250 a month for years Lisa on youtube with Bob

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What I did for SHTF was apply for a credit card. I got $10k in credit and $3k set aside to pay on it if needed. that gives enough room to stop and get work. Work on the road is very easy to get if youre willing. I got a host job in july for crying out loud.

I can assure you that 20-30 somethings on the internet often proclaim they have some grand work from a laptop gig. But every single one I meet out here are working gigs off coolworks or cutting marijuana or doing temp trade jobs; welding, fab, mechanical, etc
 
didn't say 20-30, said 40-50 range they are finding they can put their careers out there and make it work LOL

20-30 you didn't even truly have a time to make a safety net....bit older you had time to do just that if you knew what your path was down the line and what you truly wanted out of life. In fact we worked for just that :)

I hear ya on a lot of BS out there on what others do to make it work but many are making it work right tho.
 
problem is when they hit their 60s and have med troubles who pays for them.....me probably :) thru all the assistance thru my taxes maybe and they will have to take from society when they haven't worked for what they need to survive in later years.
oh well
fun when younger and don't care about the future cause you can suck off the system or maybe just work when younger to provide for your own future? are either right or wrong?


final thoughts are do what ya wanna, it all works out in the wash of it all LOL it all makes the world go round
 
I am 68 and still working but do travel to different locations and live the nomadic life 3 or 4 months of the year. My wife and I have done this the last 15 years. We have not owned or rented a house for almost 20 years. We do stay with our family a week or two a year. We make more now than we did before as we have Social Security, pension and Medicare. Like many I went in military service at 18 but unlike most I stayed 7 years. After getting out I used my veteran's benefits and worked 3 jobs to pay for college graduating with little debt but as a teacher didn't make enough to afford to live in a house and raise 3 kids living the "American Dream". We struggled for 25 years and after getting and overcoming cancer we went bankrupt. Again working 3 jobs, pooling resources and borrowing we were able to buy an old motorhome, qualify for a pension and work seasonally on the road. With minimum wage jobs were able to pay off debt and eventually find jobs with the National Park Service which had always been our dream. If I had known this lifestyle were possible coming out of service I would have probably done it sooner. Would we have been better off? Who knows? I think all those that wander are not lost applies in the case of those 20 year olds that live a nomadic life. Maybe it enables them and encourages them to develop the skills they need to make it work for them, maybe for many it won't but at least they know there is an alternative to the "American Dream".
 
agreed
one can't truly put a final scenario on what ifs in life :)

so it is what it is and how it goes down for all of us

darned if ya do, darned if ya don't, who knows? what if? such a big vague crapshoot in life for sure on how we travel....no 2 will ever be the same and it should not be the same in that variety is the spice of life
 
Most people do not want to take the time to do a completely accurate budget so it's almost always guesswork and they often include a
miscellaneous category.  A forum member, Blaize Sun, tracked every penny that she spent each month in 2016 and posted it on her blog Rubber Tramp Artist. Monthly expenses ranged from a low $300 to a high of about $1,400 but overall she managed quite well on a very low budget.  http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/category/spending-report/
 
Agreed on what ya said Elbear

but those who take 0 mortgage and if a ton of those do just that how many lose their jobs to support their families with no job cause the younger gen made that area of jobs obsolete?

nasty circle will hit this world and I won't be around to see this monster change but it is coming cause economics is forcing it to go in that direction....I think :) I could be wrong :O

When those putting the medium lifestyle don't put higher taxes and effort into the social services what devastating effects comes from those being cut off due to no income for the govt coming in? again a crapshoot and how life will change. it is gonna be frightening, no doubt about that.

Cause I agree, as many find another way to make it work for them long term horror comes from the broken system in place.

I still thin it is all about the money into the rat race as it was built and 'imaginary' function of that but when it does change and the shift is coming cause it must....wow down the long term pike of it all but I think those living have no choice but to find the best way thru the short term and the problem stems a bit of who cares truly of the long term for the planet and existence? but I guess we can't think that long ahead for most of us.
 
On food , often it can be free. Many communities have food banks. My town of 40,000 has three that I know of.
One way to get food even if your income is not low is to volunteer to help on the day they distribute the food. Often the volunteers get a couple of bags of groceries for helping.
On young people working while on the road, yes you can do OK, but rarely are you building a retirement. Migrant farm workers and contract labor do not usually get 401k's, ( if they even get anything put into Social Security). Your Social Security payment will be based on your 10 best years. If you plan on getting manual labor wages for many years, don't expect to land a job during the last 10 that will pay you great wages. You will be competing for jobs with much younger and smarter people.
Living in vehicles may be a solution for those that are not well prepared for their aging years, but if the young do not prepare for old age, living in a vehicle will not be an option, it will be a necessity.
 
