Anonymous wrote:It will buy you freedom later. I am 50, making 3x as much, and I see the 25 yr olds in my office buying stuff that I don't buy myself (lunch out, pricey coffees 2x a day, new smartphones). If they just banked that they would be sooooo glad later. I don't say much/anything (old nag rag bag down the hall) but they just can't see it or stop themselves I guess.

Anonymous wrote:Keep doing what you are doing. Your savings and investments are your key to freedom and happiness. Don't become yoked to a crappy, high paying job just so you can pay for unnecessary things to impress people who don't really like you for who you are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did until our special needs kid necessitated private school tuition. But thank god we'd saved so much we can just manage this huge tuition bill every month using some buffer savings. But that's why you live under your means -- you never know what will pop up. And things do get more expensive as you age. Just dental work alone can cost thousands. By your mid-30s you can break teeth, need root canals, then teeth get pulled and all of a sudden you are into bridges and implants. Just one implant can be $5000 for a tooth. You will need/want your teeth. Long term health care, other types of insurance, it's just crazy what stuff costs.

So keep doing what you are doing and put everything you can away now. If you put it away now and later slack off at retirement you'll have more than the person who starts at 40.

Dental work is one of the most insidious and pernicious cause of financial ruin. I have never understood why this industry is permitted to prey upon society with huge out of pocket fees and the joke of "dental insurance". Premiums indeed pay for nearly nothing yet somehow, this goes on, unabated.

Anonymous wrote:We were doing pretty good until we bought a house and had a kid! Now the money just flows out like water.

Anonymous wrote:We do. Both our houses are paid off and we dress very, very conservatively. No one would ever know how much money we have. We do find the label whores extremely amusing, however. They are the same people who just HAVE to have this or that - and find an excuse - and just HAVE to have a new car (probably leased, dumbasses) every few years. Most of our money is "tied up" so that luxurious spending (taking whomever out to dinner because we live in a new house? Yeah, right.) is NOT an option.

Anonymous wrote:We did until our special needs kid necessitated private school tuition. But thank god we'd saved so much we can just manage this huge tuition bill every month using some buffer savings. But that's why you live under your means -- you never know what will pop up. And things do get more expensive as you age. Just dental work alone can cost thousands. By your mid-30s you can break teeth, need root canals, then teeth get pulled and all of a sudden you are into bridges and implants. Just one implant can be $5000 for a tooth. You will need/want your teeth. Long term health care, other types of insurance, it's just crazy what stuff costs.

So keep doing what you are doing and put everything you can away now. If you put it away now and later slack off at retirement you'll have more than the person who starts at 40.

Anonymous wrote:We do. Both our houses are paid off and we dress very, very conservatively. No one would ever know how much money we have. We do find the label whores extremely amusing, however. They are the same people who just HAVE to have this or that - and find an excuse - and just HAVE to have a new car (probably leased, dumbasses) every few years. Most of our money is "tied up" so that luxurious spending (taking whomever out to dinner because we live in a new house? Yeah, right.) is NOT an option.

Anonymous wrote:We do. Both our houses are paid off and we dress very, very conservatively. No one would ever know how much money we have. We do find the label whores extremely amusing, however. They are the same people who just HAVE to have this or that - and find an excuse - and just HAVE to have a new car (probably leased, dumbasses) every few years. Most of our money is "tied up" so that luxurious spending (taking whomever out to dinner because we live in a new house? Yeah, right.) is NOT an option.

Anonymous wrote:We do. Both our houses are paid off and we dress very, very conservatively. No one would ever know how much money we have. We do find the label whores extremely amusing, however. They are the same people who just HAVE to have this or that - and find an excuse - and just HAVE to have a new car (probably leased, dumbasses) every few years. Most of our money is "tied up" so that luxurious spending (taking whomever out to dinner because we live in a new house? Yeah, right.) is NOT an option.