One thing that helped put discretionary spending into perspective for me was to figure our my NET pay per hr. Most of us know what we gross/yr…/hr, but don’t really think much about what we actually “clear” /hr.
I now think about how long I have to work to pay for anythinig I consider buying that is not absolutely necessary.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
quote:This is the best advice on this thread. As Larry indicates, it's not how much you make, but how you manage it. Here are my rules and some of them are going to overlap with Larry:
Originally posted by Cracker LarryIt sure isn’t easy being your age today. The job market isn’t great and the cost of everything is through the roof. Times are tough and almost everybody is struggling.
The best advice I can give you on bills is avoid debt at all cost. A house is about the only thing you should ever finance. Save $500 and buy a $500 car. Save $500 more, sell the car and buy a $1,000 car. Save another thousand, sell the car and buy a $2000 car. Work slow and work up. Pay cash.
Boats are toys, unless you make your living with them never finance a boat. Buy a $200 canoe and carry it on the roof of your $500 car, save a few more hundred, sell the canoe and buy a $1,000 boat. Cash only. Work up. 26 is young. At 26 I was working 2 jobs and going to night school.
Unexpected expenses will arise regular enough to become expected. Keep some money in the bank. Live on 2/3 what you make and save the rest.
As to life… follow your dreams, do what makes you the happiest and what you have the aptitude for and learn how to do it better than anyone else. The money will follow the dream. Have patience grasshopper
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
<> Don’t do debt. Even if you can get a 0% interest rate on a CC. All you are doing is stealing from your future. You have to pay it back at some point. Every dollar of interest is a dollar you could have spent on something else.
<> Max out your 401k contributions (15%) and forget about it. In 30 years you will have a lot of
All good advice. One thing I have come to find is that unexpected expenses and bills happen more often than you think, especially if you own a house and/or have a family. I bought well below what I was qualified for and when my friend who handled my mortgage asked me why I did not buy bigger, I told him I wanted a mortgage that I did not even have to think about. Not being hamstrung by a large mortgage has helped us through some tough times when the economy tanked a couple of years ago. Have someone else you trust help you gof through your spending. So many times things are easier to see from the outside.
Make a budget, stick to the budget, every month… forever
Ours has grown to probably 45 categories over the years and we budget for everything.
Here’s a very basic one
giving 10%
saving for retirement 10-15%
housing 25%
Food depends on family size 15-20%
Utilities (lights, gas, phone, internet, water,…) 10%
That leaves about 20% for everything else including cars, insurance, gasoline, and the list goes on…
The rules are pretty common with a lot of what you’ve read above
Give first, pay yourself second, shelter third, food fourth, everything else is just stuff
Boat drinks, Waitress I need 2 more boat drinks!
Some great advice here. The only thing I would add is too spend your time as wisely as you spend your dollars and avoid procrastination. Opportunities are often fleeting so grab hold and take advantage immediately. As you age time will seem to pass more quickly and become more precious as each year passes. You can very likely extend your time on this earth if you pay attention to your health and take care of yourself, but you cannot make more of it. That being said a happy life requires balance, emotional and psychological health are as important as physical health, so remember having fun isn’t always a waste of time. Not to put too fine a point on it but I have too reiterate. Debt is a trap, it can and often does enslave you, it makes your job a trap, for honest people it creates stress and too much stress over a long period of time will shorten your life. Building a life is a job that’s never really done but if you’re careful, thoughtful, honest and responsible it can be a labor of love and the rewards uncountable. Keep you head up and your eyes focused forward, it may not seem like it sometimes but you will get there.
Key West 1520
70 Yami
She’s little, but she’s pretty, skinny and fast.
quote:
Originally posted by Cracker LarryIt sure isn’t easy being your age today. The job market isn’t great and the cost of everything is through the roof. Times are tough and almost everybody is struggling.
The best advice I can give you on bills is avoid debt at all cost. A house is about the only thing you should ever finance. Save $500 and buy a $500 car. Save $500 more, sell the car and buy a $1,000 car. Save another thousand, sell the car and buy a $2000 car. Work slow and work up. Pay cash.
Boats are toys, unless you make your living with them never finance a boat. Buy a $200 canoe and carry it on the roof of your $500 car, save a few more hundred, sell the canoe and buy a $1,000 boat. Cash only. Work up. 26 is young. At 26 I was working 2 jobs and going to night school.
Unexpected expenses will arise regular enough to become expected. Keep some money in the bank. Live on 2/3 what you make and save the rest.
As to life… follow your dreams, do what makes you the happiest and what you have the aptitude for and learn how to do it better than anyone else. The money will follow the dream. Have patience grasshopper
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
A man after my heart! always trade up.
