Yeah renters insurance is very cheap... but Im pretty sure when you rent an apartment that you dont have any other choice but to get renters insurance...Out of the 5 apartments and 1 house I have rented in my 20's, ALL of them required renters insurance to move in.
Great Article! I am a huge fan of the local library. I actually check out audiobooks all the time for my 2 plus hour commute every day. I could not imagine how many thousands of dollars I have saved through the library over the years, but it is more than I want to think about.
I started saving for retirement at the age of 25. My employer at that time was contributing a small percentage of the employees' 401(k) contribution, so it was a good time to start saving. At that time, I also had learned about the different investment options (conservative, risky, moderate, etc.), so I was more knowledgeable about where to put my 401(k).
Exactly. Banks are NOT safe. Not safe at all. Even the bank itself can take your money in certain situations. And various government agencies can tie up your money for days, weeks, months, years....or just flat out take it.
Your idea of a large, higher quality gun safe with other safes nested inside is excellent, even if a bit on the expensive side. I like it.
I started retirement saving when I was 32. I am now 59 and have a nice little nestegg. A lady in her 50's advised me to start saving while I was young and I would never miss it but it would mount up. She was so right - and her and I are still great friends!!
I wish I knew about renters insurance a few weeks ago. We had a huge storm and a tree fell into my house. Since the house was condemed I've been staying with friends and my land lord said hes hoping it will be fixed by the end of July. I wish there was something I could do in the meantime because at the end of this month it's looking like I'll be staying in a hotel. I purchased renters insurance June 1 (the storm was on May 27) after hearing about it from the firepeople who were at my house the night of the accident.
You do realize all of the extra steps you stated in the origins of the baby carrot added cost to the product? So in turn, that makes your statement in regards to the fact whittled down baby carrots of rejects cost more than regular carrots, kind of bogus.
The fact of every consumer product is the amount of time handled adds cost to it. So by buying the machines and investing in the process to turn those rejects into preferred baby carrots, obviously adds cost to the product.
I do like your article, but when you went to the stab at baby carrots in the present while referring to the past, "beginnings" is kind of wrong.
The guy who started all of the baby carrot movement was only capitalized upon by someone who made a hybrid strain of carrot and poach the origin of the baby carrot that we all love.
Nice writing though, you grammar is far greater than mine.
I have found that a lot of times people choose to live in a certain area, or a certain area within a town that is more expensive than somewhere else, b/c of the whole "better" schools thing. It is sad that a lot of cheaper places to live, don't have good school systems.
My husband and I both started saving for retirement with our first jobs after college. We were married young (when I was 20, him 21--almost 22) and we knew we needed to start planning for our retirement as soon as possible. So far we're doing great, and we'll have all our debts (even our mortgage) paid off (except student loans) in 4 1/2 years!!! We're now in our mid-30's.
I guess that's one way to save money; not own anything valuable! ;) However, someday when you own more expensive items if you're still renting, it's a good thing to have.
I started saving in a ROTH IRA my last year in graduate school when I started lecturing and my income increased significantly. I've been saving in the IRA ever since.
Annie, thanks for a wonderful article - I love all 7 points!
The only part I didn't like was the phrase "when I compare myself to how a lot of people around me are raising their kids." Don't do that! ;-) It's your family, your values, your rules. I always welcome the periodic comments from the kids along the lines of "well so-and-so's parents let them do blah-blah-blah." It's a great opportunity to discuss why that might be great for so-and-so's family, but not necessarily ours. Our family is unique, and here's why we prefer an alternate route based on our unique values.
As Buffet would say, follow your "internal scorecard."
Again, thanks for the terrific article!
P.S. Teeny typo in #4 "When you life frugally..." life => live
We were one of those who thought nothing would happen to us and about 5 or 6 years ago, we had something happen to the home we were renting. We we lost was more valuable than what it would have cost for renters insurance. This is good advice.
MJ works fine if you dedicate an old machine to it. I'm using an old Laptop, 300 Mhz dedicated. I'm able to use it as a second business line. The only issue is a very slight delay when I talk. It is tolerable. Make sure you have a fast cable modem connection and if you use a router, set up you Quality of Service to giver MJ everything. If you don't know how to do that, well... Pay more for the tech support you get from other providers.
I don't know where you got your information but you need to do your research again. One visit to the emergy care center, not the hospital, costs $1400.00 for a simple super glue finger bandage. They said they were in line with the hospital. I think that is ridiculous for twenty minutes in at the most.
I started saving in my 20s as soon as I became eligible for my companies profit sharing plan. I always put in the maximum allowed. When i quit that job I rolled all of the money into Apple stock at around $30 a share.
