Today I went to lunch with a couple friends of mine. One is someone that I currently work with and the other is someone that I worked with for a few years until he retired last year. I’m only 36 but by talking to my friend, I could just tell I’m going to really love retirement. My goal is to get there at 50. My
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
Earl Crawley earns $20,000 a year as a parking lot attendant. Even with such a small amount of income he has managed to create a nest egg of over $500,000 in the last 44 years. If Earl is not an inspiration to you then you are a lost cause. You know those simple savings tips that you read on all the PF blogs? They can
I read an article on Salon.com about a woman who’s 30 year old son won’t leave home. Not only will he not leave but he also won’t help share the costs of living there. Every time the mother brings up the fact that she really needs him to help with the costs, he blows up and gets angry. She’s afraid of making too big of
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
Flexo over at Consumerism Commentary has a post about an 86 year old man who was doing some banking at a Bank Of America. The teller noticed that he had a high account balance (good for him) and recommended he talk to one of their investment advisers. Long story short, the man ended up being sold a variable annuity. He has to live until 2010
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 was talking to a friend of mine and she was saying that she and her husband were trying to decide whether they should try to pay off their house in five years or not. They currently have a 15 year loan and have an excess $3K plus per month that could be used to pay down their mortgage. They also have a couple of kids that are