mid 40s, so that I can work full time on my own projects. Lofty goal to say the least. I also realize that to do that, I'll need to find a cheap home. Been reading up on mrmoneymustache, some great tips there. Thanks for the link!

daxfohl 10y ago

You're young and single I'm guessing. What you say seems logical. However, saving enough money for yourself to retire (I have) is one thing, but then when the kids come and need braces, school stuff, extracurriculars, college, health insurance, etc., they're pretty well screwed if their parents can't find a job. Especially these days with people waiting longer to have kids, the 40-year-old employability cutoff is a problem.

rubicon33 10y ago
If you don't mind me asking, how have you saved enough to retire? Worth asking also might be, how many years have you been saving for? Bay area housing costs seem to make saving very difficult. I'm not sure I'll be able to retire before 40
- nfriedly 10y ago
  Not sure if you were asking me or daxfohl, but I've always been a saver. I got serious about it maybe 8-10 years ago. My savings rate has been trending upwards during that time, it's around 40-45% of my take-home pay now. I spent a year in the Bay area, but moved back to Ohio for family reasons. That helped, because things are so much less expensive out here. (Bear in mind, though, you can work in the Bay Area and then retire somewhere cheaper ;) http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ has some great articles on how to save money while still enjoying life. My top piece of advice is: do not buy a brand new car. Don't buy any car if you can manage it, but if you must own one, get something that's a few years old and half as expensive. And even then, try to ride a bicycle when possible.
  - rubicon33 10y ago
    "... you can work in the Bay Area and then retire somewhere cheaper" Yes but, while working in the Bay Area you have to live in the Bay Area (assuming you aren't remote). I'm just super curious how we're supposed to save enough to be safe by 40.
    - daxfohl 10y ago
      * Forego apartments and scour craigslist for cheap rooms in shared housing. This will cut rent by 2/3. Look in less desirable (not dangerous, just not primo) neighborhoods, though sometimes deals can be found in primo locales too. Don't buy a house until you need one; some claim it's an investment, but really they're just money pits. * Don't spend more than about 8K on a car. Drive it till it dies. (I drove a $2140 15 year old Saturn without AC or working windows for 7 years). * Learn how to save money while still in college. * Read "The Idiot's Guide to Getting Rich". Ridiculous title, but plenty of sound advice throughout the book. * Use Excel or C to figure out what your savings will be by age N if you save X/mo with whatever inflation/investment rate. You're a programmer so this should be straightforward. * Take those results and save X/mo. Stick it into an index fund with automatic reinvestment. Set it up to withdraw X/mo from your bank account every month. This last part is probably the most important part! It forces you to live like your salary is $Salary-X, and eventually you just come to accept that. * Monitor those numbers and watch it go up. Discover you prefer doing that to buying things. Increase X. * Travel! Okay this is odd advice. But when you take time off work to travel a bit you really learn how to stretch every penny. I spent three years overseas sometimes working odd jobs and it was worth every second. * Don't incur "bad" debt (duh), and pay high interest rates off ASAP. Low interest rates 3% or so you don't have to worry about so much. * Don't play the lottery. Don't expect that there's a "trick" to building wealth. It's just a long arduous boring process of living below your means. * Read "The Idiot's Guide to Getting Rich". Ridiculous title, but plenty of sound advice throughout the book. Yes I said it twice.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    - 10y ago
nfriedly 10y ago
I'm in my 30's, married, have a son, and a mortgage. But I also have enough savings to pay off my mortgage in full today if it was an urgent need.
- rubicon33 10y ago
  ... how? Either your mortgage is very small, or you have somehow managed to save an incredible amount of money. It's really the latter that I'd like to know more about.
  - daxfohl 10y ago
    > It's really the latter that I'd like to know more about. Whatever nfriedly's situation may be ... you won't get to the latter until you understand the former. In other words: You can't "save an incredible amount of money", without first "saving some money".
  - nfriedly 10y ago
    It's a relatively small mortgage, I bought it for $138k. (This was near the bottom of the mortgage crisis, but also the house is ~50 years old and outside of a small town in Ohio). As I mentioned in the other comment, my savings rate has been trending upward for a while, and I now save about ~40-45% of my take-home pay. But, even when I lived in the bay area, earned less money, and paid twice my current mortgage in rent, I was still saving ~15% of my income. I don't consider myself deprived: we eat out, buy fancy phones, etc. We have a separate bank account just for giving that gets some money automatically transferred in each month. Our car is a 15-year-old civic that looks terible, but we don't drive that much and it still runs great. We'll probably replace it soon, but I kind of want to see how long it will go at this point ;) Like I mentioned in my other comment, http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ has a lot of great advice. There's a few sites like that one, but MMM is my favorite.
    - rubicon33 10y ago
      Thanks for the response. What you're doing sounds like what I want to shoot for. I'm almost 30 now, and for the last 2 years I've REALLY ramped up my savings. My goal, is to retire sometime in my mid 40s, so that I can work full time on my own projects. Lofty goal to say the least. I also realize that to do that, I'll need to find a cheap home. Been reading up on mrmoneymustache, some great tips there. Thanks for the link!