This is exactly why we left Toronto for practically the middle of nowhere, and what enabled us to subsequently "retire" at age 34.
Free Money Finance posted the 10 most hated money-saving tips according to the comments he’s received over the years while writing over 700 tips. These are the tips that generate the most negative comments like, “That’s impractical,” or “No one would ever do that,” or “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Sitting in the number one position of these hated money-saving tips:
We found that people usually asked about being away from family. But, now that we have no mortgage and have investments working for us, we actually see our family more often now that we live a 3 hr flight away than we did when we were overworked in Toronto, less than an hour's drive from family. And when we do see them, we stay for a week or two at a time allowing us to really feel like a part of the family while we're there... not spending a couple of hours on the train to make it in time for dinner, then have to head out again so that we get home at a reasonable time to work the next morning.
Of course, this lifestyle choice isn't for everyone. But too many people write this idea off too quickly (especially if Free Money Finance is to be believed!) when it's the best decision we ever made for not only our finances, but also our health and probably relationships, too.
This is an excellent article. These are the things that I am aiming for with my son. I agree especially with the creativity part of it. My husband has made so many things for the house using discarded wood, such as our rabbit hutch and chicken coop. We check the free section off of Craigslist religiously, and have been able to improve our garden with free compost cones and bins, worm farms, seeds, plantings, etc. I think(hope) my kid is learning that it's fun to be frugal. He now understands that it's more fun to buy 5 Goosebumps books at a thrift store for $1 than it is to buy 1 from Borders for $5.99 plus tax(now that it's his money he's using!).
Good ideas except for recycling the dish detergent bottle as pancake batter squeezer (or for that matter, recycling any plastic not designed for holding food into a food container). That bottle likely isn't food grade, meaning whatever you put in it can leach harmful additives from the plastic. And it's likely that the detergent has leached into the plastic itself, no matter how thoroughly it's cleaned.
I have no counter space and this huge dish rack sitting there. I hired housekeeper to clean and she suggested getting a smaller dish rack and leaving it in the sink. Genius!!
Yeah renters insurance is very cheap... but Im pretty sure when you rent an apartment that you dont have any other choice but to get renters insurance...Out of the 5 apartments and 1 house I have rented in my 20's, ALL of them required renters insurance to move in.
Great Article! I am a huge fan of the local library. I actually check out audiobooks all the time for my 2 plus hour commute every day. I could not imagine how many thousands of dollars I have saved through the library over the years, but it is more than I want to think about.
I started saving for retirement at the age of 25. My employer at that time was contributing a small percentage of the employees' 401(k) contribution, so it was a good time to start saving. At that time, I also had learned about the different investment options (conservative, risky, moderate, etc.), so I was more knowledgeable about where to put my 401(k).
Moving is one of the things in life I can do without. These are good resources, I'll keep them in mind next time I decided to relocate.
liked this article a lot! My four year old loves going to the play ground more than anything! @jonathanrcolema
Exactly. Banks are NOT safe. Not safe at all. Even the bank itself can take your money in certain situations. And various government agencies can tie up your money for days, weeks, months, years....or just flat out take it.
Your idea of a large, higher quality gun safe with other safes nested inside is excellent, even if a bit on the expensive side. I like it.
I started retirement saving when I was 32. I am now 59 and have a nice little nestegg. A lady in her 50's advised me to start saving while I was young and I would never miss it but it would mount up. She was so right - and her and I are still great friends!!
I wish I knew about renters insurance a few weeks ago. We had a huge storm and a tree fell into my house. Since the house was condemed I've been staying with friends and my land lord said hes hoping it will be fixed by the end of July. I wish there was something I could do in the meantime because at the end of this month it's looking like I'll be staying in a hotel. I purchased renters insurance June 1 (the storm was on May 27) after hearing about it from the firepeople who were at my house the night of the accident.
You do realize all of the extra steps you stated in the origins of the baby carrot added cost to the product? So in turn, that makes your statement in regards to the fact whittled down baby carrots of rejects cost more than regular carrots, kind of bogus.
The fact of every consumer product is the amount of time handled adds cost to it. So by buying the machines and investing in the process to turn those rejects into preferred baby carrots, obviously adds cost to the product.
I do like your article, but when you went to the stab at baby carrots in the present while referring to the past, "beginnings" is kind of wrong.
The guy who started all of the baby carrot movement was only capitalized upon by someone who made a hybrid strain of carrot and poach the origin of the baby carrot that we all love.
Nice writing though, you grammar is far greater than mine.
I have found that a lot of times people choose to live in a certain area, or a certain area within a town that is more expensive than somewhere else, b/c of the whole "better" schools thing. It is sad that a lot of cheaper places to live, don't have good school systems.
