I got these from a forum on
Another F@cked Borrower. I may be smug about underconsuming, but comparing my family to that of another American family in a SFR is no big deal. There are still many things we could do, and although I'm in no clear danger now, I'd rather not have to rely on the grace of a divine power to get me through the Depression to come, and I'm dissatisfied with how little we save.My problem is that my family wage-earners are lazy, scatter-brained and overworked at the same time. The problem USED to be how expensive childcare was.
I can see now where the temptation is to have a maid service, an au pair, a gardener, a landscaper...
#1 live within your means. Get rid of the credit card if you can (I haven't had one since 1998, when I got into trouble with it and had to get a loan to pay off the debt). Consider getting an Amex card, where you have to pay it off in full every month. Unless its a medical emergency, chances are you will survive if you don't have a brand new x,y,z...
#2 Know exactly how much money is coming in every month and how much is going out. Sounds, well, D'Uh!, but I've been amazed when my penchant for magazines has risen to $20 a month because I've neglected to keep an eye on peripheral spending. BTW, if like me you love magazines, consider selling them on eBay after you've read them. Seriously. I have a small eBay business doing just that. I may not make much money, but it pays for itself. There's a lot of collectors out there missing that particular issue of 'Wired' for instance, who will be more than happy to take it off your hands.
#3 Drive an older car that you have paid for. My current car is a Nissan Sentra, almost 10 years old, 70K on the clock. It goes like clockwork and I make sure its regularly serviced. I love pulling up next to a 2005 Hummer, seeing the conflicted sneering/'what if they dent my new car' look on the drivers faces...The same goes for clothes, shoes, eating out, groceries etc...maybe I'm just contrary, but I don't see the point of buying from Abercrombie & Fitch, when there's something equally as nice at Target.
4# Stick all the pennies you've saved being frugal into Tax-free/high interest rate accounts and watch the compound interest grow. Americans as a whole save less than any other Western Country. Which is astonishing, considering the amount of people who come over here (my husband and myself included) to make money.
If I did these, and more, perhaps I'd be too involved and too comfortable to be bothered by the expectation that I and fellow in the black as well as the more fiscally conservative folks are to help bail out people whose choices are made from greed, fear, and innumeracy. (I hope the innumeracy isn't typical of public school education here.)
August 28th, 2007 at 07:55 pm 1188330924
August 28th, 2007 at 10:39 pm 1188340741
The last blog post was just six days ago. The comments/discussion numbers can run from 50-190!
Thanks for that link, PG. I wish I could read faster so that I could go back to day one on it. This whole real estate loan situation is going to have hard consequences on all of us, whether we are in over our heads or the neighbors 20 miles away are in over their heads, whether we are 19 year old renters in a first job after high school, whether we have been responsible to every penny in and out of our pockets, or whether we have been wildly irresponsible, whether We-the-People bail out institutions and/or individual borrowers or NOT! I do not have the imagination and understanding to foresee how badly it will turn out
And my being PISSED if I have to bail out people who "bought" houses three to fifteen times more expensive than mine might be only the tip of the iceburg of consequences. Recession? Depression?
August 29th, 2007 at 07:05 pm 1188414339