Investing 102

[SSLance]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

I think you have to have a period in your life where you really hunker down and stock it away to set yourself up and take advantage of that great magician, compound interest. I still think it's important to save a large chunk of your income every month. We save 15% of our gross income, personally. You can only do that if you live well below your means or increase your income to offset your expenses. We've done both.

I agree completely, and we have done much the same. Some of the things that have been said to me by friends during this move process have been interesting. One friend in particular has to have a brand new high end 3/4 ton 4x4 truck every few years...but said to me disparagingly "it must be nice to be able to retire and move West so young". He has spent more out of pocket money on just trucks the last 15 years than we did on the new house. BTW, I daily drive a 15 year old truck with 220,000 miles on it.