How do you afford it all?

brandoak said:
You make more money as you get older and that's a fact.
Click to expand...

For some if not a good number of people. But there are other if not more important contributing factors that take place. Children move out, debt tends to get paid off, and mortgages get paid off. I can't begin to tell you how much more of my income became available for retirement and other things when those things occurred.
 
Stability is the key. You buy earlier in life. If you buy a house and it won't be paid off until after you're 65, you're probably in trouble as you likely will never have much money to put back other than what your employer may have with their 401K plan.
 
brandoak said:
You make more money as you get older and that's a fact.
Click to expand...

There is a point where you're making more because you are more valuable as you age and get experience when all of a sudden you're priced out of the job market and the company replaces you with a 22 year old. Trust me, I know. You think you are irreplaceable, but nobody is.
 
22-rimfire said:
Stability is the key. You buy earlier in life. If you buy a house and it won't be paid off until after you're 65, you're probably in trouble as you likely will never have much money to put back other than what your employer may have with their 401K plan.
Click to expand...



Well it does help that I retired with a pension at 39 as well. I've been getting a monthly pension with medical benefits ever since I retired from my first career. Unfortunately there are very few careers where you can even hope to get a pension anymore.
 
I make sacrifices elsewhere in my life. I don't use credit though, I have 0 credit cards. I understand packing lunch, driving an old car, but I don't understand maxing a credit card.
 
Some people buy all the house they can afford and then hopefully the real estate market will push up the value. Then when you retire or your family obligations are less (even if the house is not paid for), you can sell this house and get something smaller and perhaps more suitable for your present life style. There is one guy in my neighborhood that lived in CA, sold his house when values were sky high, moved to TN where real estate prices are more reasonable. Pretty smart if you can pull it off.
 
Kitten Party said:
I make sacrifices elsewhere in my life. I don't use credit though, I have 0 credit cards. I understand packing lunch, driving an old car, but I don't understand maxing a credit card.
Click to expand...
Thought I was the only one without a credit card! My grandfather told me a long time ago....you don't have the money don't buy it. I held on to that till I got married........divorced the pig with over $150,000 credit card debt. Never again. It's a life sentence.
Joe
 
Life has never been about how much you make but how much you spend, and what you choose to spend it on....

I have always had a difficult time understanding our need for obsessive compulsive materialism.

I try to keep my life simple and my priorities in sight at all times.

Happiness and zero stress are what's important to me, and I can't buy either one of those things, but I can spend to the point where I will lose both of them.

If there's money to buy a knife great, if not, then I don't.

I need balance more than anything else....
 
I'm a college student. I worked for two years out of highschool in order to go to college without having to take loans. i work 15 hour days 5-6 days a week as a waiter. I decided to commute rather than get a dorm, and I'm living with family friends so my rent is helping with the upkeep and doing manual labor which I don't mind. They feed me, and put a roof over my head, I'd say it's a fair trade. My Ford Escape is decent on gas, I go through maybe $25 a week on gas.

With my job, I put 90% towards my school and gas. And the 10% is mainly for gas. And I'd save up for things like knives. So I usually save about $125 a week and that goes towards my knife addiction. But with my collection at 10 knives, I don't feel a need for a new one. My collection isn't super extravagant either. I own:
-SAK Fieldmaster II
-Husky Boxcutter (forget name)
-Spyderco Delica 4 FFG
-Kershaw Blur S30V
-Buck 110
-Ontario Rat 1
-Ontario Utilitac 2
-Spyderco Paramilitary 2
-Zero Tolerance 0350
-Cold Steel Recon
And a few fixed blades (mora bushcraft black for camping, DPX heft 4 was a gift, and a kabar Mark 1 partially serrated for general utility when I'm working in the garage and need a cutting tool)
 
JDX you are very fortunate to have friends who provide the necessities for you. Wait until you're out on your own. You'll understand that you are getting one hell of a deal. Make the best of it and make everyone proud that they helped you.

I finished 4 years of college with $500 total college debt. Pretty amazing in this day in age. It wouldn't happen today without huge scholarships to help. Parents didn't pay for anything. I worked part time during the school year and one or two full time jobs in the summer. Didn't do much other than work and sleep. There wasn't even time to eat really.
 
I think I might be the smartest one here. I married a woman who makes a lot of money! Lucky for me she is a great wife also.
 
Went to trade school to be a mechanic. Work hard, play hard.
Single, drive a cheap car (brand new Ford fiesta), cheap rent. Hunt so the freezer is full of meat, and I get to use my knives...
 
If I have the money now, I buy it as I may not have enough money later or I may not be able to get that knife in the future or probably the price will go up. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.;)
 
Make a good living, buy roughly one knife per quarter, and don't spend more than $400 on a knife (so far!). Works fine and Mrs. Happydaddy is cool with it. Easy peasy.
 
For the most part I sell or trade to get a new one. Holidays allow me a bit more spending money too. My other hobbies, guns and powerlifting also require money. We just built a new house and it has us stretched pretty tight for now, so like i said earlier, mostly sell or trade.

I graduated with a civil engineering degree with no debt and now work in supply chain, go figure! But I enjoy it and it pays pretty well.
 
That works. But what about the guns and ammo, fishing tackle, cars, toys, and so forth on top of the $1600 a year for knives? I don't spend that much in a year's time on blades; not even close if you want to know the truth.
 
22-rimfire said:
Yikes!! I would worry about it. I got a call by the government over a student loan that some one used me as a contact reference. They're trying to hunt him down to collect as he "ain't paying". The lad is totally irresponsible.

You are probably right with your earlier comment that many here are not as responsible as they seem to indicate in their post in this thread. :D
Click to expand...

The great thing about government loans here is that if I'm poor enough, I don't have to pay it back.
Just fill out the paperwork every six months confirming that I'm too poor to pay it back, and my credit score doesn't even get affected. :)
If that level of poverty continues for 15 years, the loan itself just goes away (the government pays itself back).
The basic thinking seems to be that if education didn't pay off for you, then you don't have to pay off education.

Bank loans are a different matter...those people will track you down. :eek:

Hopefully I'll make enough money to pay off the huge debt though; that would be best.
 
Actually, I changed my mind; all my knives were paid for by money I earned while working.
The debt is all due to things like food, rent and stuff. :)
(it's true"ish"...I did make enough money to pay for all the knives and then some during the period I acquired them in :D)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top