Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
Wouldn’t you know it. I stick my neck out a bit and buy this second home. Further, I sink every nickel I’m making in to finishing the place. Then drama starts at work. I’ve been with my company for 6 years and was able to ride out post 9/11 while thousands and thousands of people got laid off. I’ve always been a high performer and shouldn’t have
I’m so close I can almost taste it. (Although, I’m not really sure what $100,000 tastes like). After almost 6 years on the job, my 401k is about to hit $100,000. I would have already hit the mark if I hadn’t scaled back my contributions to help offset our vacation home purchase (scaled back to 8% to get all the company match) but I expect that
I just noticed there is a new “millionaire in the making” that I hadn’t seen. Jeanette Courts is a divorced 38 year old mom who works for the Pentagon making 94,000 per year. Here is a summary of her net worth: Government Thrift Savings Plan: $107,000Roth IRA: $6,000Savings Bonds: $2,000Online savings account: $10,000Brokerage account: $1,000Other savings: $4,000Home equity: $190,000 Jeanette is looking good. I’d say
It seems like such an easy question to answer. Of course the answer varies from person to person, but let’s just say that you know what you need to have when you retire. If you would like to retire with an annual retirement income of $50,000, you are going to need to have roughly a million dollars at retirement age. This assumes that you are able
I have posted about this subject before but I recently read an article that did a good job of explaining this. A professor got access to a database of people that have been participating in a study for the last 25 years. It started when they were in college and now these people are in their forties. While the original study didn’t cover finances, it
The idea of not having a mortgage payment and truly owning my house makes me salivate like a dog standing over a nice medium rare T-bone steak. I’ve been prepaying on my mortgage for a few years to knock some of the interest off and pay my home off early. I’ve taken a very unscientific approach to paying the mortgage off early. I’ve simply added
I know what I think, but I’m curious what you would do in this situation. You are middle aged and wanting companionship. You find someone that is kind, funny, supportive, complimentary and attractive but their spending habits are horrendous. (See below) Dear Prudence,I’m in my early 50s, and this is my first real relationship in about four years. Good men have been hard to find.
It’s obviously not a secret. Everyone loves to spend money. The desire to acquire new things is so programmed in to our minds that it’s almost primal. Just go next door, or visit a relative, or simply go to the mall and “people watch”. Everywhere you look, people are either spending money, or thinking about spending money to buy things that they might need, although most
Everywhere I look I see opportunities to spend money. Some of them are tempting, but many others are not. Certainly we all have needs and wants. Recognizing how the “wants” can hurt you financially is a huge step in the right direction. Here are my top 10 ways to waste your money and after those 10, we’ll look at what you could have done with
I just read about a roadshow that teaches kids the basics about money. I suppose it’s a start. My preference would be to have a full curriculum in our schools to teach younger kids about personal finance. Since we don’t have that, I guess we have to be glad that at least someone is making an attempt to teach our children about money. This program is