My husband and I both started saving for retirement with our first jobs after college. We were married young (when I was 20, him 21--almost 22) and we knew we needed to start planning for our retirement as soon as possible. So far we're doing great, and we'll have all our debts (even our mortgage) paid off (except student loans) in 4 1/2 years!!! We're now in our mid-30's.
Thanks for sharing your story. I think a lot of renters think nothing will happen, but when it does not having insurance will cost more.
I guess that's one way to save money; not own anything valuable! ;) However, someday when you own more expensive items if you're still renting, it's a good thing to have.
I started saving in a ROTH IRA my last year in graduate school when I started lecturing and my income increased significantly. I've been saving in the IRA ever since.
We did it four years ago and we've never been happier. We're also two years out from owning our home and land free and clear.
Annie, thanks for a wonderful article - I love all 7 points!
The only part I didn't like was the phrase "when I compare myself to how a lot of people around me are raising their kids." Don't do that! ;-) It's your family, your values, your rules. I always welcome the periodic comments from the kids along the lines of "well so-and-so's parents let them do blah-blah-blah." It's a great opportunity to discuss why that might be great for so-and-so's family, but not necessarily ours. Our family is unique, and here's why we prefer an alternate route based on our unique values.
As Buffet would say, follow your "internal scorecard."
Again, thanks for the terrific article!
P.S. Teeny typo in #4 "When you life frugally..." life => live
I started saving 30% off the top for the first 30 years that I worked. I maxed out every company match possible.
We were one of those who thought nothing would happen to us and about 5 or 6 years ago, we had something happen to the home we were renting. We we lost was more valuable than what it would have cost for renters insurance. This is good advice.
MJ works fine if you dedicate an old machine to it. I'm using an old Laptop, 300 Mhz dedicated. I'm able to use it as a second business line. The only issue is a very slight delay when I talk. It is tolerable. Make sure you have a fast cable modem connection and if you use a router, set up you Quality of Service to giver MJ everything. If you don't know how to do that, well... Pay more for the tech support you get from other providers.
I don't know where you got your information but you need to do your research again. One visit to the emergy care center, not the hospital, costs $1400.00 for a simple super glue finger bandage. They said they were in line with the hospital. I think that is ridiculous for twenty minutes in at the most.
Pieper
I started saving in my 20s as soon as I became eligible for my companies profit sharing plan. I always put in the maximum allowed. When i quit that job I rolled all of the money into Apple stock at around $30 a share.
This is exactly why we left Toronto for practically the middle of nowhere, and what enabled us to subsequently "retire" at age 34.
Free Money Finance posted the 10 most hated money-saving tips according to the comments he’s received over the years while writing over 700 tips. These are the tips that generate the most negative comments like, “That’s impractical,” or “No one would ever do that,” or “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Sitting in the number one position of these hated money-saving tips:
1. Move to a lower cost-of-living city
(link: http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2007/11/the-10-most-hat.html )
We found that people usually asked about being away from family. But, now that we have no mortgage and have investments working for us, we actually see our family more often now that we live a 3 hr flight away than we did when we were overworked in Toronto, less than an hour's drive from family. And when we do see them, we stay for a week or two at a time allowing us to really feel like a part of the family while we're there... not spending a couple of hours on the train to make it in time for dinner, then have to head out again so that we get home at a reasonable time to work the next morning.
Of course, this lifestyle choice isn't for everyone. But too many people write this idea off too quickly (especially if Free Money Finance is to be believed!) when it's the best decision we ever made for not only our finances, but also our health and probably relationships, too.
This is an excellent article. These are the things that I am aiming for with my son. I agree especially with the creativity part of it. My husband has made so many things for the house using discarded wood, such as our rabbit hutch and chicken coop. We check the free section off of Craigslist religiously, and have been able to improve our garden with free compost cones and bins, worm farms, seeds, plantings, etc. I think(hope) my kid is learning that it's fun to be frugal. He now understands that it's more fun to buy 5 Goosebumps books at a thrift store for $1 than it is to buy 1 from Borders for $5.99 plus tax(now that it's his money he's using!).
Good ideas except for recycling the dish detergent bottle as pancake batter squeezer (or for that matter, recycling any plastic not designed for holding food into a food container). That bottle likely isn't food grade, meaning whatever you put in it can leach harmful additives from the plastic. And it's likely that the detergent has leached into the plastic itself, no matter how thoroughly it's cleaned.
I have no counter space and this huge dish rack sitting there. I hired housekeeper to clean and she suggested getting a smaller dish rack and leaving it in the sink. Genius!!