When I was younger I used to think that the best thing I could do would be to buy a second home in Arizona. Why? Because some day I want to live there in the winter (aka: Be a Snowbird). I was convinced that a key strategy to my investing and saving for the future was to lock in a low price on a place
You know how I love reading about the trials and tribulations of lottery winners. Brad Duke is the example of someone that knew how to turn his lottery winnings in to a life long investment. Unfortunately most other people aren’t that successful with their winnings. Take Rhoda Toth as an example. She won $13 million 18 years ago and has long since gambled and spent
Congratulations to Frugal Zeitgeist for paying off her NY apartment. She managed to do it in 6 years, 7 months and 3 days with no huge financial windfalls. She took the route of sacrificing a few things along the way and applying everything she could towards the mortgage. I noticed that she refinanced a couple years in to a 15 year 5.125% mortgage which also
I have to confess something. More and more these days I’m finding myself thinking about what it would take to check out of the rat race. I don’t care about having the fanciest stuff, or the latest and greatest tech gadget. I really want to have the option to just do absolutely nothing as much as I want. I think it stems from a few
It’s done. I sold my 2006 Toyota Tacoma and am now driving a 2000 Toyota Tacoma. While it was a bit stressful to do, I don’t regret it one bit. The 2000 has only 55,000 miles on it and should last for quite some time. I ended up getting about what I wanted for the 2006. The check has cleared and the money is in
Everyone likes an instantly wealthy person. I have a special fondness for the newly rich. No, I don’t have a business proposition for you. Nope, don’t need a loan either. I just care about you and your pile of cash. I want you to be successful like my good friend Brad Duke. (okay, he’s not my good friend and he doesn’t even know me, but
If you are a long time reader of ELYM you know that I tend to make some rather “out of character” moves now and then. Usually these out of character moves have to do with automobiles. If I was smart, I think I’d just sell everything and head on over to become an Amish man or a Mennonite. At least in their culture, there is
So, one million isn’t enough for you, right? I know it’s not enough for me. I know I need much more than that. Will $2 million cover you in retirement? If so, are you on the right path to meet that goal? About how much money should you have at your age? Age 21: $0 Age 32: $77989 Age 43: $279236 Age 54: $798538
I always like to know if I’m on the right path and on schedule with my investing and saving. I normally keep a spreadsheet of what my net worth needs to be at various points along my journey. I use this as one of many tools to see if I’m making good decisions about saving, investing and avoiding purchases. We each have a unique number
I wish I had a nickel for every time this question has popped in to my head. I thought about this a lot more when my net worth was quite low and I had just gotten started. It’s hard to imagine that you are on the right path to retirement when you only have $10,000 put away in your 401k or IRA. So how do you
