Any smart teens out there?
- Thread starter Willie-T
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D
Usually speaking, this is good advice that Willie has given us. But, for some folks it doesn't work. I just want to balance it with the reality that is our life, since God has taken good care of us, even when finances didn't work out.
Hubby and first wife saved for retirement.
Their marriage ended. She got everything, so he didn't have to fight over every little thing and could move on. She got the house, the car, the kids, (some fighting there, but she was the sort who turned kids against him, so rather than needing to reset their minds to reality all in the space of one weekend, he let himself be the bad guy for their sakes. Not saying that was the best decision, but it was a good decision at the time), the retirement money, and the bills.
He started at square 1 again at 31. We were married when he was 33. We started saving for retirement, and the wedding presents included stock for Mobil Oil, (a guaranteed to go up even in recessions kind of stock), and other smaller stocks.
On our second anniversary we had 3 months of income saved for emergencies, (the amount recommended back then), an every-day savings account, and @ $6000 invested. Two days after our second anniversary, John broke his back, leaving him out of work until the following May. (We didn't know what was going to happen then, but looking back, that's what happened.)
Two months later, Mobil stock split. Whenever stock splits it is worth half, by the very nature of stock, but twice as much. It also takes a tumble in the market because of the split. Two months after that, we were moneyless, so had to cash in the stock for less than it was worth when we got it.
That job he got in May, wasn't just his job. It was our job. We became group home parents at that very moment. (No doubt, God did this for us, and gave us what we needed at the exact time we needed it.) We walked into the room-and-board free job, with a dime in my pocket. Literally. It was May first, and our first paycheck would be May 15th. We had a roof over our heads, 3 boys to take care of in the group home, and food. But "food" is a polite word to call that stuff. It is the stuff states get for others who have nothing better to eat, so will eat it. For instance, we were given a 10 pound pork roast at one point in time. By then there were 6 boys to take care of, so it was one meal and leftovers, except, by the time it was done roasting it was 2 pounds, and a whole lot of grease emptied into a bottle to throw out.
BUT, my birthday is in mid-April, and Dad always sent me money for my birthday. We moved, so it took two weeks for that card to get to me. Enough money to last until the 15th, since we already had a place to live, and still had boys to take care of. (God in action again.)
John's back was in a brace during that job. It got better during that job. We had stored our furniture in the basement of that group home, but some of the boys destroyed it. Much more happened in that job, so we left in November, just in time for the holidays, with little furniture and one month to get a job and pay the rent for the next month. And we moved into an apartment complex with a broken furnace during a Christmas that hit 10 degrees outside, and the apartment manger had enough with restarting the furnace every hour, so took off for a one week vacation between Christmas and New Years.
AKA We started over again.
Within 15 years, we managed to get back to being middle-class, had another retirement savings account, 4 months income saved up, just-in-case, and bought our first house -- our only house -- with a mortgage that was 25% of our income. (Back then, the acceptable amount was 33% of income, but we already learned what could go wrong.) Oh, and John had a job with the federal government which also always meant "secure until you retire."
BRAC -- Base Realignment and Closure -- happened. The base John was working on was closing/realigning. (Three bases in Philly, and only one survived, so anyone from the other two bases, at best, could have a 1-in-3 chance of getting a job there.) But the base wasn't going to close for five more years, (phase out, but not close), so government paid workers to quit, and paid to train the ones who volunteered to quit, so for $18,000, (technically $25,000, but taxes came out), John was retrained to work on computer networking.
By the time he graduated in 1999, we had $120,000 saved in our retirement package, 6 months saved for what-if, and plans for new careers.
1999, the same year three gallstones evaluating my gallbladder, convinced me to get it removed, not knowing moving me off the surgery table as a slept would cause a pinch nerve in the middle of my back which would cause chronic pain from my lower ribs to my waistline.
1999, the year the computer field had to hire 300,000 extra workers to remove the Y2K bug out of every computer in the land. The year it was easy to get a computer job, but computer jobs that paid 20% what they were paying two years before.
2001, the year three jets crashed into three buildings and a fourth jet smashed into a field. The year the skies were closed over America for three days killing off many business because they couldn't ship fast enough or as promised. The year venture capitalism in dotcommers was discovered as a bad idea. The year the computer field dropped 300,000 workers no longer needed. AND the beginning of a recession because of all that.
