I agree 100%. The only reason we have some of the nifty tech stuff is because my husband's job provides it for work. Otherwise, we definitely would NOT have an iPad for him. I am using a borrowed computer for work because the one I bought died on me in less than 2 years. I can't bring myself to go and purchase a new one when my boss can set me up with an old laptop that works just fine, right? We also drive paid off cars without most of the fancy new tech in them - shoot, mine doesn't even have a CD player. I don't have an ipod/mp3 player and still read real books. I hope to say we'll have 1mil by 40, but we shall see - we're 33 now, so we have a few years. We're just happy to have anything in savings right now. |
This is actually faulty thinking. $1000 for a new computer is not what makes people poor. Are there people who spend money where they shouldn't? Of course, but what enables someone to sack away $1 mil include things like 1) not having educational debt, 2) good investments (including real estate), 3) lack of catastrophic incident (illness, laid off, natural disaster), 4) good salary and benefits. Assuming that one has worked full time since the age of 20, you would need to make at least $50K/year (simplified math here, but you get the point) to earn $1mil by 40. The median household income in the US is about $52K. If your household lived on $52K/year, how much do you think you would realistically be able to save? |
I thought the point of the post was "If you'd stop spending your money on stupid crap, maybe you'd feel a little richer on your rather sizable household income" |
To 10:52, you underestimate the role of overspending in preventing people from becoming millionaires.
"Of course, but what enables someone to sack away $1 mil include things like 1) not having educational debt, 2) good investments (including real estate), 3) lack of catastrophic incident (illness, laid off, natural disaster), 4) good salary and benefits. Assuming that one has worked full time since the age of 20, you would need to make at least $50K/year (simplified math here, but you get the point) to earn $1mil by 40. The median household income in the US is about $52K. If your household lived on $52K/year, how much do you think you would realistically be able to save?" 1) Wrong, DH and I had $100,000 of educational debt 2) Investments: run of the mill mutual funds and our primary residence, no other investments; 3) lack of catastrophic incident - suffered two layoffs before we were 40 4) good salary and benefits - yes, we have those. Neither of us started working until age 25, yet in 13 years we went from a negative net worth to $1 million. We did it primarily by living well beneath our means (and #4). |
What was your income? That will tell us a lot. |
Your husband doesn't have a college degree and makes 75K a year? Wow - I just broke the 75K barrier (I make 78K) and not only do I have a college degree but a graduate degree too. And 10 years work experience. I'd say he's doing really, really well. |
To 14:17. what was my/our income when? When we started working, when we got married, when we became millionaires? |
My husband brought in over 100K last year with no college degree, but that doesn't mean he doesn't wish he had gone to college. So now we just concentrate on making sure our kids have every option available to them. We make a good living, but we want more for our kids, if they so choose. |
Glad he found a lucrative career that doesn't require a degree. My husband went from HS to the military, then took 10 years (well, 8.5 actually taking classes with a couple breaks for various reasons) to get a degree part-time while working full-time. I am so very proud of him for sticking it out and getting that degree. It was a sacrifice for our whole family (we had our daughter just as he was getting into his tougher classes), but no one can ever take that away from him. He worked with several guys as a gov't contractor who had years of experience but no degree, so while they were making good money, they really couldn't leave their current employer because any higher positions elsewhere required a degree. He didn't want to find himself in that position somewhere down the road. He is quite adamant that our children will go to college out of HS and graduate in 4 years. He really regrets that he put himself into the position of needing the military to clean up his act and not being able to do college the way I did. Like you said, he wants better for his kids (and obviously, I agree with him on this point). |
I cannot stand these self righteous people. This forum seems to be full of them. Yes, life can be hard. Yes, we do not all start out with the same opportunities. For some the only way to get a job is to get an education first, and the only way to get even that, is to take out loans, and then you find that the market plummets and there is not that much employment in your field, and the priveledged still pick on you because of your humble background. And when the market really plummets, everybody suffers. Do not walk around telling people they have been stupid because they became home owners. Jus shut up for a while. I would really like that |
As someone who never really understood how tax brackets work, this was a very helpful explanation. btw, I think our HHI makes us rich ($165k) but I don't feel rich because of the almost 20% of our salaries we have to sock away to retire semi-comfortably. My retired parents and in-laws have very generous pensions and health care for life from their former employers. We Generation Xers are going to be lucky to get a penny from Social Security, a band-aid from Medicare and on top of all that, no pensions. |
Yes, you are definitely well off. Just to be able to stash away such a large percentage of your income means you are not just getting by. I do not worry for generation X:ers. By the time they retire they will be in the majority (largest voting pool, too few children), so they can just vote for themselves all the retirement benefits they want, and the working people will have to pay for it. Mr Bush and his likes will be long gone when I retire |
I wrote that post. Glad it helped you. Part of the problem is that the retirement benefits enjoyed by our parents and our parents' parents were not a realistic, long-term viable situation. So, if we want to have the pensions and benefits our parents did, it's just not going to happen. That isn't the reality now and really shouldn't have been the reality now. That sense of entitlement is part of what has gotten us into the situation we are in now. |
Curious if you feel Medicare and Social Security are also unrealistic entitlements? Will our children be saying exactly what you say about pensions but about Medicare and Social Security? "It isn't the reality now and it shouldn't have been the reality then". |
And what about health care for all? Is that another unrealistic, non-viable long term situation? |