Holy hell, people live above their means so much... jesus

[Dr. Detroit]

I also don't get this mentality that we must retire early because our jobs suck. Why is this? I feel privileged that I can go to work everyday. I like what I do. It's crazy that most people don't like their job.

Work keeps me alive. I've had months off from work and grew tired, bored, and out of shape. It's great in the beginning but the idea of not being productive doesn't resonate with me. I'd rather be moving daily. Engaged.

Work to Live or Live to Work?

I work to live and have 1001 other things I'd rather be doing than "having"to go to work for 50hrs a week. I'm content to amuse myself, I'm content to read a book in the sun while drinking iced-tea or a Lite beer. I don't need to be at work to occupy my time or form faux relationships with people I give two-shits about. I'm content to go to the gym for 2hrs rather than try and rush through an hour work out.

I don't hate my job, I quite like it. I just hate having to go to work.

 

[MrSquished]

No, I check for an oil change every month. For example, on the first Saturday of the month, I do maintenance on my Jeep. If it needs an oil change & tire rotation, I take it in. If not, then my next check is the next month, rather than just when I remember to check the oil change sticker on my windshield or when the idiot light comes out. I also do the washer fluid, clean or replace the air filter, etc. Weekly on weekends, a car wash & vacuum. Stuff like that. Basically just automating the maintenance through scheduling. Clean house, well-maintained cars, washed laundry, etc. without having to really think about it ever.

Really not sure what is so inefficient about a sticker within your peripheral vision as a driver that tells you around when you need to start thinking about an oil change. Seems to make a whole shit ton of sense actually.

 

[SKORPI0]

I have a cousin who bought a $930.5K house (mid 2007 Fairfield, CA)...
They ended up moving to a house 1 mile away for $316k (2150; 8900 sq.ft). mid 2010.

That had to have hurt.

Hurt? Not unless they took a bath in selling the old home.

They moved to a more affordable, more correctly sized home, for a fraction of the cost. Sounds like a smart move to me. You can't undo your dumb decisions, but you can realize your mistakes and make better ones in the future.

Visited both houses April 2012 (family reunion) and Feb 2012. Everyone in the family made a comment that it was too huge and expensive. Not sure how much it eventually "sold" for, but they only stayed there for 3 years.
Previous house they had was way smaller than it, not sure why they had to move to a much larger house (everyone's guess was to impress people). Moving to a correct sized house just across like 4 blocks (1 mile) was a very wise decision.

$930.5K house. Sold for $425k Dec 2011. Current estimate - $644.4K

$316k house (bought May 2010), a few blocks away. current estimate - $511.7K

 

[brianmanahan]

I also don't get this mentality that we must retire early because our jobs suck. Why is this? I feel privileged that I can go to work everyday. I like what I do. It's crazy that most people don't like their job.

because they get tired of the stress and the headaches

once i retire from a 9-5 i'm probably not going to quit working totally. will probably do short-term contract work, maybe 3-6 months a year. work during the winter and have fun during the summer.

 

[purbeast0]

Enjoy working til 65 or 70 with that mentality

A few of us will be retired by age 45 with over $2.5M saved. I'd rather eat tacos de canasta with great friends than have another $300/plate meal with coworkers I despise. I'd rather wear Levi's and Converse than AG and Ferragamo.

If it wasn't for the Feds dicking us over on the ACA and interest rates I'm sure a lot more people would be living off 5% CD's and telling the man to Go Fuck Themselves!

So what, you're not going to spend your money when you are retired?

 

[rh71]

- car can be a lease
- daycare costs are temporary and can come from past savings
- home reno can be from past savings or family loan

It all comes down to monthly expenses. If you're above water on those and have savings to survive a short storm, it's fine.

 

[rh71]

Moving to a correct sized house just across like 4 blocks (1 mile) was a very wise decision.

I could never go back to a 1-story after being in a 2-story especially with a family. The bedrooms all being upstairs means the first floor is much more accommodating to everyday living. That's unless it's a very wide ranch.

Also a 2-story is typically only $200-300k more, not $600k like in your story. We spent $215k to build the 2nd story and open up the first floor.

