Financial Decision Making

Well done old chap. Now if only our government could figure out how to what this guy has done.

 

It's defintely the way to go if plausible. He sure wasn't paying a mortagae and student loans doing so though. He wold of have nothing or little left otherwise. I also thought the comments on that link were pretty funny. One guy shows he read the first book and this dude wasn't living off of one salary and lots of supplements and loans were involved. Supplementing through loans is not advisable...

 

Like Blades, I'd like to see what his monthly expenses are as well. Hell you can blow $40,000 per year easily just on the necessities. Does he have a mortgage? What are his grocery bills? Last I checked, buying clothes for your children - who basically need a whole new wardrobe every season because they don't fit in what they wore the previous year - could get a bit pricey. I assume he has a car and pays for maintenance, or at least gas.

Then what about other stuff that a lot of parents do. Does he have a 401k plan? (Actually since he's a teacher, I guess a 403b would be the more appropriate question.) Is he saving up money for his kid to go to college one day? Does he carry life insurance? I know there is a lot of stuff people buy each year that they don't need to buy, but other stuff are unavoidable expenses.

 

A salary of $40,000 per year is reasonable for a teacher with four years experience (which is when his wife quit and they started having children). In the following six years his salary would have increased significantly. He's trying to glorify what he did and make it sound more impressive to sell books.

Bah -- I started at $40,000 per year and went to $65,000 over the span of six years while the ex went to college (we then divorced and I was a single parent on that salary). It's not hard to do it just takes setting limits.

 

To the originally quoted point, why is that people make such a fuss about people who are "tight" or "budget"? I've never understood why it is cool to make fun of people who save money.

 

That would mean, they have to learn restrain first.

But all in all a nice article. Makes you think a bit.
My own pack was never big on the spending. Those born early in the 80's witnessed the downward trend in our earnings and economics first hand.

 

Eh? How is supporting a family with over 3000/month wage impressive? Finland has generally higher living costs and that's about the median income in here. I know a single mother of three children who makes by with a lot less.

 

Right.
I still get picked on by friends and co-workers for my old Nokia N95.
Who rave about their iPhones and galaxy's.

Just as an example!

 

Man, what a cheapskate. Join the 21st century, and let the moths out of your wallet. You only live once.

 

Thing is, there are those out there who aren't just frugal; they seem to worship capital. For them, $5 unspent is reason for great satisfaction, not because that $5 can now go to some other deserving need or be saved for a rainy day, but simply because that $5 was not spent. These are the guys who are constantly shorting you on their share of the lunch tab in order to eek out some perceived advantage of a few cents, bumming cigarettes or other consumables so they don't have to buy them themselves, and driving 80 miles to find a gas station that's selling gas for nine cents less a gallon than the place around the corner from home just for the satisfaction of not having played ball with the "cheating bastards back in town!"

Those people are just plain weird and are deserving of great scorn, imo. If you're one of them, please understand that everyone knows what you're doing and dislikes you for it. If you think they don't have a clue and aren't talking about your weirdness behind your back, you're just fooling yourself.

Being senisble with your finances = good. Acting like a nutjob every time you have to get off your wallet = eccentric.

 

What's wrong with looking for a good price on gas?!?!

Mrs Bruno and I basically live off one salary -- we just had a financial planner (for $850!!! THAT'S INSANE!) tell us we'll have nearly $4 million when we'll retire if we keep saving at our current rate.

The Mrs promptly went out and bought a pool table. She's planning on buying a Mini Cooper convertable before spring as well....

 

It's a noted feature that people who went through a recession remain less likely to spend for the rest of their lives as they become used to scrimping. It'll be interesting how much of an effect the current recession will have.

 

I would think that it's really hard to compare Finland to the US in terms of cost of living, just because it varies greatly based on where you live in the US. If you live somewhere in the midwest, $30,000 would probably be a pretty good salary, but you'd be living with rats if you earned that income by any major city on either coast.

Just look at the discussion we had on housing prices recently. Blades said in Illinois you could get a single family home for around $40,000. Snook and I responded that in the Boston and Baltimore area, you can't get a sniff at such a place for under $200,000.