Yeah, I really couldn't care less about having all the newest gizmos. For the first 6 months we were married we didn't even own a TV. Concert tickets are a rare and wonderful thing, and I do splurge on those occasionally, but with the baby that's probably going to end. We still don't have a stereo. We both have ipods, and my parents bought a little thing you can plug it into that acts like a cheap stereo and that does us.
As for the savings account I still think that is the best place to stash your savings. I don't give a shit what the "experts" say. They'd have had us all invest everything in stocks, and we didn't do that. So here we are now and I still have money and everyone who followed their advice has less than they started out with. Savings accounts don't get you much, but they also guarantee you don't lose anything. To me that guarantee is more important than the 5-10% that I *might* be missing out on. And really, the emphasis there is on *might* because everything anyone "made" in the last 10 years or so is completely wiped out at this point. Right now you're lucky if you still have what you put in with no gains at all. Sure if you stay in for a few more years it might come back, but I'm a bird in the hand kind of girl. To me putting your money in stocks is just like putting it down on a roulette table. I can't see how that is a good idea.
And yes, Suze did recommend putting the money in savings. Not your retirement fund, but a 6-8 month "emergency" fund. You need to have about 6-8 months of cash that you can access easily should the worst come to pass and you have to live off it. So it can't be tied up in stocks, bonds or GICs or anything where you'd have to wait to get it out. If you haven't got enough in liquid savings to live off it for 6-8 months, then that is where your excess money should be going right now. We don't quite, so that is where our excess would go if there was any.
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Re: Living on half
Date: 2009-07-16 03:03 am (UTC)As for the savings account I still think that is the best place to stash your savings. I don't give a shit what the "experts" say. They'd have had us all invest everything in stocks, and we didn't do that. So here we are now and I still have money and everyone who followed their advice has less than they started out with. Savings accounts don't get you much, but they also guarantee you don't lose anything. To me that guarantee is more important than the 5-10% that I *might* be missing out on. And really, the emphasis there is on *might* because everything anyone "made" in the last 10 years or so is completely wiped out at this point. Right now you're lucky if you still have what you put in with no gains at all. Sure if you stay in for a few more years it might come back, but I'm a bird in the hand kind of girl. To me putting your money in stocks is just like putting it down on a roulette table. I can't see how that is a good idea.
And yes, Suze did recommend putting the money in savings. Not your retirement fund, but a 6-8 month "emergency" fund. You need to have about 6-8 months of cash that you can access easily should the worst come to pass and you have to live off it. So it can't be tied up in stocks, bonds or GICs or anything where you'd have to wait to get it out. If you haven't got enough in liquid savings to live off it for 6-8 months, then that is where your excess money should be going right now. We don't quite, so that is where our excess would go if there was any.