2002, the year stocks plummeted. What was worth $120,000 was then worth $60,000. The year I finally won Disability and got my back pay for three years. Also the year a silent virus took over John's body. (Hepatitis C. It had been in him for 10-20 years. Then it had won access to his entire system.) He was too tired to work, but kept working. His bosses were scrambling to keep people with jobs, but they had demoted him to desk-jockey when he's the type who needs to do physical work, not sitting behind a desk. (I'm a desk jockey, so no put down to other desk jockeys. lol) They promised him back-in-action on Monday, but broke their word, so he quit. Little did we know he was already so sick, he couldn't get the energy to go to job interviews. (I thought he was that depressed. He thought he was dying of cancer.)
2003. The year we ran out of money, and had to hit our retirement account. After taxes and penalties for taking money out of the retirement account, $120,000 from 1999, turned into $38,000. John was diagnosed with HepC, and handed the prescription for the chemo therapy drugs the day we ran out of that money too.
We're still in this house. John is officially "cured." (There were 13 variations of HepC in the US when he got it, and only one kind -- 2B -- was curable. The rest would have meant feeling full affects of chemo for 48 weeks a year just to stop the liver from dying. John had 2B, so he was cured. A word not often used for HepC or cancer.) We did everything we were taught to do to ensure safe retirement when we were young, even when we hit middle age, but only one true security. God.
Most people will see what happens if they follow what Willie suggests. Truly. It works. This was just in case it doesn't, because even if it doesn't? That's still God's plan for your life.
I didn't want anyone else to feel like a failure because they tried it and it didn't work for them. We tried it and it didn't work for us. We are not failures because of that. We are still loved by God and are still adopted by the King of the Universe. We failed. He did not! And because of that, we are not failures because we've had lifelong lessons in trusting God when earthly security wasn't an option kept.
Just the other side of this.
Hubby and first wife saved for retirement.
Their marriage ended. She got everything, so he didn't have to fight over every little thing and could move on. She got the house, the car, the kids, (some fighting there, but she was the sort who turned kids against him, so rather than needing to reset their minds to reality all in the space of one weekend, he let himself be the bad guy for their sakes. Not saying that was the best decision, but it was a good decision at the time), the retirement money, and the bills.
He started at square 1 again at 31. We were married when he was 33. We started saving for retirement, and the wedding presents included stock for Mobil Oil, (a guaranteed to go up even in recessions kind of stock), and other smaller stocks.
On our second anniversary we had 3 months of income saved for emergencies, (the amount recommended back then), an every-day savings account, and @ $6000 invested. Two days after our second anniversary, John broke his back, leaving him out of work until the following May. (We didn't know what was going to happen then, but looking back, that's what happened.)
Two months later, Mobil stock split. Whenever stock splits it is worth half, by the very nature of stock, but twice as much. It also takes a tumble in the market because of the split. Two months after that, we were moneyless, so had to cash in the stock for less than it was worth when we got it.
That job he got in May, wasn't just his job. It was our job. We became group home parents at that very moment. (No doubt, God did this for us, and gave us what we needed at the exact time we needed it.) We walked into the room-and-board free job, with a dime in my pocket. Literally. It was May first, and our first paycheck would be May 15th. We had a roof over our heads, 3 boys to take care of in the group home, and food. But "food" is a polite word to call that stuff. It is the stuff states get for others who have nothing better to eat, so will eat it. For instance, we were given a 10 pound pork roast at one point in time. By then there were 6 boys to take care of, so it was one meal and leftovers, except, by the time it was done roasting it was 2 pounds, and a whole lot of grease emptied into a bottle to throw out.
BUT, my birthday is in mid-April, and Dad always sent me money for my birthday. We moved, so it took two weeks for that card to get to me. Enough money to last until the 15th, since we already had a place to live, and still had boys to take care of. (God in action again.)
John's back was in a brace during that job. It got better during that job. We had stored our furniture in the basement of that group home, but some of the boys destroyed it. Much more happened in that job, so we left in November, just in time for the holidays, with little furniture and one month to get a job and pay the rent for the next month. And we moved into an apartment complex with a broken furnace during a Christmas that hit 10 degrees outside, and the apartment manger had enough with restarting the furnace every hour, so took off for a one week vacation between Christmas and New Years.
AKA We started over again.
Within 15 years, we managed to get back to being middle-class, had another retirement savings account, 4 months income saved up, just-in-case, and bought our first house -- our only house -- with a mortgage that was 25% of our income. (Back then, the acceptable amount was 33% of income, but we already learned what could go wrong.) Oh, and John had a job with the federal government which also always meant "secure until you retire."
