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10/4 Marc515, We had a vacation place in Cape May and we did it by saving..We lived in PA and worked in Philly...
I continue working with Excel and in our younger years the program worked for my wife and I...As you say Marc515, they will soon understand their expenses compared to their income = too much for expenses.
We retired at 56 because we could. We are retired making a tad over $100k/year and climbing and saving $2,500/month.....Some families such as my brother and his wife believe that they each pay $25 for lunch and $25 is not a lot for lunch...Holy cow! ! I think it is $20 too much at the least...
My brother and his wife do not cook at all and he has two 10 year old 740 series BMWs....They are great cars but each drinks supreme gas and the cars are very expensive for repairs and insurance.....Also they eat out every day and night. He wonders where is his end of month cash is going...
I think that is a darn shame because each of them say they will not be able to retire like their older handsome brother/bro in law is doing...... On several occasions I went over their home to give them a few pointers but they just love to spend spend money they really did not have as income or savings.
Life is good for my wife and I and I still help others achieve a savings/retirement plan if they allow us.....Most people in Florida charge a good deal of dough and I don't take a cent....I tell them to put it in a savings or cookie jar for their future enjoyment.
Did you invest that money each month or simply put it into savings?
That's the trick. I started with IRA's back when I was 25. Every year both myself and my wife put in the max. For years we put other funds into simple CD's. Back in those days the interest rate was acceptable so I didn't lose much. but a good friend who was knowledgeable in financial areas showed me a great mutual funding source. As he was a multimillionaire I took his advice. A good balanced portfolio is the way to go.
A percentage went into those areas and grew at a steady rate. Yes there were some down years but unless one panicked and got out when things went bad you didn't lose much.
But I see many of my younger employees making a decent wage spending every dime on expensive toys and having a great time. Living a comfortable life is great. No one expects EVERY penny to go into savings. But when they NEED the expensive car, every new toy off the line and a bunch of vacations at the expense of a savings plan they will find it bite3s them in the ass in later years.
Not saying NJ is cheap because we know it isnt but those words above me are so true. A lot of people are in bad situations making a decent nut yet when you ask them what they spend money on you will hear.
Nails and Hair
"top notch" clothing
top of the line cars
50 million channels on cable
cleaning person?????
eating out
the latest and best gadgets
dumb thing for kids
tobacco
alcohol
over the top vacations
eating out lunch at work all the time
Dont get me wrong if you can do all that stuff good for you but just dont expect to have money left over because all those luxuries are very costly.
The op could have been written by me.
The only difference is I have 3 kids,my monthly income is 5000 a month. No savings either,no 401k.
$1,500 mortgage(4 bedroom)
$175 car insurance.
$350 car note
$110(internet and home phone)
$150(satellite dish network)
$800 (groceries)
$120(cell phone bill)
$20(gym membership)
$230(credit cards,student loans)
$420 gas and tolls(soon to go up by 50 dollars a month)
$40(school lunches)
Debt isn't drowning me,nor greed. I drive a cheap korean made car and my home is 1500 square feet.
Don't know where to move to and feel safe. The housing prices in the nice parts of northern NJ are outrageous,and I will not move to Camden or Newark.
I guess there aren't alternatives.
I did try to move out of state,but since nursing wages aren't universal I would have been making only $45,000 in Nc,which would have made Nc unaffordable.(and it was)
Only thing came from the move was the kiddies qualified for free lunch.
not too comfortable putting in all my account info and passwords
As I believe they say in their privacy policy, the way it links up to accounts is all done through the servers of the service in question (i.e. if you hook if up to a bank account, it deals with the banks server, so your username and password are protected by the bank's firewall. Also, you can't do anything with money with mint as in transfer it, you can just view it and see where you spend stuff, although you have to train it a bit i.e. tell it what less common things are)
Starting the New Year off right, too--took a shower earlier and discovered I have no hot water...will have to wait until Monday and will probably have to spend more money I don't have for a new water heater. That just adds more to the debt pile. Happy New Year to me.
Thinking about just cutting off cable TV totally for a while. Don't watch much TV anyway (usually--I did spend most of New Year's Eve watching the Twilight Zone marathon because I had nowhere to go!) I don't know where else to cut. Would like to not give up the Internet if I can help it.
My wife and I make a little over 100K. We don't smoke or drink (excessively) and we don't even have cable. I wouldn't say we "struggle" but I certainly don't think that we live the way people with our income and education level should be living. NJ is a horribly expensive state. Commuting eats into our budget, along with other general NJ cost of living. Everything is expensive here. I went to Vegas and remember people saying it was expensive there so watch out, but for me it was like going to a third-world country with Euros. It's true that you really shouldn't "struggle" on 100K in NJ, but I wouldn't blame anyone if they did. NJ is a horribly expensive place to live. I would recommend that the OP leave. Go to PA if the commute is doable. Even NY is better at this point.
The op could have been written by me.
The only difference is I have 3 kids,my monthly income is 5000 a month. No savings either,no 401k.
$1,500 mortgage(4 bedroom)
$175 car insurance.
$350 car note
$110(internet and home phone)
$150(satellite dish network)
$800 (groceries)
$120(cell phone bill)
$20(gym membership)
$230(credit cards,student loans)
$420 gas and tolls(soon to go up by 50 dollars a month)
$40(school lunches)
Debt isn't drowning me,nor greed. I drive a cheap korean made car and my home is 1500 square feet.
Don't know where to move to and feel safe. The housing prices in the nice parts of northern NJ are outrageous,and I will not move to Camden or Newark.
I guess there aren't alternatives.
I did try to move out of state,but since nursing wages aren't universal I would have been making only $45,000 in Nc,which would have made Nc unaffordable.(and it was)
Only thing came from the move was the kiddies qualified for free lunch.
I used to pay 1500 per month before going to NJ manufactures, you should check them out. I have never had a speeding ticket and my car is a cheap one, but I was still paying 1500, insane. You can also get your cell phone for about 75 dollars through ATT. If you have a planet fitness by your house they are only 10 per month with no obligation. Tolls and gas I can't really help. I thought our anti-tax republican governor would be against a 50 percent toll increase, I was wrong.
Does only one get to eat???? Costs that much for three to go east at Burger King one night.
it was 7 years ago. Now our weekly grocery for family of 3 costs between 70 to 100.
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