Do you have savings to go without pay?

[MikeMcMann]

Best advice I got when I started my career path, was to take 1/3rd of every single raise or pay bump I would get going forward and put it immediately into investments.

Most people are living quite well on $X and then they get a raise to $X + $Y and they just immediately adjust their spending (trade in their car for a nicer car, etc) such that they get no real extra benefits from the money other than nicer stuff (car, vacations, etc) with no real pay back to the individual.

What I did when I first bought my first property was put that 1/3rd of pay bumps into additional mortgage payments paying down principle. i took a 25 year mortgage and paid it off in about 13 years that way. ONce that was paid off I put it into other investments and still do.

You will never notice doing it that way as you still get to raise your living standard with each raise, but you just don't spend every penny of it on things that don't pay back.

 

[Sasquatch Smith]

I do, doing pretty good the past couple years. Making good money and saving a good amount of it.

 

[ralphc1]

Even when I was still paying for my house, I always had enough savings to get by for several months. Once I paid off my house, I haven't had any loans and had several years worth of take home pay banked, as well as retirement accounts. I could have retired many years earlier.

I had employers that offered pension plans with matching funds but very few workers took advantage of them. I maxed mine out. We had people who dropped health insurance when we had to pay $7/ week.

 

[Milgrim]

yeah about tree fiddy

 

[My name is]

I can pretty much go indefinitely without a paycheck

 

[MaureenCretis]

In the past 3 years I completely changed my spending habits. All I do is save now, I rarely buy anything and when I do I almost always have buyer's remorse. Anything can happen at anytime and I ain't with being broke.

I was lucky to develop that sense when I was very young. I’m no Buddhist, but there’s a lot to be said about learning to not covet possessions.

 

[TeTe]

For sure. It's probably worth it with the way stock market tanks every so often to put a little less in retirement and a little more into savings.

 

[Lubaolong]

Yup.

 

[Clear Winner]

A poster I've not seen start a thread before comes and asks everybody if they've got savings....

Y'all didn't learn from the homeless fraudster?

 

[Plutoburn]

I was not born in Canada, but lived from age 13 to 33 there. And the thing I've noticed is that my friends were around my age, and their parents are the baby boomers. That generation really didn't really face any serious sudden economic down turn and had pretty decent economy right from the get go. So what happen is that they spend money very freely. If you grow up in that environment, it'd make you the same way. I have friends in Canada that are in their late 30s and think having a couple of months of living expenses is considered savings. I always thought I was a prudent spender in my group of friends, but when I moved abroad, the standard completely changed, in comparison I am now the one that spend money a little too freely.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

brb starting a GoFundMe for $500 for my emergency fund

 

[JAEGERX]

yeah i can go for a couple of years without a paycheck maintaining the same lifestyle

 

[HomeRun916]

Currently working on it. But no.

 

[neonbelly***]

Lol no. I just got a new job though and I'm gonna try to start being a responsible adult.

 

[boingyman]

 

[Jack Reacheround]

I did. But then we used it to get the house painted. And get a new front door.

But I also have a small emergency fund. It’s not much. Just $1200. That’s more for it one of my pets gets sick and needs some kind of procedure.

 

[Henry Swanson]

In addition to emergency savings in the bank I also keep 1000 dollars in cash hidden at home just in case I need cash for something.

 

[boingyman]

We have an emergency fund for our emergency fund for our emergency fund.

 

[kahiljabroni]

My wife and I could probably go about 2.5 years on our cash alone...we could go another 3 to 4 years on top of that if we cashed out equity in home, cars, retirement, bonds, etc.


It's funny how people always talk in terms of how much they make. ."I make 6 figures this year"!....when the only thing that matters is what you save. You should look at yourself as a business. Your wages are your revenues...you have fixed and variable costs to live, but the goal should be to make a profit each year. That profit is called wealth and it's what increases your net worth and sets you up for financial freedom.

It's just about being strategic and creative about keeping your fixed costs as low as possible. Don't have kids you can't afford...don't worry about materialism, and most importantly pick the right spouse if u plan on getting married

 

[TeTe]

In addition to emergency savings in the bank I also keep 1000 dollars in cash hidden at home just in case I need cash for something.

Please tell me you keep it stuffed under the mattress