Anybody else practice the 50% savings plan? - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Anybody else practice the 50% savings plan? (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 3/7/2010 8:44:00 PM EDT

[#1]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I probably save about 80%

How? Unless, as others have said, you live in a van....or you have a high six figure income and live cheaply.

You might be surprised how easy that is to do in Houston. The downside is the threat of 18+ months of no job every five years, but that's the oil field. If you have a spouse with an OK job to carry you, you can do staggeringly well that way in the oil patch. I know lots of people with several million dollars in the bank and no debt at all because of 15-20 years of living that way. If you can put away $100,000 every year and get a decent rate of return, it adds up pretty darned fast. Make it $250,000 a year and you just need ten good years to lock up your retirement for good. You don't need to make $700,000 a year to save a ton of money in Houston.

ETA:

It isn't just Houston –– I know some folks with close to 15+ years at Dell who played it the same way.

Posted: 3/7/2010 8:47:51 PM EDT

[#2]

Not possible. Grad school for me currently and my wife just finished as well. Gotta pay those loans.

Posted: 3/7/2010 8:53:09 PM EDT

[#3]

once my kid is out of daycare age and into school next year we will be at around 50 percent. Daycare dosts around 9 thousand a year so I Only manage to save around 25 percent right now. Don't make a lot of money.

Posted: 3/7/2010 8:53:20 PM EDT

[#4]

50 percent is huge.

im lucky to hit 20 percent in a month, let alone a year

good on you

Posted: 3/7/2010 10:25:09 PM EDT

[#5]

I'm putting 22.5% of my paychecks towards retirement. When I got back from Iraq the first time I was able to pay off all my credit cards, and the car. I have not had a credit card since (except when I got one to pay for the MSAR).

Posted: 3/8/2010 2:26:11 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:

You might be surprised how easy that is to do in Houston. The downside is the threat of 18+ months of no job every five years, but that's the oil field. If you have a spouse with an OK job to carry you, you can do staggeringly well that way in the oil patch. I know lots of people with several million dollars in the bank and no debt at all because of 15-20 years of living that way. If you can put away $100,000 every year and get a decent rate of return, it adds up pretty darned fast. Make it $250,000 a year and you just need ten good years to lock up your retirement for good. You don't need to make $700,000 a year to save a ton of money in Houston.

100K is twice what the average American makes in an entire year.
Yeah, you can afford to live on half of 100K, especially if the wife is picking up most of the expenses.

Posted: 3/8/2010 5:38:57 AM EDT

[#7]

All I need is a nice CEO gig...and I too can put 90% into savings each year.

Is anyone accepting applications?

Posted: 3/8/2010 5:44:45 AM EDT

[#8]

I'm only saving 10% but that will go up after I get my debts payed off. I would get there a lot faster if I stopped shooting.

Posted: 3/8/2010 5:46:31 AM EDT

[#9]

I was on the credit card plan for a long time. I got those paid off and man that felt great. Never again.

In the last year I've squirreled away around 15 grand. That's a good third of my takehome. I'm happy with that. 50% seems a little excessive to me if your eating balony and driving a gremlin. If you dropped that to 40% and bought yourself a nice toy now and then I think you'd still be living well below your means.

Posted: 3/8/2010 5:51:36 AM EDT

[#10]

Putting 20% down on a house and getting a conventional loan pretty much killed my savings. I guess I should have just put 0% down and gotten an interest only loan and let the government bail me out/modify my loan for me while I sit on my fat bankroll.

Posted: 3/8/2010 6:00:45 AM EDT

[#11]

We live off what my wife makes as Director of Rehab, and bank what I make.

We are both early thirties and should be retired at 40, unless we buy another house somewhere.

Posted: 3/8/2010 7:21:17 AM EDT

[#12]

Like others have said I put >50% into guns, ammo, food, and other essentials rather than in a bank account. The food will always be useful and guns and ammo can be sold [for a hefty profit after bad elections] so I figure it's a better savings plan than leaving it where it can devalue from inflation or other government screw-ups.

Posted: 3/8/2010 7:24:05 AM EDT

[#13]

I'm self employed … the Government is entitled to 50% of everything I earn. I can only assume that when I need it I'm going to get it all back with interest.

Posted: 3/8/2010 7:29:16 AM EDT

[#14]

The wife and I were able to save about 40 to 45% before our daughter came into the world. We built up enough to survive a couple of years if we both lost our jobs.

Its definitely changed our lifestyle. We enjoy the holiday's that you get presents more, LOL. We learned to enjoy the smaller things more.

Posted: 3/8/2010 7:38:42 AM EDT

[#15]

I'm caught between two strategies:

1) Save as much as I can

2) Spend it on commodity investments (like guns and ammo, other useful hardware) such that I have something of value when mega-inflation hits.

Posted: 3/8/2010 7:41:16 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Early retirement? How about aspiring to a cushy six-figure government job where you never have to retire?

Here's a winner!!!!

I want to subscribe to your newsletter...

Posted: 3/8/2010 7:47:12 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
You should really read YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE by Domingez.

Souds like it would benefit you and what your are doing. It is a great book.

I liked most of that book, but the advice to buy US treasury bonds may bite you in the ass if/when inflation and interest rates rise. The bonds you are holding will not, they will lose purchasing power and if you sell on the secondary market you may actually lose money.

But indeed, saving up enough to generate all of your future income is a worthy goal.

Posted: 3/8/2010 7:50:19 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
Like others have said I put >50% into guns, ammo, food, and other essentials rather than in a bank account. The food will always be useful and guns and ammo can be sold [for a hefty profit after bad elections] so I figure it's a better savings plan than leaving it where it can devalue from inflation or other government screw-ups.

It's a risk either way. Guns and ammo are no less subject to devaluation than stocks or bonds. There is always the possibility that the value of your stash can be brought to zero with the stroke of a pen. Even in a favorable legislation climate it can lose valuable as the uncertainty of anti legislation declines and people horde less.

There is a huge opportunity cost to using a consumer product and treating it like an investment. I'd be willing to bet that stocks and bonds have appreciated at a far faster rate than guns and ammo over the past 50 years. In fact, I am 100% confident in this.

To each his own, but you are putting 50% of your effort towards a scenario that has a probability of less than 5%. Does this really make sense?

It's good to have a SHTF plan, but it is downright insane to not have a plan for if S does not HTF.

Posted: 3/8/2010 7:51:44 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
.............

Another criteria I look for is that historically the dividend has been going up. I look back 10 years and see what the quarterly dividend was and compare it to now. For instance, I like AT&T (ticker :T) right now. It makes more than it pays out, and its dividend has gone up from 0.244 (Jan of 2000) to .42 each quarter in the last 10 years. Right now at 6.7% yield its not too bad.

.................

I've looked at T.

Others you might want to research are CEL, CTL, & WIN. and some of the energy trusts such as KMP & TLP. They are not treated the same way as T, CEL, etc. so you should see if they are suitable for your purposes. They could be used for your 401-k or Roth to avoid the differences in handling them for tax purposes. To KISS, I put KMP AND TLP in my Roth.

Posted: 3/8/2010 7:56:17 AM EDT

[#20]

I wish i could save 50%.. between my wife and I, we save close to 30%, but we're also going to be debt free (cars and school loans) by the end of the year. 30k in the bank and almost debt free feels great. Boy I can't wait till I can put aside close to 50%.. holy shit it's going to be awesome

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Anybody else practice the 50% savings plan? (Page 2 of 2)

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