Originally Posted By onlyme ...and people still ask us, "when are you going to have children?" Hello?
Originally Posted By onlyme Well, without boring anyone with my personal life...sometimes 'mother nature' throws you a curve ball and you just deal with it.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal ^^^ain't that the truth, onlyme. I'm sure your life is blessed in many ways.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <As for those BMWs -- I actually get more of a chuckle about those Lexus-brand Corollas and Camrys that are parked in the McMansion driveways. I find it hard to believe that people pay a premium price for those cars. Sure, they're nice, but why not just buy the Corolla and save the extra money?< glad to hear that as I was starting to feel dirty heading into the garage. As for why not just buy a Corolla - I am 6'4" tall and 235 pounds for one - and secondly, I work 60-70 hours a week - do not gamble, do not drink ( any more) or smoke - and aside from Disney, cars are my only true extravagance so I do feel I earned it. I can afford it and if I truly could not afford it ( my kids and family are alwasy first) - I would not. I do not finance them. btw - when my daughter went away to college I promised her a car if she got a full scholarship - she did and I bought her a Toyota Corolla 3+ years ago because I am not a maniac with my money and recognize a good car for the money also. She has 50,000 miles on it and it has been bullet proof. But I will also tell you that the Bimmers I have owned, due to their very high resale value and the fact I keep them immaculate, are not that expensive to own. They also come with 4 year , 50,000 all maintenance and warranty work paid for...no expenses and after 3-4 years I change them out. . I agree with you on most Lexus models btw
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Hey, very similar to me. And yes, your a very smart man, whose wise decisions will pay off in the long run. There's so much crap that I want to buy, and could/can afford, but I try to resist. But, it gets very hard at times>> Our love of WDW turned us into savers. In 1991 we were like so many people... not a dime in savings and over 33% of our combined income in charge card debt. I decided at the last minute to take my family along on a business trip to Orlando. We had no money... it was everything we could do to dig up the money for airfare and WDW tickets. We were there just two days, spending one day at the MK and one day at Epcot. We ate breakfast in the morning at McDonalds before heading to the parks, had a bowl of soup at what was then the Tomorrowland Terrace for lunch, and had pizza delivered to our hotel room for dinner after we got back from the parks. Our only souvenirs from the trip were a couple of cheapie T-shirts from a tourist joint on 192 across from our hotel. But I fell in love with WDW and knew that the only way I could ever afford a Disney vacation done in the style I wanted was if we paid off our charge cards. So we did everything we could to pay down the debt. We received an inheritance from a great aunt which covered about 50% of it, which certainly helped (I'm no superman). By 1995 we had all of our charges paid off and established a savings account to pay for an annual Disney vacation. That worked so well that we soon established automatic deductions from both of our paychecks to accounts for home improvements and furnishings, a college fund for our daughter, and a retirement fund to supplement our future pension from the University. By the way… that is more than likely the only way you will ever save any money. If you wait around until the end of the month and then save what you have left over you will never save a dime… guaranteed. It makes budgeting so danged simple. Do we want new furniture? Take a look and see what is in the account. Our daughter's college? We paid for the whole thing without us or her borrowing a cent. A great Disney vacation? Pull out the vacation money and engage in GUILT FREE excessive spending! Once we got into this habit we discovered that the thrill of much of what we bought was pretty short term anyway. You buy a new car and 6 months later it is just the way you get to work. You buy a new TV and find that HGTV is really no better on a 32" set than it was on a 26" one. And the number one thing, and frankly the hardest to get over... Are we buying this because WE REALLY WANT IT or because we want to impress our friends or family or neighbors? You want to know something? Your friends and family and neighbors don't really give a rip about what you own. If that is why you are buying it save yourself the trouble and the money. So our vacations are our big splurge... Disney and non-Disney. We discovered that we enjoy our vacations more than we enjoy "new stuff", so we put a bunch of money into our vacation fund and have guilt-free vacations where we splurge more than a little. This may not work for everyone, but it certainly works for us.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy <Well, without boring anyone with my personal life> Hey, I'm all for readin' True Life Accounts of LPers here. ;-)
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy <sometimes 'mother nature' throws you a curve ball and you just deal with it.> And unfortunately, we all go through Life Curve Balls...
