I made two different decisions that worked out well. I bought a LTC Policy as a retirement option the same month I retired. The plan will pay 113 dollars a day with no time limit or maximum payout limit. The second was selling my large home and investing the proceeds with ???????? I am currently paying for my Assisted Living with current retirement income and LTC insurance with ???????? assets as a backup.
1) Joined my company's savings plan when I was first hired. They matched my contributions up to 7%, so "free money." I contributed the maximum allowable to that account, deducted automatically from my pay...I just let it rock along. It was quite the happy surprise after 28 years when I took early retirement. I had bought stocks which split a few times plus all dividends were deposited back into the account. 2) Married a man with financial goals similar to my own.
Ok.........buying our boat. We both love boating. Other than that, my wife, with my name on the investment also, has done all of the savings/investing. I mean, just what could I do with making a measly $9 to $15 per hour wage? The $15 one came when I was 51 years old and lasted four years. IOW, my wife had financial goals when I met her, but I didn't make that kind of money, so...........
I never made any big financial decisions. It is fair to say as a high school dropout and not having too much smarts, I made less money than many of my peers and friends. I was fortuanate enough to have a roommate that had more intellingence than myself. I suppose the best financial decision we made was paying off our credit card debt and our house. That allowed us to save substanually more monthly and it added up over time. We have lived well in retirement and have both been happy with our financial situation.
It wasn't a financial decision at the time... I was briefly married and we split up just a few months after buying a house. I was making $5/hour but loathed apartment life. I did what I had to do to keep the house. The DC area was just beginning to explode, and it wasn't but a few short years before my house payment was less than most apartment rents. 30+ years later, the house ended up being a large part of my nest egg. I guess the other would have been shoving as much money into my employer's 401(k) account as I could afford to do at the time. But because of being house poor, I got a late start on traditional savings. That, and I tried my hand at my own business when I hit 40. It cost me money, but the personal growth was well worth it.
Investing in real estate. While my love/hate relationship continues with Austin, it has been very, very good to me.
My, that was a bit snarky. Let’s see....yup, there were a few in my family linage that did quite well for themselves. One was the founder of a major insurance company and another was a past CEO of the Ford Foundation whilst still another is a fairly well known heart surgeon and the list goes on. The thing is, I didn’t live on that side of the tracks and every dime I made I made on my own. Every degree I possess I paid for by working hard. Every major position I have held is because I earned it. No help from family. No help from the government. No help from anyone save God Himself. I’ve been on my own since I was 12 because my dad mistook me for a punching bag once too often. My room cost me 31 dollars a month and I paid for my own clothes, started at Arnauds Restaurant as a dishwasher and concurrently went to school and graduated high school when I was 16. The statement I made is absolutely factual. I do not WORRY about my finances. When I paid for a 120K home in cash, those were days when I worried constantly and had previously lost 2 wives because I was never home and always working. The best decision I have ever made was to quit worrying about my finances and just do what I have to do each day as it comes. Rich family? If you had a mom and dad you could depend on even if they were dirt poor your family was 100 times richer than mine.
Absolutely no snarky intent. I cannot imagine living a life where no time is spent considering, if not worrying about, one's financial state. I always planned my moves when it came to my finances, and I, too, paid cash for big ticket items, heeding my folks admonishment that if you can't afford to buy something, outright, you can't afford it
Each word, though synonymous, has it’s own psychological impact. Exercise / Training, Diet / Nutrician, Worry / Concern. One brings up a negative thought process and the other brings up the positive. I didn’t write that I haven’t nor am not concerned with my finances, I wrote that I do not worry. I don’t sit around worrying about things. I do something about it if it’s in my power to do and put aside that which I can’t.
I wish I was like that @Bobby Cole . I'm a compulsive worrier, and I like to project possible disaster scenarios to worry in advance.
Can’t say that I’m not a bit surprised Beth. You do indeed have some concerns that I hope I shall never have to even remotely deal with. That said, Yvonne and I are obviously into a lot of prevention and finance is part of that. If something comes up, we will probably be able to deal with it in a manner that doesn’t cause further damage such as what stress itself can offer up. A neurologist I knew said it this way. He said that if a person hurts their back, a physician that the patient has to pay for gives the patient a prescription that they will have to again pay for. Part of the prescription says they have to lay up whilst taking the pills and that starts another problem of being able to pay the bills whilst laying in bed which the patient starts worrying about. The longer the patient stays in bed the tighter the money flow will be and the higher the stress will be which causes the patient to finally succumb to the stress which will then need another kind of doctor they have to pay for and the wheels on the bus goes round and round. The neurologist finished up his lecture with some good advice. Invest in a heckova lot of insurance and / or a good bio-feedback course which will help out with the stress so a person can make good decisions that will be much easier to make. I took the bio-feedback course and am presently on medicare and VA health. No stress.
I'm glad that you feel you have stress controlled, Bobby. I hope you never have to put that biofeedback to the test by hearing the words "stage 3 cancer." Believe me, that stress will flatten you like you never believed possible.