Consolidating and saving the Benjamins.

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
I know there is a topic discussing cutting the chord and such but figured what better time than now to call it what you want but "save money" "spend less" "be more conservative" "be smarter with your money" etc...big changes coming for the Taylor household and I will go as far as to say most likely every middle income family in the US(if not the world). If you feel inflation is coming, the diesel S&P500 may stall out and consolidate for a while(months/years?) and in general gas and commodities are not getting cheaper. How do we save and continue to live the "good life"? This isn't quite a doom and gloom post but more of a "at some point we need to pay off this debt we just printed and it's going to be in the form of inflation, higher interest rates, higher taxes etc" type of post.

Let's start with what some consider the new normal and I consider the new drowning of the middle class in never ending debt. We are moving to Middletown, Md at the end of December and it's a great opportunity to clean some things up. For me I'd generally like to spend less and change the meaning of what necessities really are. Last year we ditched cable tv. Somehow I feel like that didn't help as much as I thought as we now have an Amazon Firestick with subs to Amazon, Disney +, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock etc. What is a happy median? Is YouTube TV worth it? Is there an affordable, all encompassing package?

And then there is my bullshit. Where does it stop? Do I need a pay Strava account, Sufferfest, Trainerroad, Trainingpeaks, Spotify, Zwift etc? I just cancelled my wife's Retro Fitness account that she left unused since the beginning of Covid.

Life insurance policies? What is worth it and what is bullshit? Car payments? Do you need a new car payment or lease of is that just a status/luxury thing? I recently bought a Transit 150 to help with the move but in reality the thing eats gas. Thank the good lord for my 05 POS ghetto beater Corolla with 255K miles. I used to love custom cars and trucks because of the work, dedication and passion to build them and maintain. I'd still like to build a custom truck again someday but to TBH owning any vehicle with a "status" label attached to it doesn't interest me. I want my car to be safe, reliable and affordable but at the same time I don't care about 0-60, Apple Car, self driving etc. Will I save money buying a $35k electric car vs driving a $4k Toyota Saris? You get the point, a car gets me from point A to point B. Driving is not a passion or a hobby but something I am forced to do.

One last thing before the closing statement. What do we buy these days that is quality? Everything is disposable, Chinese junk . A fridge that lasts one day past warranty, an RC car that costs $125 and is worthless after one crash...hell, I even bought a white rubber made trash can for the garage from Lowes and the first bottle I threw in it shattered the cheap plastic it was made from. We did luck out(I hope) with the new house in that it is early 2000s construction by a local builder. It has real oak floors, stairs etc. We looked at some Ryan and Toll Bros homes and damn are those things overpriced junk. Crooked, poorly closing doors, cheap materials and shitty property excavation. This could be seen by sinking driveways, and front porches separating from the house.

Seriously though, we have some money saved, plus some retirement accounts but what do you do with it? Yea, I know the S&P goes up forever(until it doesn't). I may have been off on my market crash timing but I still feel it is inevitable. Where do you put money for a decent return now? Can I outpace my new 2.75% mortgage rate?
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Look at your monthly statements for the reoccurring charges. Cut out what you don’t need. So much subscription bullshit nowadays.

Before you buy something that you aren’t sure you really need, put it on a list. Check back in a week. Do you still need/want it?
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Spend where you enjoy - help the kids find their path. Embrace the local culture.

We saved quite a bit over the last couple years by not getting on an airplane and going on a vacation to someplace where it was
expensive to travel, stay, eat, be entertained. We did hike the local parks, grabbed some river tubes so we could float the raritan.
watched a bit more TV but when looking at $500+ for 1 airline ticket someplace (and there are 3 of us), that is a couple streaming services for a year.
(we did do a southern california trip in august, and emptied the the hotel and frequent flier accounts to do it)

i'm still riding the sp500. i think it has to drop then slow pace back, but so what? Still get rich slowly,
keep plowing it in, cause price averaging. I did put some post-tax $$$ into a NJ/USA tax exempt fund doing ~2.2%
so consider a md/usa exempt against your home mtg - I still pay a couple hundred extra towards my mortgage a month,
but that is almost over.

I drop $20/mo on zwift and strava - they both have training plans (if i were to train again) - so i guess you have some low hanging fruit,
but if you like all the cool numbers that the other services provide, and it makes a difference in the prep of something you love to do,
then you should spend where it matters.
 

rick81721

Lothar
Seriously, reducing debt is a great start and necessary once you get to retirement. Our compound south never had a mortgage - so far it has turned out to be a great investment but selling was never in the plan - our son will reap any benefit there. We have a temporary mortgage in nj and dependent on where our son ends up after school.

But there is also a balancing act to living life - saving a few bucks to not travel and see friends, family and the world is short-sighted to me. You never know how much time you'll have to do so.
 

Mahnken

Well-Known Member
This is my favorite book for beating the stock market:
How to Make Money in Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times and Bad, Fourth Edition Amazon product

Also:
Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard: How to Achieve Super Performance in Stocks in Any Market Amazon product

With a little bit of knowledge and practice, you can beat all the indexes.
 

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
Spend lots of money on lamps. There’s nothing quite like a well-lit house.
Funny you say this but we asked our realtor to contact the owner to see if they wanted to sell anything. All the furnishings were like new. We got 4 complete bedders with mattresses(really nice stuff), a huge brand new sectional, 2 led lit bookshelves, a teal patio table set with chairs, an outdoor 7 piece furniture set with covers, a propane fire table, a treadmill, some paintings, 3 antique end table/cabinets and a few other things like 3 sets of lamps, a custom made wrought iron shelf for $3400.
 

qclabrat

Well-Known Member
Got nothing to add except vacations, like most of our parents who rarely do vacations, I’ve been planning to take him to a European cruise but now with the situation no way. Should have gone five years ago, now with late set diabetes he can’t get around much. My plans are to still retire in 10 years between Sacramento, NJ and probably Tampa to be closer to Rick.
 

Over the Bars

Well-Known Member
The inflationary effects of all the printed off child tax credit checks, stimulus checks and government wasteful spending suck!!! Costs have gone through the roof but at the end of the day im not changing anything! I'm still contributing the same amount to 401k, still working the same amount of overtime, still spoiling the kids, still buying what I "think" I need, investing in the stock market, playing with crypto and living life the way I want to live it ! .... after all the one who dies with the most toys wins right ??? I guess now I just won't die with quite as many of them.
 
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