What’s the e best financial decision you’ve ever made?
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Anonymous
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Having only one child
Moving from Northeast to Dallas area, no state income tax and the weather is way better. |
Anonymous
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Saving as much in my 401K as I could and buying a house in my 20s. Part of that was good timing--we bought our first house right before the bubble in the 2004 and were able to sell at a decent profit (a lot of friends who bought after us weren't so lucky).
But, I will admit that a lot of the reason I could save money and buy a house had to do with family help. Not that my parents or in-laws have ever given us straight-up cash but both DH and I had our college tuition paid for, wedding paid for and I inherited money from a grandparent as a kid that I used as our first down-payment. My parents and ILs also provided a lot of free childcare over the years and they now live in beach resort towns so our vacation bills are low. I earn an OK salary but would never be able to max out my 401K if I was still paying off college or had high daycare bills. Worst decision was selling that first house. Even though we made money on it, we should have found a way to rent it when we bought our second home. It's a great rental unit in an excellent school district and we could have used it in retirement. |
Anonymous
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I don't view marrying or how many kids you have as being "financial decisions." Silly and wholly unhelpful answers. OP's question is what decisions did you make with your money?
The best decisions that we made with our money were (1) to fully fund retirement accounts from the start and aggressively and (2) take advantage of the DC area's top public school and state university systems and not throw your money away on private schools. |
Anonymous
Except you have to live in Texas. Let's hope your child isn't a girl who gets herself in trouble some day. |
Anonymous
Also, Dallas weather is not so great. It's generally about ten degrees hotter which may be nicer in the winter but brutal in the spring and summer. |
Anonymous
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Being born to upper-middle class parents who guided me and paid for college. (I know this isn't what you meant, but I find it helpful to remember that much or most of our financial outcomes are outside of our control.)
But to answer your real question, buying a DC condo for around $100,000 in 2000, then selling it for over $300,000 in 2005. (When I bought it, I was confused as to why my mortgage payment was so much lower than the rent I'd been paying.) |
Anonymous
My DC is 19 so no issue there and she goes to school out west. Honestly, I live in a town that is more diverse than any other I’ve ever lived in, both in the Boston area and in the Tri State area, the weather is fantastic, the politics are purple, technically blue in my town, I live 12 minutes from the airport, the weather is fantastic, drier than FL, the food is awesome, very diverse choices, the people are super nice and friendly, the state is open and has been open for the past year and our covid cases aren’t any worse than say California, people are living their lives, happily. It’s cool that you buy into the vilification of Texas from the news, but I’ll tell you, we all live in a 10 mile radius of our homes and the big politics don’t really impact day to day life. And my radius to pretty f’ing good. |
Anonymous
| Stretching to buy a house in 2009 during the recession. The lower mortgage has left us room in our budget to max out other investments. |
Anonymous
For almost the entirety of human history marriage was PRIMARILY about financial reasons (including political reasons to secure economic control). It's only during the past 100-200 years that we started throwing in silly emotions like love. Similarly, children were seen as a way to help feed to family. This changed drastically with industrialization, when children became more of a financial burden. Smart people absolutely factor in financial well-being in their decision to procreate. Most of you posting relied on a husband to boost your financial security. I'll be contrary and say that *not* marrying the love of my life was my best financial decision, as he had no discipline when it came to money and would have drowned me in debt. But since you PP think having kids is a foregone conclusion that no one has control over, I'll say my best money management decisions involved having a percentage of my paycheck auto-deposited into a separate savings account before I ever saw it, and becoming a career fed with a secure retirement. I have enough, will always have enough, won't be destitute, and won't be like Scrooge McDuck counting my coin with an empty heart because I pursued wealth at the expense of enjoying life. |
Anonymous
Summer is hot for sure. But I’ll take a 95 dry day in August compared to a 90 degree swamp day in DC. Spring is glorious. As is fall. You guys stay in your HCOL bubble where the winters are god awful and the people are bitter. |
Anonymous
| Buying chipotle stock at 42 dollars. Worst was selling at $160… |
Anonymous
See, this is where you give yourself away. You're one of them. Also, thanks to my making better financial decisions over the years than to live in Texas, I don't have to let things like state taxes dictate my life. That's sad. |
Anonymous
You sound like a kind of person I want to avoid--making gross generalizations about people. And I've recently lived in a "blue" part of Texas and it's not all that. |
Anonymous
Yet, here you are, on a DC-based website interacting with the DC folks you left behind. Glutton for punishment? Who's bitter again? |
Anonymous
Well, I was going to say marrying my spouse, but PP is probably right. Our best financial decision was delaying our first home purchase until after the 2008/09 housing market implosion. That and living well within our means, maximizing savings/investments and not letting lifestyle creep get out of control. |