Any Dave Ramsey students?
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What a great question- April is financial literacy month- no kidding- since 2003 in the US. As a preface, its late, and I've been enjoying an adult beverage, so I may ramble, my apologies. I have listened to Dave whenever its convenient for the last 15 years. I actually saw the man himself in early 2004 in Owensboro, Ky doing a presentation on FPU. I have read: Total Money Makeover- Dave Ramsey, Retire Inspired and Everyday Millionaire- Chris Hogan(Ramsey guy), Love Your Life,Not Theirs- Rachel Cruze (Ramsey gal and daughter) and several other books on retirement/saving (Millionaire Next Door, I Will Make You Rich, The Richest Man in Babylon, The Wealthy Barber, The Latte Factor, and others). I have the knowledge, the follow through, not so much. Each book has its own twist on saving/investing- "don't buy Starbucks coffee, Work 90Hrs/week, save 10%-50% from your entire working career", blah, blah, blah. The Ramsey plan works, the hard part is sticking to it and getting your spouse on board, it is detailed in Total Money Makeover. Financial Peace University (FPU) might help with the spouse thing. My take- I am 50 y.o., have over $600k in 401k/IRA's, have been fortunate enough to have employer contributions/matches (on $40- $90k gross) throughout my career, never contributed more than 10% of gross, have not lead the Ebeneezer Scrooge life, decent home, garage, cars,etc., one divorce (ouch$), second wife works, she's retiring soon(with State pension). My plan is to retire somewhere between 57-59 y.o. and maintain our current lifestyle with some travel added in. As far as the '08/'09 downturn, patience is the key and the hardest aspect. If you could hold out until winter of 2010, the market had returned to pre-crash levels.
Now, y'all got me frustrated with my sitch. I need slam the big, red, shiny, candy-like button.
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Unfortunately, more and more companies are dropping pensions, though, which sucks eggs. But many are contributing more into 401k's instead, so that's something. So if your employer has a pension plan, you're very fortunate.
Very glad for you and your situation. Ours is similar, except for the books. Although I must admit I have not read a single book on money management. If I had, maybe we would have done a lot better. But 99% of it is applying common sense. Spend less than you take in. We didn't have kids and heirs to worry about, so ours was a whole lot easier to plan. I simply approached it as we need to rely on our own.
My dad retired from GM at 55, and my mom never worked, and while his pension and benefits were good, he never did much else, other than some life insurance plans and a big stack of U.S. savings bonds. I get that things were different in their generation, and I know Dad did what he could. With the social security and all that kicked in, they eeked out a fairly passable living. But I wanted more cushion for the wife and me. I don't envy rich people and we don't need an empire, but we don't have much in the way of money worries anymore. Plus, it's good to have a spouse that doesn't like to spend money, well, except on the dogs.
I never subscribed to any one plan, and fortunately at our goal stops along the way we were a lot further ahead than I calculated without sacrificing needs/wants. I did track the progress with a simple Excel spreadsheet graph so even the wife (who has no interest in plan development, but liked the visual) could see at a glance as to where we were on any given day. One thing that we've established now that we're retired is that we pay ourselves a set "salary" at our old paycheck timeframes and amounts. That helps to keep the habits in check, I think.
If you're bad at it or have never done it, getting a good handle on managing your money is a lifestyle change. It won't happen overnight, so don't give up if you find yourself forgetting or fall off the wagon temporarily. If you learn how to handle money and savings well early on, when you finally get to retire, your money management skills will already be automatic. And that's usually when it will benefit you the most. We don't have a need to cut coupons, but it's been a habit we still do. At the end of it, it will be what it is. Manage your budget, and then it doesn't matter how much money you have. Don't be afraid to spend money for things you need, but try not to waste it.
And don't forget to carve out a stash of funds for fixing up your G-body. Celebrate your success!
^^^^^THIS RIGHT HERE IS GOLD!!!! Obviously, anyone who has looked at the Ramsey philosophy it's give, save, then pay bills. It sounds SO much harder than it really is, but once all parties are locked in it's not bad.
I made some pretty horrible financial decisions early in adulthood, and am still playing catch up from said decisions. However, everything is managed differently now. The wife and I have separate bank accounts due to one of my old blunders as I don't want our money to get snatched again, but we have transparency and nothing hidden.
She knows my OT cash goes straight to the "Cutty fund" unless something else is needed around the house, for the kids, etc. I handle the finances, pay the bills, invest, save, give, etc and we can pretty much do what we want with the leftovers....for me that's finishing this jalopy of mine.