ORANGE said:
But your 250 will give more frugality/ideas for folks. A special PLUS is that you ARE NOT IN THE WEST.

Give us a sneak preview before you fully publish. When I look at budgets I see 2 big expenses GAS and FOOD. GAS you rarely move, so that is something folks would have to figure out, how not to move around. Sit, Stay, Good girl/boy.

FOOD is something of course that I would like an early detailed preview.

Orange, I literally LOL'd at the part I bolded. :D
Yes, that saves me a ton. Gas costs me (very) roughly about $50/month, however that's the one area I hadn't been tracking, and need to dig thru my receipts.
When I get a chance, I will PM you some food details, but remember, I'm the queen of grilled-cheese-sandwiches & other ultra-easy/cheap meals. :)
I've even bought the dollar store "imitation cheese slices", which aren't as bad as I was braced for.
Pro Tip: the key is to pair the "meh" cheese with the Good Bread, and the real cheese with the "meh" bread. :D

I've exchanged some PMs with Elbear1 and he uses the term "day-to-day expenses" for the stuff we all have to pay for and can reasonably accurately plan & predict (i.e. excluding medical & repairs).
I like this phrase. :)
The numbers he shows above are credible.

Remember, my repairs have cost $6400, over a 9 months period.
That's a little over seven hundred dollars per month, so far.
The number one reason I've shared that figure here and in other threads, is to try to dissuade newcomers from buying old vans, particularly ones where the history is not well known.
There is a ton of bad advice on this issue.
Former member "JD GUMBEE" had agreed to work with me to create a reliable database of vehicle repair costs, however he was discouraged when nobody else offered to help. I don't know if that will ever happen, however I'm still committed & available (for about 2-3 more years) to do the backend parts.

Elbear1, thanks also for providing details of your vehicle insurance costs (and thanks HDR for the reasonable "catch").
I had to stay in town this weekend to do live server testing, so will be doing some phone calls Monday, including getting an insurance quote from Progressive. I'm currently with GoodSam, but they failed to honor their original quote (~28/month) and have been charging me about $42/month with no explanation (yes, I've asked, repeatedly). That's purely for liability, and I'm in the "dream demographic" (single female in my 50s, with excellent driving record).
I welcome other real "full-timer" insurance costs, particularly from my demographic.


Clarification:
I mentioned I'd cut showers & internet, and should clarify that those are both emergency austerity measures that save me about $40/month.
I will have to go somewhere south-ish for the winter, and have no idea what the internet options are, so may have to pay then.
Sponge baths aren't as cleansing as showers, however they're essentially free (water from Library, heat from Sun).
I do crave one! On my way south, will be travelling thru my legal domicile town (to pick up mail), and will get a free shower at their local rec center. I'm looking forward to that. :)
Will probably indulge in a Little Caesar's lunch combo pizza, as well. ;)


Core Concepts:
As I said above, I think very few would be comfortable living on the budget I do.
For the record, a quarter century ago I had a life shattering experience and decided to switch from "permanent" to contract work, mainly so I could spend half the year working on "cool"/challenging & socially useful projects.
Since I knew I'd have to plan for my own retirement, I very carefully analyzed real costs of living and committed to a budget of $200/month for food, clothing, luxuries, and sundry household items.
I've kept to that budget for most of my adult life.
I would not be alive today, if I had failed to sock away most of my income.
There's not enough left to get me to SSA retirement, however one contract gig would be enough to bridge that gap, and even my earliest (age-62) SS retirement benefits would be enough for my "day-to-day" and repair costs.

If you're in "sticks & bricks" now, experiment with cutting costs.
If you can't or won't, then hitting the road is unlikely to change your habits.


I feel that I'm content living like this, because my real Work is so satisfying & absorbing. :)
With the exception of my car accident year, for every year since the cyber attack that occurred after "9/11", I've donated between one and three thousand hours per year to several cybersecurity projects. If you're reading this on the internet, you've benefited from my work and my frugality. :)

As I said above, I highly recommend all potential dwellers (and others) seriously examine your lives, and try to decide whether you want to accomplish a lasting legacy, and/or what would genuinely make you happy.
Running off to NFS/BLM/etc land is not a plan for happiness, it's merely a change in location.


P.S. If there's any "Word Nerds/Geeks" reading this, who hate electronic spam and are of sound character, in the fall or winter I'll be recruiting such for mind-boggingly tedious non-technical word classification volunteer work, for a pro bono project that is used by about half a billion people. :)
It can all be done in small batches (by email), with just "Notepad" (or any plain text editor), and does not require continuous internet connection and does not require any other techie/computer knowledge.
PM me if you want more details.

