by Tricia
If you are subscribed to my feed, I apologize for the weird things that may be going on. There appears to be a problem with my feed and I’m trying a few things to fix it. I activated something just now and some old posts are now showing up in my feed reader.
You may see more of that in the next few days as I try to pinpoint the problem. As always, I thank you for your patience.
I had a couple of your older posts show up as new items in my reader as well (just FYI).
No worries, glitches happen.
My response is not to brag or condemn. I don’t have any debt, but this is because I never buy on impulse. When I want something, I check prices first, online and in stores. Then I wait… to see if I REALLY need it. Sometimes I do, but most times I don’t. If you view my blog, you’ll see that I’m a energy conservation freak. So do I want to use the energy (physical, not personal) for the anything? I admit that I hate shopping, no, I mean I really hate shopping. Amazon makes it way too easy to shop, but again I wait. I have one credit card. All card offers, regardless of the great stuff getting the card will do for me, go into the recycling bin after I shred the personal info. My bank deducts my balance in full from my checking account. I almost never buy anything (including gas and food) with my card, if I don’t have the cash, I don’t buy it. I don’t use ATM’s, I wouldn’t even know how to use one. Some days I leave for work with $5 in my wallet, that’s it. I have a friend who regularly owes $45 grand on his card, “do you buy everything you see?” If I don’t have the cash for something, I don’t buy it. I pay cash for my cars. I drove the last car for 12 years and 210,000 miles, hence the reason I buy Toyotas. A coworker has a Chevy SUV and spends like $500 every couple of months to repair it, “but I need an SUV, I like being above cars.” Yeah and the mpg is great. I’d love a pickup truch, but how often would I really need it? How many days a years do you need 4 wheel drive? And the safer argument is specious. The last time I moved, I paid a friend $500 to use his van. He thinks he got a great deal. If I had rented a van, it would have cost me a grand, and if I had bought a truck, well, forget it. I rarely buy junk food. It’s way too expensive for what you’re getting. If I want dessert I bake it myself. True, I’m an old hippie, but instant gratification only lasts an instant. I heard my boss tell a coworker that to get a good credit score, you need to borrow money and use you credit card”S”. I have a crdit score of 790. Another friend told me that credit card companies think people who pay off their cards monthly are losers, well, certainly for the credit card companies. I don’t happen to have mortgage, but when I rented, people told me I was stupid because I was paying off someone else’s mortgage, except that when you take a mortgage, say for $100 grand at 6.5%, you end up paying the bank $200 grand. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t buy a house or take a mortgage, if you can’t figure out the best strategy to finance, buy and pay for things, don’t ask the bank, ask a friend with some financial sense. I describe my job as “excel serf,” I crunch numbers for a living, most people don’t have a lot of number smarts, do yourself a favor, don’t believe the common myths about debt and loans and buying stuff, find someone who really knows how to crunch numbers and has nothing to gain from you, just the hard, cold numbers. Done right they don’t lie, 30 years of doing this proves me right.
I agree with you Tom. Live below your means, save cash to buy cars (even if it means you have to spend extra maintaining the ones you have), buy cars that you know will last and give good service with high gas mileage, use credit cards wisely (no carrying balances) and pay off your mortgage early. I’d add to this always live on 80% of your income max and store the rest away into retirement and savings. Good advice.