 

[NutBucket]

Daycare is also a tax write-off 🙂

 

[thedarkwolf]

because they get tired of the stress and the headaches

once i retire from a 9-5 i'm probably not going to quit working totally. will probably do short-term contract work, maybe 3-6 months a year. work during the winter and have fun during the summer.

I ride bikes with with a guy in his late 40s early 50s that quit his big pay job last year and became a school bus driver 🙂. He sold his house and bought a nice RV to live in and travels around the country mtn biking during the breaks. The school bus driver gig is mainly for the health insurance, he also owns a couple rentals.

 

[piasabird]

Income can be kind of relative. It depends quite a bit for different parts of the country. Some places a $300k house is about average. I purchased a house about 18 years ago for abount $79k. However the same house a brick 3 br with basement might cost $120k-$150k if it was built and sold today. The problem is in other cities it is completely different. Some cities it costs $3k a month just to rent a place, and a small house might go for $300K. If you want people to keep working for you, they have to be paid a competitive wage. In some places a competitive wage might be $40k or it might be $90k. I started working at a community colleg 18 years ago for about $18.5k a year. However, every year or so I got paid a little more. Young people today are not satisfied unless they start out making $60k. They want it all and they want it now. The times they are a changing.

Take a look at what it costs to earn a college degree and you might realize they are underpaid.

 

[mztykal]

Income is relative to where you're at. I live in Hawaii and cleared a little under 200k last year. I have a 600k house and 3k mortgage. Some months are a little rough even with that income level. No real cc debt, it's paid off monthly, no car notes and maxed on my 401k.

 

[sdifox]

I can't imagine paying half a mil or more for a house. Even my 165k house is a 25 year mortgage. I'm making extra payments so I might pay it off in like 20 years instead of 25. At least I know I will eventually pay it off. Half a mil or more, that's pretty much a life time mortgage.

My house is worth over a mil now. Just crazy.

 

[sdifox]

Not if you are making a lot of money it's not. I'd wager most people that can afford houses that are that much money probably pay them off quicker than people who go through the 30 year term and/or refinance. Plus when you upgrade homes you usually have equity that you just put right into it, so your mortgage isn't even the full price of the house.

If you're making $20k a month as a family, which is doable for dual income families if they have good jobs, as that's 240k/yr, then spending $5k/month on a mortgage payment isn't really that much.

We used to pay 4k monthly into our mortgage plus anniversary lumpsum. Paid off 200k mortgage in eight years. Obviously not paying 4k the whole length.

And then the wife decided to move and start a new mortgage :facepalm:

 

[sdifox]

Income is relative to where you're at. I live in Hawaii and cleared a little under 200k last year. I have a 600k house and 3k mortgage. Some months are a little rough even with that income level. No real cc debt, it's paid off monthly, no car notes and maxed on my 401k.

You make over 200k after tax? :shock:

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

You make over 200k after tax? :shock:

This is ATOT. 200K is the new 100K 😉

 

[sdifox]

This is ATOT. 200K is the new 100K 😉

Mea culpa, memory lapse. Up here you probably have to make 350k to have 200k after tax income.

 

[zinfamous]

Eh, that's not so bad. Redoing their house raises the value of their home. BMWs are often leased. Nannies don't cost that much more than daycare. Organic food is probably healthier.

To me, frivolous stuff would be taking expensive vacations, front row at concerts, season passes for sporting events, etc. Essentially buying experiences. Even pricey vacuums, bespoke suits, and trash cans have some value.

My friend's wife recently got laid off and has no new leads on a job. She took her entire severance and bought annual passes to Disneyland for her family. Now that was reckless and living above her means.

I don't know. I prefer to "buy experiences" rather than stuff. Can't take stuff with you and more likely than not, your family doesn't want to deal with your stuff when you croak. 😀

I like stuff, but I'm less and less liking the majority of stuff that I actually don't need. ...moving a lot helps with that strange fascination, I guess.

 

[sdifox]

I don't know. I prefer to "buy experiences" rather than stuff. Can't take stuff with you and more likely than not, your family doesn't want to deal with your stuff when you croak. 😀

I like stuff, but I'm less and less liking the majority of stuff that I actually don't need. ...moving a lot helps with that strange fascination, I guess.