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <This may not work for everyone, but it certainly works for us. < the part I mainly agree with is the have the money you are going to save removed from your paychecks - which is why 401K's work well for me. Take that 12% out up front and it's like I never had it. Add the company match portion and it really is a great way to save. I agree with if you wait until the end of the month to put money away, it won't happen ( at least I know for myself it likeyl wouldn't happen) -
Originally Posted By RoadTrip By the way vbdad... I have no issues with your Beemers or whatever. I imagine that modest spending on your income is probably somewhat different from modest spending on my income and I have no problem with that. My point was that at almost any middle class or above income level it should not be a problem to live within your means and save some money. I imagine that your Beemer is easily living within your means and would never question that.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy I would really like to learn how to save money. I should make that a goal for this year.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy Say, grab me a double cheeseburger when ya get your Mac, eh? ;-)
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< My point was that at almost any middle class or above income level it should not be a problem to live within your means and save some money. >>> Ah, but a surprisingly large number of people in this income category do not do so.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <My point was that at almost any middle class or above income level it should not be a problem to live within your means and save some money. I imagine that your Beemer is easily living within your means and would never question that. < wasn't any one post I was responding too - but thanks for nice words- it just seems like when extravagance comes up in a car it's alwats a Beemer - just wondering why. Also I still consider it a over expense - but it's also why I stick to 3 Series - heck even an M3 less than a Z06 Corvette now..and about the same as a fully loaded Cadillac SUV - but my point is that it is one of my few extravagances. I live in a nice area like you do, but could have moved up 10 years ago to the McMansion area - chose not to, I liked the people better where I live today and at 3200 sw ft just didnt see why I needed 4000 or 6000 or whatever, crazy. - I decided to go the DVC route instead ( and money of some property in Florida) - People making a heck of a lot more than me also live beyond their means in everything they do, and get in the same troubles as mentioned here. I like a few who have posted here have a 32" Mitsubishi tube as my largest TV - I just dont watch enough to justify a 60" HD plasma whatever so I have not bought one - heck I didnt even have cable/dish until 18 months ago when they offered a bundled deal that made it more worth while. While my kids have some Abercrombie level clothes for school , they also get stuff at Kohls....a time and a place for everything....lucky enough to nbe able to afford a little more, yet not going to teach them that everything is that level all the time. You remember I was a poor kid from the south side of Chicago, I believe I have still kept perspective. So I advocate living within ones means as many posters here said 100%, it doesn't matter what tax bracket one is in. And try to put away something before taxes so that you never see it, it make sit easier to not do that impulse buy IMHO. I was just curious as to why it was always BMW and not LEXUS / Infiniti / MB etc -- where the rep came from ? Kind of a marketing survey and also to show a few posters that every person driving a BMW is not frivolous and 1 check from bankruptcy..
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA So, given that we have only one car [not a BMW], and live in a very modest home, and that I'm one of the most humble people that I know, and I give money to homeless people standing on the corner... Can I justify getting a new mac? With a 24 inch screen? What about a new iPhone?
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <As for why not just buy a Corolla - I am 6'4" tall and 235 pounds for one -> My spouse is 6'7" and 290, so he can't drive a small car either. But when the time came for a new one, surprisingly, the design of many full-size cars didn't accommodate him well either. Do you know what we ended up with? A mid-sized Nissan Altima. Just the way it's designed fits him great. As soon as he sat down in it, he was like "this is the one. This is my car." (Which doesn't make for great haggling when the salesman overhears that.)
Originally Posted By jonvn "What about a new iPhone?" They don't have built in GPS. For the price they are charging? Not worth it.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <So, given that we have only one car [not a BMW], and live in a very modest home, and that I'm one of the most humble people that I know, and I give money to homeless people standing on the corner... Can I justify getting a new mac? With a 24 inch screen? What about a new iPhone?< uuummmmmmmm i phone ( in my best Homer Simpson drool......
