KaBar2 Posted November 2, 2005 Author Share Posted November 2, 2005 I am willing to bet that I have been poorer than just about every other person on this board. I worked crap jobs for years, I hobo'ed and trainhopped and lived in the back of my van for months at a time. I've used 5-gallon buckets for a toilet, and washed my clothes in the bayou. Even after I was married and was trying desperately to support my wife and baby, there were several periods where we survived on Unemployment Insurance checks of $198 every two weeks. That's $99 A WEEK for THREE PEOPLE. No, I was not able to save and invest when I was that poor. Shit, renting a video a week for entertainment was a big deal. Our hobbies were vegetable gardening and pressure canning, and I hunted deer in the early winter. But, as soon as I got a college degree, I started improving my economic condition. I was not just overjoyed at the prospect of becoming a nurse. In many ways, it's a job that just SUCKS. But it pays pretty well. It pays very well, compared to the last job I had before becoming a nurse, about three times as much. I didn't really intend to do the job I have been doing for the last ten years. It is an important job, and in some ways it's quite rewarding, but it is usually unpleasant every single day. But that's what I needed to do in order to buy a home for my family. I needed to get us some decent cars. I needed to get us some money in the bank. I'm still helping my daughter get through college. She says she wants to be a nurse. I hope she doesn't regret that decision. I actually know somebody that plays the Texas Lotto every week, hoping to become a millionaire. Sometimes he bets twenty or thirty dollars. If he had a brain in his head, he would INVEST that thirty dollars in mutual funds, which is very nearly a sure thing; instead of pissing it away on Lotto tickets, which is also very nearly a sure thing--it's all-but-certain that you are NOT going to win. Accumulating wealth seemed impossible when I was a teenager. It was too slow, the reward too intangible, the pay-off too far away. It TOOK too long. But here I am, thirty-nine years later. And where would I be if I had invested $61 a week for all those years? (Which I could have easily done, except I was such a dumbass.) I would now have about $529,000 in my investment account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawood Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Kabar, somehow, when I read your posts, i settle in , as if I am about to be schooled by the older gentleman who works for the park department, who on the surface looks like a regular guy, but once you get to know him , you realise , this man has seen more than he had wanted to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KING BLING Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 A dollar today is wortth half that later on - forget saving and take out a life insurance policy on someone close to you that you secretly hate. Than a few years later practice murdering small animals with your bare hand than once you become hardened to the feeling of death in your hand, come up with a plot and kill that relative! It works, I've done it twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawood Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 koo koo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted November 3, 2005 Author Share Posted November 3, 2005 King Bling, I'm not sure which of us is the craziest, but you have a magnificently frightening turn of mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumPuncher Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 on the lotto tip: there was some big jackpot recently for $56 million. Some guy in the grocery store ahead of me bout A HUNDRED DOLLARS worth of tickets. Did he win? honestly... what are you thinking? Turns out 17 co-workers in some mine wont it, and I'm glad to hear it. They each got 3.something million and it will change a lot of lives. But to drop a hundred on that? Please.. use the money to take your wife out for dinner. That's a much better 'investment'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawood Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 Money and fame will make a man murder, and further....you can keep the spam and the HAM-burger. "The mutual rivalry for piling up of worldly things diverts you" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theGOON Posted November 10, 2005 Share Posted November 10, 2005 Originally posted by KING BLING@Nov 2 2005, 09:37 PM A dollar today is wortth half that later on - forget saving and take out a life insurance policy on someone close to you that you secretly hate. Than a few years later practice murdering small animals with your bare hand than once you become hardened to the feeling of death in your hand, come up with a plot and kill that relative! It works, I've done it twice. Quoted post i second this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I.C.Shadow Posted November 18, 2005 Share Posted November 18, 2005 You said that if you invest a dollar at 6 percent bi monthly for 65 years it becomes 16,000 dollars??? Check your math please, or at least enlighten us as to how such math works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted November 28, 2005 Author Share Posted November 28, 2005 Originally posted by I.C.Shadow@Nov 18 2005, 04:28 PM You said that if you invest a dollar at 6 percent bi monthly for 65 years it becomes 16,000 dollars??? Check your math please, or at least enlighten us as to how such math works. Quoted post I.C. Shadow--- This is because of the TIME VALUE OF MONEY and the magic of compound interest. Einstein said that compound interest is "the greatest invention of mankind." Fire up your browser, type in "weekly contribution investment calculator compound interest." It should give you a variety of choices of investment sites that include a calculator. Enter into the calculator the amount you can afford to invest weekly (or, with a different calculator, monthly, bi-monthly, etc.) and the interest that you think your investment will earn. The regular old Stock Market returned an average of 12% last year (more or less) that's why I use 6% as a interest rate of return. The mutual funds market sometimes outperforms the stock market, but usually is about the same or a little less profitable, but mutual funds investment is very diversified, and the funds are being managed by professionals (unlike any stocks I might purchase on my own guesstimate). Mutual funds are MUCH SAFER for entry level or unsophisticated investors. The calculator will tell you how much your WEEKLY investments will earn you in 1 year, two years, five years, etc., etc. Some of them list the return for every year for fifty years. By my calculations, a 16-year-old working 40 hours a week need only invest $1.12 FOR EVERY HOUR WORKED to become a millionaire by age 65. Raise it to age 18, and it goes up to around $1.25, if memory serves. Obviously, these calculators do not take into consideration taxes you might owe, etc. Nevertheless, the numbers DO NOT LIE. Anybody, I repeat anybody can be a millionaire if he is diligent and relentlessly persistant. I know MANY, MANY tramps and trainhoppers who could become millionaires if they would just try. Most of them won't even try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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