At this point in the game (44) I'm actually in pretty good shape but could have done better. If anything, I should have taken my dad's advice and started retirement planning much earlier. No previous employers have ever offered any structured retirement with the exception of my last one, who implemented a 401k literally the same day I gave my notice. So for retirement, I've always been on my own and really slacked in that area. Other than that, I still think I've done pretty well.
My wife's employer contributes some and she's been contributing over the last 17 years. There's a nice chunk there but no way we could retire on it.
She's still got student load debt (after almost 20 years) and what I consider quite a bit of credit card debt. Still, it's just hard for her to hear my advice without sounding preachy. I'm honestly not talking down to or scolding her. I'm offering to eliminate that constant stress. This just seems to be one area where she's uncharacteristically stubborn. Wish I could get her on board but probably never will.
But like I said earlier, big picture, the balance sheet looks pretty good. I'll keep moving forward with my plan and should have the house paid off in 2-3 years, then really start throwing the max at retirement. I figure I've got a good 20 working years ahead of me -- if I live that long.
My wife's employer contributes some and she's been contributing over the last 17 years. There's a nice chunk there but no way we could retire on it.
She's still got student load debt (after almost 20 years) and what I consider quite a bit of credit card debt. Still, it's just hard for her to hear my advice without sounding preachy. I'm honestly not talking down to or scolding her. I'm offering to eliminate that constant stress. This just seems to be one area where she's uncharacteristically stubborn. Wish I could get her on board but probably never will.
But like I said earlier, big picture, the balance sheet looks pretty good. I'll keep moving forward with my plan and should have the house paid off in 2-3 years, then really start throwing the max at retirement. I figure I've got a good 20 working years ahead of me -- if I live that long.
i found the cd series at a good will just wish i had the paper book to go with it. my wife and i both listen to it and i go by it's precepts my wife is getting there but she has a lifetime of habits to break. my house and car is paid off though now it is the medical bills.
My wife and I got really serious about saving once the kids aged out of day care and were in school most of the day. Saving for retirement is like weight loss. You don't pile on either burden overnight, and it takes an even longer time to unwind it. Like a marriage, it is a commitment that requires maintenance and tolerance when things don't go as planned. It takes dialing back your lifestyle and sticking with the plan. Otherwise the burden comes right back. Remember the TV show, 'Biggest Loser'? How many of those people have you seen since, back to their fighting weight? Saving is the same. It has to be painful at first, revising your whole lifestyle, but after a while, if you keep the commitment, you forget the part you take directly out of the paycheck and put into savings/retirement, because you never see it. Another forum to consider is 'Mr. Money Moustache'. Sounds weird, but this one more emphasizes the 'plan your lifestyle' approach. Granted, he and his wife were engineers before they decided to stop working for the Man, and of course, now his website earns a chunk of change for him, but his basic advice remains sound. Live. within. your. means. Quick solutions rarely work. Stay the hell away from tempting solutions like Amway and Nutrilife - you're making money for those who got there first. For me, the solution to breaking out of the rut I used to live in - joined the military, got a taste of what I did NOT want the rest of my life to look like, and had the box ripped of my head - the realization that it's a big world, if I can't make it work here, where could I go? I had a lot of dismal 3 am watches in the lower engineroom of a submarine to think about what I wanted my life to look like, rather than taking in the day-to-day. Read this all the way to the end:
https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html
Stepping off the podium...
https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html
Stepping off the podium...
ERLL wasn't so bad...unless you were in the North Atlantic and had to watch the "fog" roll in from the bilges. Oh, and also after midrats sandwiches.
Of course SSBN life was a tad more predictable as far as return home dates.Plan for the worst. Hope for the best. Unless your last name is already Jones, don't try keeping up with them unless you know you got more money than them. Set sub-goals for those cool cars, nice boats and fancy wood burning meat grills (although to a man these could be considered necessities).
Life is about choices. For about 4 steak dinners, I bought a modest barbecue grill. After that, the cost is propane, steaks, and a bag of potatoes, plus a bit of cleanup after dinner.
Surprisingly, I only felt seasick twice. I accepted a Skoal 'scooby snack' from the ERS while on watch and was violently ill after about an hour. Cleared me of wanting nicotine in my system. EVER. Second time was off the coast of Western Australia, too shallow to approach submerged. The round hull of a modern sub works great underwater, but watching the bilge water slide from side to side up and down the curve of the hull finally made me hurl.
Surprisingly, I only felt seasick twice. I accepted a Skoal 'scooby snack' from the ERS while on watch and was violently ill after about an hour. Cleared me of wanting nicotine in my system. EVER. Second time was off the coast of Western Australia, too shallow to approach submerged. The round hull of a modern sub works great underwater, but watching the bilge water slide from side to side up and down the curve of the hull finally made me hurl.