Can't take your experience with you either so I don't get your point.

And I hate moving.

 

[slag]

That looks pretty easy if they're not eating out all the time, traveling, contributing significantly to retirement. A $500k mortgage is under $2500/month, a loan on the car might be $1000/month. Adding it all up it works.

Not sure why you're pointing out the Nanny. Doesn't look like it's much more than daycare.

Many people bundle their insurance and taxes into the house payment. with that in mind, no way is 500k under $2500/month.

 

[JulesMaximus]

We live well below our means.

 

[sdifox]

We live well below our means.

Is that why you don't have a rice cooker? :awe:

 

[JulesMaximus]

Is that why you don't have a rice cooker? :awe:

We could afford one if we wanted one.

 

[Kaido]

I don't know. I prefer to "buy experiences" rather than stuff. Can't take stuff with you and more likely than not, your family doesn't want to deal with your stuff when you croak. 😀

I like stuff, but I'm less and less liking the majority of stuff that I actually don't need. ...moving a lot helps with that strange fascination, I guess.

It's funny because I'm completely the opposite. I'm a Madonna material girl, lol. I would much rather spend my mad money on say a bigger TV than go on a trip somewhere (going there on Google Earth is just as good as going there IRL, social anxiety ftw), because my memory fades, but that TV will be there every day 😀 My wife is an experience person tho, she prefers trips to stuff. We kind of trade off. Although I've gone from being a borderline technology hoarder to having an extremely tight personal inventory system over the past few years, which has helped with moving because we tend to move every year to try out different parts of the state. But yeah, I'm an unashamed hardware guy, whether it's computer tech or kitchen tech or whatever, haha.

 

[purbeast0]

I'm under the impression that MOST (most people, not all) who think buying items is always much better than buying experiences, simply have not had great experiences before.

Saying memories fade is completely false as well. I still remember the first time I went out of the country when I was 23 years old to Aruba, and it pretty much changed my life. It made me realize how I had to make traveling a priority in life from that point on. That same year I bought my first HDTV too - a $3000 50" DLP 720p/1080i.

To this day I can basically walk through that Aruba trip in my mind of what I did each day. I also look at the pictures randomly and have a picture from that trip sitting on a bookshelf in my house. That DLP TV though? Well it's still alive, my mother in law has it in her house lol, so I guess it's still around!

I like my toys too though don't get me wrong, but I'd pretty much rather spend $5k on a vacation than a new toy about 9/10 times, depending if that toy is really something I need/want. Like when I did my HT, that was something I've been dreaming of since I was like 18. So I did that instead of using that money on a vacation. But in 2018 for our 10 year anniversary, we plan on taking an exotic vacation to the French Polynesia area and I'm budgeting $20k for that trip and won't mind one bit if I spend all of it.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

This is where you need to be disciplined.

The reason you want to to save money is so you can take advantage when their is a crash and a major recession happens. You want to be in a position to take advantage of other people's misery. When they are hurting, scared and are withdrawing from the market that's when you want cash on hand. This is exactly what the big players do like Warren Buffet. Much of his money is made on the back of recessions.

This is why I'm not big on purchasing homes. Especially in this market. How can you make a big play when most of your income is being consumed by your new home? I'd hold off on buying stocks as well. But, it takes a lot of discipline. The best thing to do now is to just wait like a hunter stalking his prey. Wait until we go into a recession when people are hurting. That's when you strike. It's all cylical anyway.

This is my thinking. I'm looking to upgrade my house eventually. Why buy now when prices are skyrocketing? I'll wait with some cash in hand and scoop up a foreclosure when the bubble bursts. We are currently letting people buy way too much house with their incomes and with little as 3 percent down. The mortgage company approved my wife and I for a ridiculous payment that would financially destroy us. It was a payment that would have us waking up in a cold sweat at night if I ever took it. And we have no kids and not much debt. So I can only imagine someone with the same income as us taking that mortgage but having childcare expenses as well. Crazy times.