I am a member of a couple of local forums in my town. Once in a while, people will make comments about me having a lot of money.
I just want to straighten them out.
I started work at age 12 and worked full time til I was in my mid 40's. Then i worked part time for several years. I have never made "big" money and neither has my husband. But no matter how much or how little we made, I always saved part of my money.
When I first got married at age 20, I was making $1 an hour. My dh was making $1.25 an hour. I saved enough money that year to put a down payment on a new house. We had very little furniture for years.
My second marriage ( I was 32) and I was working at a small savings and loan making $89 a week. (this was 1977) My new husband was making $4 an hour ($160 a week) We continued to save.
We moved to the mountains in 1984 and lived on our savings for an entire year while my husband built our log house completely by himself. (He lifted every log alone)
I got a job as a waitress making $2.01 an hour plus very poor tips and my husband began building houses for $7.50 an hour. My husband was always busy cause he always charged less than the other really good builders.
But the difference was, we continued to save out of every paycheck and then I began investing in mutual funds.
My husband makes decent money now, but our last two customers told us that he still works too cheaply. We got lucky with our spec houses. They all (six) sold quickly and for a nice profit. We have never spent one dime of the profits, we are saving them for the next spec when building picks back up.
So, you don't have to make a lot of money to have a nice net worth. It is not what you make that counts, it is what you KEEP!!
Me and Money
July 18th, 2008 at 03:37 pm
July 18th, 2008 at 04:03 pm 1216397019
Here is the calculator I used to find those numbers. http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
July 18th, 2008 at 04:10 pm 1216397404
I believe in it because my parents really came from nothing. Though my dad makes six figures today and does quite well, it is amazing to me the things people say. My MIL said to me on many occasions that she "had it much harder than my parents." I don't even know what to say to that! Last I heard she didn't grow up in poverty and put herself through college. She didn't move from small town Kansas to the most expensive area of the country. (She grew up there and they bought their house before housing costs were insane. My parents paid 3 times as much for their house a few years later, with their Kansas wages). OF course we live in an area rife with immigrants who turned nothing into wealth, so that is really the norm. I know many rich, but few who didn't work REALLY hard for it.
I can't speak so much the same. But I did definitely learn it is what we keep, not what we make, from my parents. In my 20s it has come to my attention often that people assume we make twice as much as we do. Either that, or we have had everything handed to us. I think it's a shame so few people believe in hard work these days. Hard work and savings. A large chunk of our current net worth comes from all the working we did in our teens and during college. When yes we were earning the minimum wage. Too many people would think, "why even bother?" & that is really the foundation for our current financial security. Because we always worked and didn't spend it all on an expensive car or a house way out of our reach. I am only 30, but I Can see the same principle buying us tremendous financial freedom at a very young age. & I assume it gets better from here.
July 18th, 2008 at 04:12 pm 1216397542
And Ima's point is valueable that you can become wealth while making less then the average. You don't need to make 200k to be rich.
July 18th, 2008 at 04:32 pm 1216398765
I've worked in some capacity ever since I was 16 (I'm 27 now) and saved 50/75% of my paychecks by keeping it really frugal and taking advantage of all the student benefits. My parents are immigrants who came here with 2 suitcases and now have a net worth to rival most of my friends' parents and I learned my money habits from them.
I bought my home when I was 23 with 20% down, and was constantly scrutinized by my friends who thought my parents bought it for me. When I finally bought myself a nice new car for cash last year, they all said it was because I got some kind of a windfall or an inheritance. They chose to ignore the fact that I was driving my gas efficient little highschool car for 8 years, while they were getting new car leases.
The same people that think you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, are ones spending recklessly and have nothing to show for it. They don't believe that all those little things we do really add up!
July 18th, 2008 at 07:54 pm 1216410869
July 18th, 2008 at 08:10 pm 1216411841
July 19th, 2008 at 02:37 am 1216435028
I remember an Oprah show where they had a woman who had worked all her life as a cleaning woman, yet she retired a millionaire. Her secret was very simple: She always spent less than she earned.
July 19th, 2008 at 03:29 am 1216438188
July 19th, 2008 at 01:46 pm 1216475207
July 19th, 2008 at 02:42 pm 1216478533
July 19th, 2008 at 03:13 pm 1216480391
No better way to say it, Ima!
July 19th, 2008 at 03:57 pm 1216483050
July 19th, 2008 at 06:37 pm 1216492627
Thank you so much for your blogging. You have truly shown what GET RICH SLOWLY is all about. It's a slow process, not an overnight one. Many need to read and reread what you blogg.
Thanks for your sharing of your experience in finances.
July 20th, 2008 at 03:07 pm 1216566430
July 21st, 2008 at 11:30 pm 1216683038
Your my fav blogger- and I totally agree, that it is what you keep that matters.