411–420 of 478 posts
Being poor in general, during your childhood, scars you for life. It makes you penny wise and pound foolish, adverse to taking risks in your career and investments, can destroy your confidence in yourself, while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Habits that even after you remove poverty from your live, you still feel the the anxiety and triggers in your head.
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My wife grew up very close to the poverty line, with her parents always just about to lose the house. And she has this anxiety. (Edit: to be clear, she's a successful civil engineer, considered one of the best in her field locally and makes great money- she has nothing to worry about.) In order to help with it, we have a bank account that our bills come out of that has a little more than 6 months worth of all our bil…
Having a solid emergency fund is actually pretty wise. Maybe split some of that into something low risk like I-bonds. My wife has similar anxiety, and it took years of financial education to get her comfortable with the idea that we only need a month of backup, and can float the rest on CC until we liquidate other assets.
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Had this problem Easy solution take a few hundred from the bank and physical set it on fire keep doing it until you don’t care it’s illegal but it works
>take a few hundred from the bank and physical set it on fire keep doing it until you don’t care That sounds bad. Why not give it to a homeless guy or to charity or something? >it’s illegal Honestly, the central banks can go to hell. They can print way more money than you can ever burn, which they do, even far too much of it, bringing us to where we are today.
there can’t be any value
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> I don't make 12 trips a day to stores/friends/whatever when I can just make one or two Forget gas: This type behavior is a waste of time! The most precious resource of all.
I do this all the time, but I walk everywhere so I just see the trips as extra exercise time.
It's more that abundance in formative years spoils you for life.
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How is this not logical or financially wise ? It is common advice to have an emergency fund equal to several months of expenses in cash. What is the alternative ? Having no emergency fund?
Several months is excessive. Even if you think you might going to spend six months with no income, you don't need six months' expenses in cash - one month's worth in instant access savings (or, sure, half in savings and half in cash under the matress, just in case), two months' in one months' notice savings, and three months' worth in three months' notice savings works just as well and will get you a better return.
In the USA unexpected expenses (beyond monthly savings) can completely wipe a three month savings in a heartbeat.
Add to that getting laid off during a recession and you’re in for real pain.
I guess it’s just been 12 years since people ever had to deal with a bad economy.
I was a kid during both oil shocks of the 1970s. That has absolutely nothing to do with my driving. What does, and not just for driving, is the family taught cultural value of 'don't be wasteful'. So unlike so many people today, I don't make 12 trips a day to stores/friends/whatever when I can just make one or two if I actually think 5 minutes ahead. That applies whether gas is $1 or $5 per gallon. I also try to make…
This seems like a bit of a straw man. I live in a pretty suburban area and drive my car probably 2-3 time a week. I've rarely seen my neighbors, even the ones with a bunch of kids drive more than 2 or 3 times a day.
If you've known people that "make 12 trips a day" they might be a very rare anomaly, I don't think this is normal behavior from what I observe.
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How is this not logical or financially wise ? It is common advice to have an emergency fund equal to several months of expenses in cash. What is the alternative ? Having no emergency fund?
Minimum buffer / maximizing investments in ETFs has higher EV and depending on your time horizon and model, may even be lower risk.
Your strategy means that the best time to buy assets correlates with when your net worth dips then lowest.