Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been reading The Millionaire Next Door. It's dated, but the principles and information still applies to modern times. You can Google the book if you want a synopsis of the main points.

This x1000. Go read the posts about people spending $20 or more a day on lunches and do the opposite. I still shop at thrift stores, use online coupon codes, and go to lower prices grocery stores and eat out maybe 1 time a month. We are wealthy but you would never, ever guess it.

Why on earth would you live this way of you are wealthy? Just to have more money in your bank account when you are alive and money to give your kids when you die? No thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been reading The Millionaire Next Door. It's dated, but the principles and information still applies to modern times. You can Google the book if you want a synopsis of the main points.

This x1000. Go read the posts about people spending $20 or more a day on lunches and do the opposite. I still shop at thrift stores, use online coupon codes, and go to lower prices grocery stores and eat out maybe 1 time a month. We are wealthy but you would never, ever guess it.

Why on earth would you live this way of you are wealthy? Just to have more money in your bank account when you are alive and money to give your kids when you die? No thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been reading The Millionaire Next Door. It's dated, but the principles and information still applies to modern times. You can Google the book if you want a synopsis of the main points.

This x1000. Go read the posts about people spending $20 or more a day on lunches and do the opposite. I still shop at thrift stores, use online coupon codes, and go to lower prices grocery stores and eat out maybe 1 time a month. We are wealthy but you would never, ever guess it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Max out retirement starting day 1 of a professional job;

Live below your means -- whether that's living on one salary/saving the other; or if you're single/or married but can't do the 1 salary thing -- make it a goal to save 25-50% of one salary at least.

And then what you save from living below your means -- invest it -- at least most of it.

Invest invest invest, even if it's $1000 here and $3000 there, it adds up. For example when I was at a job with a transit benefit, I kept track of how much I was saving by using company funded public transit vs. driving and parking each day -- subtracting out the days I drove anyway or took Uber. I kept track of the amount saved and every few months when that amount added up to $1500+, I threw it in the market. As I saw it, I'd be spending that amount anyway if the co. took away transit, so why not act like it's being "spent" now by throwing it in the market.

I think this is probably the most important lesson my (rich) father taught me. Invest every spare penny, and do it early. He help me set up CDs for any birthday money I got in high school. In college, he helped me set up a Roth IRA and offered to match any contribution I made to it, even if it was just a couple hundred dollars a year. I learned later that as long as I set aside something, he maxed my contribution...but I didn't know that at the time.

The other couple of things:
- Establish credit early on by getting a CC that you pay in full every month. I started off with a $500 limit on a card I pretty much used only to buy textbooks, but it set me on the path to an excellent credit rating.

- Always, live below your means. I guess this is corollary to the above...since I was taught never, ever to carry a CC balance.

Of course, all of these things rely on having a certain amount of money to begin with...and obviously most people's parents aren't maxing their Roth contributions. But even if he hadn't done that, I think just the lesson to invest was an important one. DH's father taught him about investing early on as well, and I think it really colors how we both think of things. None of our siblings have the kind of savings that we do, but they all live "fancier" than we do. In the end, it might not matter with the amounts we will all inherit...but at least in DH's sister's case, we've been able to tell his parents that we've already fully-funded our kids' 529s so they can set any money aside to contribute to SIL's kids college instead.

Haha I mean...it sounds like your secret is "have a rich father".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a preppy New England boarding school and the biggest difference I noticed is that people who are rich don't need to prove to anyone they are rich. If anything, they competed over who lived a simpler life. There were no BMWs on campus, though I'm sure at least some parents could afford to buy a new car for their high school kid. People wore a lot of LLBean and JCrew (durable but not flashy). I really liked this laidback approach and it rubbed off on me. I was not ashamed of getting hand-me-down baby clothes--I thought it was practical. I don't want to drive a fancy car, because I feel like it's in poor taste/flaunting one's money. And this approach for the most part does keep you from going overboard. We don't spend our whole pay check, but without that much conscious effort.

Also, my DH is good with finances, which has set us way ahead. Again, it's not something easy to replicate, because I for one can't force myself to care, but I do recognize that it works. He thinks about best ways of handling money, does some research, and acts accordingly. I can spend hours reading child care forums, but financial stuff is boring to me, and would be hard to do on my own.

I think this is really why rich people want their kids to be surrounded by the other rich, so that these good habits stick.

That's probably the local culture and is not representative of all rich or wealthy people, or even a majority thereof. You do what you want and what makes you happy, while at the same time don't ridicule others who choose to behave differently with their money. It just as inane for you to find it in poor taste for others to spend their money as others may shun your thrifty lifestyle. There is no right or wrong answer in this, as it falls down to subjective preference. As long as the spending is within their means, there is no negative lesson to be learned from rich people spending their money in ways that pleases them.

I'm the LL Bean poster and the reason I brought this up is because I think of it as a secret of rich people--not to care about consumer goods, whereas other people with much lower incomes are overspending on those items. All that spending adds up, becomes a habit, and then people never get a chance to put money aside or invest, and live paycheck to paycheck.

Sure, spending within means is fine, but I think we are discussing spending beneath one's means in this thread.