mpruet
Well-known member
OK - time for me to opine… ;-)
It does little good to just have comments and posts moaning and groaning about what ‘they’ should do. ‘They’ won’t respond to those posts/comments. It’s much more productive to have comments and post about what “we/I” could do because you have total control about that.
It’s too late for folks in their 60’s to take significant advantage of compounding from their working salary. If you create a spreadsheet showing the growth of an index fund over 40 years, you’ll quickly notice that the biggest growth is in the last quarter. That means significant growth comes from letting time work its magic.
But starting late doesn’t mean that you can’t see benefits. I didn’t even have a 401K until the last 15 years of my working years. I had to go into major overdrive to reach my goal. Already we’ve seen some other posts about how to save money so that it gets some growth. That’s a good thing. But it really comes down to the same fundamental rules:
Avoid Debt at all costs: That means if you use a credit card, you need to monitor what you pout on the card and be sure that you pay it 100% off at the end of the month.
Be prepared for ‘Rainy Days because it’s gonna Rain’: Be sure that you have an emergency fund so that you can cover the cost of the emergency without getting into debt.
Wait for at least a week before making a ‘want’ purchase: If after a week of thinking about it, you might finally decide that it is a want, not a need.
When you make a ‘want’ purchase, be sure that it meets your requirements: I’ve seen way too many people that bought stuff, myself included, that didn’t really meet their requirements. Generally that will mean that they buy again to get somthing that does meet their requirements. That wasting resources.
When you do buy somthing that is a want, focus on quality rather than cost. Things having quality tend to last a really long time.
Things like these are totally under your own control, and can lead you to stretch what income you have significantly, including SS income.
It does little good to just have comments and posts moaning and groaning about what ‘they’ should do. ‘They’ won’t respond to those posts/comments. It’s much more productive to have comments and post about what “we/I” could do because you have total control about that.
It’s too late for folks in their 60’s to take significant advantage of compounding from their working salary. If you create a spreadsheet showing the growth of an index fund over 40 years, you’ll quickly notice that the biggest growth is in the last quarter. That means significant growth comes from letting time work its magic.
But starting late doesn’t mean that you can’t see benefits. I didn’t even have a 401K until the last 15 years of my working years. I had to go into major overdrive to reach my goal. Already we’ve seen some other posts about how to save money so that it gets some growth. That’s a good thing. But it really comes down to the same fundamental rules:
Avoid Debt at all costs: That means if you use a credit card, you need to monitor what you pout on the card and be sure that you pay it 100% off at the end of the month.
Be prepared for ‘Rainy Days because it’s gonna Rain’: Be sure that you have an emergency fund so that you can cover the cost of the emergency without getting into debt.
Wait for at least a week before making a ‘want’ purchase: If after a week of thinking about it, you might finally decide that it is a want, not a need.
When you make a ‘want’ purchase, be sure that it meets your requirements: I’ve seen way too many people that bought stuff, myself included, that didn’t really meet their requirements. Generally that will mean that they buy again to get somthing that does meet their requirements. That wasting resources.
When you do buy somthing that is a want, focus on quality rather than cost. Things having quality tend to last a really long time.
Things like these are totally under your own control, and can lead you to stretch what income you have significantly, including SS income.
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