BRAC -- Base Realignment and Closure -- happened. The base John was working on was closing/realigning. (Three bases in Philly, and only one survived, so anyone from the other two bases, at best, could have a 1-in-3 chance of getting a job there.) But the base wasn't going to close for five more years, (phase out, but not close), so government paid workers to quit, and paid to train the ones who volunteered to quit, so for $18,000, (technically $25,000, but taxes came out), John was retrained to work on computer networking.
By the time he graduated in 1999, we had $120,000 saved in our retirement package, 6 months saved for what-if, and plans for new careers.
1999, the same year three gallstones evaluating my gallbladder, convinced me to get it removed, not knowing moving me off the surgery table as a slept would cause a pinch nerve in the middle of my back which would cause chronic pain from my lower ribs to my waistline.
1999, the year the computer field had to hire 300,000 extra workers to remove the Y2K bug out of every computer in the land. The year it was easy to get a computer job, but computer jobs that paid 20% what they were paying two years before.
2001, the year three jets crashed into three buildings and a fourth jet smashed into a field. The year the skies were closed over America for three days killing off many business because they couldn't ship fast enough or as promised. The year venture capitalism in dotcommers was discovered as a bad idea. The year the computer field dropped 300,000 workers no longer needed. AND the beginning of a recession because of all that.
2002, the year stocks plummeted. What was worth $120,000 was then worth $60,000. The year I finally won Disability and got my back pay for three years. Also the year a silent virus took over John's body. (Hepatitis C. It had been in him for 10-20 years. Then it had won access to his entire system.) He was too tired to work, but kept working. His bosses were scrambling to keep people with jobs, but they had demoted him to desk-jockey when he's the type who needs to do physical work, not sitting behind a desk. (I'm a desk jockey, so no put down to other desk jockeys. lol) They promised him back-in-action on Monday, but broke their word, so he quit. Little did we know he was already so sick, he couldn't get the energy to go to job interviews. (I thought he was that depressed. He thought he was dying of cancer.)
2003. The year we ran out of money, and had to hit our retirement account. After taxes and penalties for taking money out of the retirement account, $120,000 from 1999, turned into $38,000. John was diagnosed with HepC, and handed the prescription for the chemo therapy drugs the day we ran out of that money too.
We're still in this house. John is officially "cured." (There were 13 variations of HepC in the US when he got it, and only one kind -- 2B -- was curable. The rest would have meant feeling full affects of chemo for 48 weeks a year just to stop the liver from dying. John had 2B, so he was cured. A word not often used for HepC or cancer.) We did everything we were taught to do to ensure safe retirement when we were young, even when we hit middle age, but only one true security. God.
Most people will see what happens if they follow what Willie suggests. Truly. It works. This was just in case it doesn't, because even if it doesn't? That's still God's plan for your life.
I didn't want anyone else to feel like a failure because they tried it and it didn't work for them. We tried it and it didn't work for us. We are not failures because of that. We are still loved by God and are still adopted by the King of the Universe. We failed. He did not! And because of that, we are not failures because we've had lifelong lessons in trusting God when earthly security wasn't an option kept.
Just the other side of this.
D
There are only two good reasons to have a credit card:
-- To establish enough credit to be approved, if you ever buy a house.
-- When the stupid debit card was canceled at 2 PM on a Sunday afternoon during a blizzard and all you wanted was a ride home in a taxi, because the bank added a chip to their new cards, and promise it will get to you the next day, which turned out to be the next summer, and only after we went to the bank to get new debit cards. And all that effort, and sure enough, hubby's doesn't have a chip anyway.
(BTW, they really translates into legitimate need, not just that isolated moment. All those isolated stupid things guaranteed to happen to everyone once or twice. )
-- To establish enough credit to be approved, if you ever buy a house.
-- When the stupid debit card was canceled at 2 PM on a Sunday afternoon during a blizzard and all you wanted was a ride home in a taxi, because the bank added a chip to their new cards, and promise it will get to you the next day, which turned out to be the next summer, and only after we went to the bank to get new debit cards. And all that effort, and sure enough, hubby's doesn't have a chip anyway.
(BTW, they really translates into legitimate need, not just that isolated moment. All those isolated stupid things guaranteed to happen to everyone once or twice. )