House almost paid off at 40 years old/ $300K (original mortgage) and HHI of $220K

[Anonymous]

Free undergrad, free grad school, 200K in handouts from mom and dad, and you're about to pay off a 300K mortgage in the boonies. I can't imagine why you don't want to brag to people in real life.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like OP has a life I wouldn't want. Sounds miserly.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure they've had tons of great experiences, theatre, ballet, wonderful trips out of the country, lots of good memories of wonderful things they've done besides scrimp and save and live out in the sticks and commute to work.

snicker.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I9:25 if you value your life experiences based on what you pay for them you will always be poor. Are we miserly if we prefer camping at national parks to staying at 4 or 5 star hotels? If we prefer to be super involved with our kids and spend free time watching their games/ biking/hiking with them. BMW - we have traveled 6 six times out of the country twice with kids and have great memories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I9:25 if you value your life experiences based on what you pay for them you will always be poor. Are we miserly if we prefer camping at national parks to staying at 4 or 5 star hotels? If we prefer to be super involved with our kids and spend free time watching their games/ biking/hiking with them. BMW - we have traveled 6 six times out of the country twice with kids and have great memories.

Yes, that's it. We all only value things for which we pay excessive amounts of money. I also like to pat myself on the back as often as possible, and to crow about how wonderfully i've saved OP'M. Now we can add your superior parenting skills to the mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've always felt that my peers look down at me and think we are poorer than we are because we are very conservative with our money. However, I just made another hefty payment on our mortgage and we own less than $30k on our house which is probably worth between $500-$600K. We live in the country so it's kind of hard to figure out what our house would sell for. We have 1.5M saved in retirement $200K saved for college and my kids attend private school.

My husband and I both have masters and graduated from school without debt. He is 7 years older than I am. We've worked really hard as we are both $100kish earners. We've probably received $200K in assistance from our families in adulthood (i.e. $10K in Christmas checks both sides) for the past 10 years.

I would love to tell someone IRL that our mortgage will be paid off this year but I know I can't as most of my friends/family live beyond their means.

Thrilled! Anyone else in a similar situation?

I don't think they're looking down on you for the reasons you think they are. If you're half as smug in person as you are here, they simply don't like you.

[Anonymous]

19:25 you assumed my life experiences couldn't have been that great because we are savers. Not sure how else I should have taken that post then money= the way you judge your experience. I never said anything about my parenting skills that is more judgment from you. My kids are still young so I try my best but I'll know for sure in 8 or so years whether they turned out okay.

[Anonymous]

Op, we are like you. We get $10k a year from parents, had $500k gifted to us as a down payment, had $300k inherited when I was 18. We are fortunate.... So are you. Just don't gloat about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always felt that my peers look down at me and think we are poorer than we are because we are very conservative with our money. However, I just made another hefty payment on our mortgage and we own less than $30k on our house which is probably worth between $500-$600K. We live in the country so it's kind of hard to figure out what our house would sell for. We have 1.5M saved in retirement $200K saved for college and my kids attend private school.

My husband and I both have masters and graduated from school without debt. He is 7 years older than I am. We've worked really hard as we are both $100kish earners. We've probably received $200K in assistance from our families in adulthood (i.e. $10K in Christmas checks both sides) for the past 10 years.

I would love to tell someone IRL that our mortgage will be paid off this year but I know I can't as most of my friends/family live beyond their means.

Thrilled! Anyone else in a similar situation?

I don't think they're looking down on you for the reasons you think they are. If you're half as smug in person as you are here, they simply don't like you.

+1

[Anonymous]

You're a smug brat. That's why people look down on you. You think you've done something because of where you are financially. Fine. However, you're in your current position because of extremely generous parents (on both sides) who were able to set you up financially.

Plenty of people would be further along financially if we didn't have the burden of an education to pay for or if we couldn't count on massive gifts from parents every single year.

Get. Over. Yourself. You aren't a special flower.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations, OP! That's a great milestone and you should celebrate, even if just privately.

[Anonymous]

You should feel proud, OP. It seems like you have been both very fortunate, and also have made wise choices that put your family in a place of financial security.

I'm not sure why you are being attacked. I gather that you posted because you are proud and happy, and did not want to gloat in real life. You just wanted to express your happiness anonymously. Good for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've always felt that my peers look down at me and think we are poorer than we are because we are very conservative with our money. However, I just made another hefty payment on our mortgage and we own less than $30k on our house which is probably worth between $500-$600K. We live in the country so it's kind of hard to figure out what our house would sell for. We have 1.5M saved in retirement $200K saved for college and my kids attend private school.

My husband and I both have masters and graduated from school without debt. He is 7 years older than I am. We've worked really hard as we are both $100kish earners. We've probably received $200K in assistance from our families in adulthood (i.e. $10K in Christmas checks both sides) for the past 10 years.

I would love to tell someone IRL that our mortgage will be paid off this year but I know I can't as most of my friends/family live beyond their means.

Thrilled! Anyone else in a similar situation?

Not in your situation, but take a totally different view than you on this. No way would I want to tie up my cash in such an illiquid investment. There's a reason real estate is a leveraged investment. Sounds like you've done well saving outside the mortgage, but you would have a lot more than $1.5 million in retirement if you'd invested the cash you dumped into your home into the market. Just saying.

Glad you're happy -- that's what matters. But please don't pretend like you were smart with money or something.