There's lots of volunteer opportunities out there. :)
 
Guy, from your username, is it fair to infer that fishing is one of your passions? :)

I don't fish & don't grok it, however I've known many fishermen whose whole being lights up when they talk about it. :)
That's a point I've been trying to make: if you have a passion that fits in with dwelling, you'll be happier & it will be easier to be frugal.

Thanks for sharing your (perhaps passionately) frugal tip! :)
 
DannyB1954 said:
On young people working while on the road, yes you can do OK, but rarely are you building a retirement. Migrant farm workers and contract labor do not usually get 401k's, ( if they even get anything put into Social Security).  Your Social Security payment will be based on your 10 best years. If you plan on getting manual labor wages for many years, don't expect to land a job during the last 10 that will pay you great wages. You will be competing for jobs with much younger and smarter people.  
Living in vehicles may be a solution for those that are not well prepared for their aging years, but if the young do not prepare for old age, living in a vehicle will not be an option, it will be a necessity.

Out in the "regular" job market it is harder and harder to build retirement anyway. Many jobs that should be employee positions are now contract jobs. Might as well live how you want
 
Danny:
I agree with everything else you said - spot on! :)

It's nice to see you back. I've benefited from many of your posts over the last year and a half. :)
 
Kaylee said:
Danny, claims like this are very common (including many here), and I too was misled by them.
Here it is, straight from the SSA (bolding added by me):
https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/retirebenefit1.html

Very good. So having low Social Security wages for 20 years hurts even more than I thought. I guess I got it mixed up with you need 10 years of earnings exceeding $5k to even qualify for the minimum benefit.
 
When I was awarded SSD I was told that because I had worked during the previous 3 years to the application, I could not count those years as being years that I was disabled. It would be interesting to see whether my benefit would be higher if they HAD allowed those 3 years. Perhaps not, for the following reason: I worked TEMP jobs - a very few, maybe 3 or 4 at the most during those 3 years - because I needed the cash flow. In no way was I able to adequately perform those types of jobs like I was able to prior to disability.

It seems to me that those 3 years had something to do with being awarded a lower monthly amount. IDK.
 
DesertRose, did you apply for the "disability freeze"?
It just drops your low-paying disabled years from the 35.

Danny, that makes sense - we all get confused at times. :) And you didn't say the two year urban legend, which is one of the most dangerous floating around.
 
I deleted a couple of posts. one for being rude and the other for responding. let's keep in civil. highdesertranger
 
Social security is an important issue and one that is not necessarily well understood.  I recommend that people read the book "Get What's Yours" by Kotlikoff, Moeller and Solman.  Make sure you get the latest ("revised" in the subtitle) version. I am a bit frustrated by some comments about social security; people who worked in low paying covered (i.e. FICA taxes withheld) jobs receive a higher percentage of their income from social security than people in high paying (covered) jobs.  
 
Each person gets an AIME (Average Indexed Monthly Earnings) figure; this is basically your average monthly earnings indexed each year for inflation.  From this, a person's benefit is determined; this is your PIA (Primary Insurance Amount).  Your PIA is 90% of your AIME up to the first "bend point" ($895 in 2019), 32% between the first and second bend points (portion of AIME between $885 and $5,397 in 2019) and 15% beyond the second bend point (AIME above $5,397 in 2019).  The bend points vary each year and, for people who are not disabled, are determined when you turn 62.  

A person who turned 62 in 2019 would receive 90% of her/his monthly income from social security if her/his monthly income (i.e. AIME) is $895 or less.  Working those "low income" jobs is not pointless.   Your bend points are fixed (usually in the year you turn 62) and do not change.  However your benefit (i.e. PIA) increases with inflation.

Taking social security early (at 62) greatly reduces your benefit.  If you wait until FRA (Full Retirement Age), you get 100% of your PIA.  Since I was born before 1955, I get 132% of my PIA if I wait until age 70 to take SS.  If I had taken social security at age 62, I would get 75% of my PIA.  For a person born in or after 1959, taking SS at age 62 gives you 70% of your PIA and taking SS at age 70 gives you 124% of PIA.  This article https://www.physicianonfire.com/ssa2017/  discusses bend points, early retirement, etc.
 
highdesertranger said:
I deleted a couple of posts.  one for being rude and the other for responding. let's keep in civil.  highdesertranger
Mine was rude but the other wasnt? Cause youre from one perspective and not the other?
 

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