Sounds about right...
"I found the road to wealth," he said, "When I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep. And so will you."
Norman Oklahoma, post: 331160, member: 9981 wrote: The Richest Man in Babylon
An old classic. Available as a free pdf these days, or for a nominal amount at your local B&N. If you haven't already it is worth the read.
Thank you Mark very much, this book is exactly what I needed.
I am now trying to put away the FIRST 10 to 20% of every check that comes in, right off the top.
Norman Oklahoma, post: 331160, member: 9981 wrote: The Richest Man in Babylon
An old classic. Available as a free pdf these days, or for a nominal amount at your local B&N. If you haven't already it is worth the read.
Many thanks. I received a copy of this book about three weeks ago. Awesome read. I get excited when I think about the fact that a part of what I earn is mine to keep. Jingle jangle sounds good to the ears.
VA LS 2867, post: 330608, member: 1444 wrote: The debit card has the same protections as a credit card.
My understanding is that if you don't report debit card fraud within 2 business days, federal law allows the bank to decline to restore up to $500 of the fraudulent amount. Wait more than 60 days and the bank doesn't have to make good on any of it. With a credit card, the most you're out is $50 under federal law.
We use mvelopes. It's an online budget tool by crown financial ministries. Works well for us. I've also heard positive stuff about Every dollar budget -a Dave Ramsey tool/app that is supposed to have a free and subscription side.
jim.cox, post: 330796, member: 93 wrote: I take 10% off everything I get straight into long term savings - that's my retirement fund.
I just wish I'd done it right from when I started earning with a paper round when I was at school.
I've got my kids doing it too 🙂
I'm saving 7%. I like the sounds of 10 percent though.
When you want to buy something, ask yourself, "Can I wait until next Wednesday to buy that?" If you can wait, maybe you don't need it. Maybe you'll forget you wanted it by next Wednesday. I've cut my spending to almost zero and still run out of money. You have to resign yourself to being "Joe Pinchpenny."
mattharnett, post: 354859, member: 6458 wrote: I'm saving 7%. I like the sounds of 10 percent though.
When you want to buy something, ask yourself, "Can I wait until next Wednesday to buy that?" If you can wait, maybe you don't need it. Maybe you'll forget you wanted it by next Wednesday. I've cut my spending to almost zero and still run out of money. You have to resign yourself to being "Joe Pinchpenny."
10% MIGHT cover your medical expenses... 15% might allow you to eat also...
Your health has a TREMENDOUS effect when your in your "Golden Years". I have a friend who is almost exactly the same age as I am, and her medical costs are 9 times higher than mine. She has been investigating Medicare and says she as not at all thrilled about what she is discovering...
Stay healthy!!!
Jim in AZ, post: 354871, member: 249 wrote: 10% MIGHT cover your medical expenses... 15% might allow you to eat also...
7% put away when you are in your 20's will go further that 70% put away in your 60's.
Norman Oklahoma, post: 331160, member: 9981 wrote: The Richest Man in Babylon
An old classic. Available as a free pdf these days, or for a nominal amount at your local B&N. If you haven't already it is worth the read.
In 1982 I moved back to Ft.Worth to work for Metropolitan Aerial Surveys on the Richland-Chambers Creek Reservoir job. Around Christmas time, the other employees that had been there awhile started talking about the annual Christmas party and bonuses, both of which were new concepts to me, so I was kind of excited. During the course of the conversation, one of the old hands was laughing and asking the others if they remembered the time that the owner, Bill Gunn had brought in a box full of books called "The Richest Man in Babylon" and passed them out to everyone after the bonuses were handed out. He told them that if they would read the book and take it's teachings and principles to heart, that they would gain much more wealth in their lives than the bonuses that were being passed out. Naturally, most of the survey hands thought the book was about religion (which it isn't) and tossed it aside and never read it. They all had a good laugh remembering the incident. Except one man, he wasn't laughing about it and he allowed them to have a good time on Bill's account. I asked him about the book and he told me that he had read the book and he had adjusted his way of thinking and spending and was beginning to see quite a bit of wealth being built up in his savings account. He said the savings account being built up was great, but the best thing about reading the book was in the way that it changed his outlook on saving and spending.