Leftovers from supper for lunch the next day or a couple of homemade sandwiches can save you as much as $10,000 dollars a year working 6 days a week. Just cutting out on a candy bar and soda a day is over a $1000.oo a year.
Your young and your hard work will pay off.
One little tip: Always remember you work to live, you don’t live to work. Those lines can get blurred. Some of the best things in life don’t take much money and some of the best fishing can be done from
Only a small percentage of most money problems are really money related. The biggest obstacle/problem is the guy I shave with every morning. So years ago I started listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio. His advice can be found at: www.daveramsey.com. His advice is spot on. He’s on 94.3 FM from 6 to 9 every week night. It works.
19’ Sea-Pro CC
“Swagger Wagon”
Yamaha 115 - 2 stroke
14’ CMF Skiff
25 Johnson - 2 stroke
14’ Heritage Redfish
“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.”
Ernest Hemingway
Make a budget.
Newspring Church(http://newspring.cc/financialplanning) and other places have budgets that you can do for free. I use theirs. They’ll also have budget classes from time to time and you don’t need to be associated with the church at all. Something to look into.
Also, I was broke now I’m not is a full of good info and resources for free.
http://iwasbrokenowimnot.com/
Most everyone says Dave Ramsey is good too.
Making a budget really helped me. At first it’s sad, because you’re clearly spending more than you make!
I’ve been working over the past few months. I’ve paid off my credit card and now I’m working towards my truck and student loans!
You’ve got high expectations for gray hair at 35…I’m not sure I’ll have hair at 35 hahahaha
My advise, is don’t sweat the the small things. Just be thankful to be alive. Cause tomorrow is not promised.
Very good advice right there ^^^
quote:
Rocks, Pebbles, Sand. June 28, 2010 at 5:23amA philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks right to the top, rocks about 6cm in diameter.
He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them in to the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The students laughed. He asked his students again if the jar was full? They agreed that yes, it was.
The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. “Now,” said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life.
The rocks are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children - anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed.
The pebbles are the other things in life that matter, but on smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, your house, your car.
The sand is everything else. The small stuff.
If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important. Pay attention to the things that are critical in your life. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. “Take care of the rocks first-the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand”.
Then a graduate student pulled a bottle of beer out and proceeded to po
Larry,
That is a pretty good story.Wow, seriously thank you all for taking the time to reply, 30 messages wasn’t what I was expecting! I have my head held high, I’ll make it! I printed out all of your messages and am going to read them all later when I’m off work. There seemed to be a lot of great information you all have shared. On a lighter note…
I WANNA GO FISHING! Aka…The ultimate stress relief. The grouper and wahoo bite here in Charlotte isn’t too strong. Thanks again tight lines.
Tyler Reeves
-Wishes Charlotte was 3 hours closer to the ocean…-
And finally, if you have to marry, marry the right one the first time so you marry only once. As Paul made a very good point to the Corinthians, so shall I try to make one with you. Every time my name was followed with “Petitioner” or “Respondant” it cost me a house and tens of thousands of dollars. I’ve been married so many times you’d think I was a polygamist.
The more we just complain…the more things stay the same.
All of the advice above is very good…I’ll add a few points. (1) you will be 50 yrs old before you know it! I’m 44 and 26 yrs old seems like yesterday. Invest in mutual funds while you are young and utilize your company’s 401k if one is offered. Maximize the company match every year. Time is on your side at 26yrs old, but if you wait 20 years, you lose all of that compounded growth (2) get rid of the credit cards, pay in cash. Too easy to get in trouble with a credit card. (3) Get term life insurance if you choose to get insurance…more bang for the buck. (4) go talk to a Dave Ramsey certified/approved financial planner and get your house in order. (5) Better yet, take his course…it makes sense. I just took it and while I’ve done a lot of things right, I had a few things that I needed to address. The course will open your eyes! (6) you will enjoy your car and your boat when they are owned by YOU and not a bank. Owing for a house is acceptable, but you should have no other debt. Save your money like the guys said above and pay for these in cash. Don’t worry about impressing your friends with your cars…they’ll be more impressed when you retire at 55! Cars get old anyway and they all look the same after a while.
Bottom line…it will take personal discipline and some sacrifice to get where you want to be. Don’t wait on this…make the tough decisions NOW and stick with your plan. You’ll be glad you did when (not if) you see your wealth grow. Being out of debt = FREEDOM! (Wish our politicians had a grasp of that concept…ha.)
Best of luck to you!
Billy Pittman
USCG Licensed Captain
—Team Pitt Crew–
Sailfish 236CC