So I bought a copy of the book and read it in a night or two and was impressed with the simplicity of what it was telling me. There are no secret formulas given for saving money or outlandish plans for getting rich, only common sense approaches to accumulating wealth regardless of how much or how little you earn. From that point on, I begin to accumulate money in my savings account and was not tempted to spend it. Several years later, I had my wife read the book and although she didn't think much of it, she agreed to my approach on saving and spending and 3 years later we had enough money for a down payment on a house. Once we spent the money and it was gone, it was amazing how fast it built back up in savings because we had gotten into the habit of wise spending and saving.
The only bad thing about the book, was that I had to constantly be buying another copy because the copy I loaned out to my friends never seemed to get returned. When my sons got old enough, I gave them both copies of their own and told them the same thing - that if you read the book and take the principles that it teaches to heart, you will be a much richer person than if I just give you money. Time will tell if they learned anything from the book, but I think I can already see the evidence in both of them that they did.
Budgets work wonders. For example I give the crews each $100 cash a week for gasoline and miscellaneous expenses. They turn in receipts and change.
And if they're realistic they not only work, sometimes there is surplus cash. What you do with the surplus can make a world of difference in your bottom line.
Cash is a perishable commodity. Invest in a good deep freeze.
Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover seems to be along the same lines as The Richest man in Babylon. It's all common sense knowledge that most of America has lost in this I want it now mentality.
Norman Oklahoma, post: 331160, member: 9981 wrote: The Richest Man in Babylon
An old classic. Available as a free pdf these days, or for a nominal amount at your local B&N. If you haven't already it is worth the read.
I'll give that a read starting today since it's free online.
Considering it seems to be about saving, I can venture to guess the richest man in Babylon didn't have a wife...
Rich., post: 403484, member: 10450 wrote: I'll give that a read starting today since it's free online.
Considering it seems to be about saving, I can venture to guess the richest man in Babylon didn't have a wife...
King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines and he seemed to do ok.
One of the easiest ways to screw yourself is to make a long term purchase for something that does not pay you back enough to make the payment for you. The interest you pay will eat you alive, no matter how reasonable that figure may seem at the time.
When I started borrowing serious amounts of money the rate was 18.5 percent. I knew people who were paying over 20 percent. Now, people would scream if they had to pay 8.5 percent.
My first home loan was at 10.95 percent. The alternative at the time for a conventional loan was 14.4 percent. Mine was a 30-year loan and fixed for the length of the term. After 8.5 years of payments I had reduced the principal by less than $500. But, I found the wherewithall to find a different lender who would loan me enough so I could pay off the original loan completely and drop the rate to about 9 percent, fixed for only three years. By the next rollover, the rate had fallen to a bit below 8 percent. I would have been far better off to have continued renting a home for those 8.5 years.
I made a purchase of some land about a dozen years ago amounting to roughly $80,000. Only about $55,000 was taken out in a loan. To pay off the small loan amount remaining and pay myself back for all of the loan payments and other expenses would take something like $115,000 today. However, that's not the true case. That land has paid me roughly $65,000 in income in that same period. I would need only $50,000 to break even and the value has risen to probably $150,000 today. That's a $100,000 net gain on a true $25,000 investment over 12 years.
It has, and does bother me when potential clients who have money are somewhat cheap when paying for a survey. I mentioned this to someone wiser than myself who responded that "there is a reason they have money". I think there are two ways to get money, one, by making a ton of money somehow, where spending habits aren't crucial to your well-being. The second way is to make a decent amount of money and be smart about it long term. Too many people, myself included at times, think they can afford something because they currently have the money on hand to do it. But when looking at things from a long-term perspective, accounting for retirement, uncertainties, etc. they really can't afford it.
