Getting Old

[phareye]

OK, find a nice girl, live together, and utilize the new lifestyle of THINKER: Two Healthy Incomes No Kids Early Retirement.

and i know i said this to you months ago BA, but i hate the thought of deciding not to have children based on how it would affect my finances/portfolio/retirement age.
i know it's just a difference of opinion, and i respect your view.
i never planned on having children, but the time came that i realized i did, and i think as long as it's something you want to do because you feel it in your guts (as opposed to it being "what you're supposed to do"), then it can be way more rewarding than retireing at 45 or 50 could ever hope to be.
that's just my two cents.

[benagain]

OK, find a nice girl, live together, and utilize the new lifestyle of THINKER: Two Healthy Incomes No Kids Early Retirement.


Other recommendations: save your money, make smart investments, and don't buy a house or live too extravagantly. Eat right, and get exercise, also.

If you play your cards right, you could retire in your 50's and have the exact life that you have now. 60 is the new 30. 80 is becoming the new 40 and, eventually, 160 will be the new 80!

How is not buying a house going to be a good investment? I'm not asking to be an asshole, I just want to know. It's my understanding that buying a house is much smarter than renting or leasing. You can rent for years and have nothing to show for it, but at least with buying you have some equity.

Ohh and I'm not looking forward to being old, but getting to retire would be nice. I'd love to golf and fish all day long and not worry about work. Sounds fun to me. I've allready settled down, now if I can figure out how to get away with not working....

[benagain]

and i know i said this to you months ago BA, but i hate the thought of deciding not to have children based on how it would affect my finances/portfolio/retirement age.
i know it's just a difference of opinion, and i respect your view.
i never planned on having children, but the time came that i realized i did, and i think as long as it's something you want to do because you feel it in your guts (as opposed to it being "what you're supposed to do"), then it can be way more rewarding than retireing at 45 or 50 could ever hope to be.
that's just my two cents.

Yep, I'd love to have kids. I can give up a few of my pleasures to have a little one running around no problem. I'm not saying i think it'd be easy, but I do think it would be the most rewarding thing I could ever do.

[phareye]

Yep, I'd love to have kids. I can give up a few of my pleasures to have a little one running around no problem. I'm not saying i think it'd be easy, but I do think it would be the most rewarding thing I could ever do.

yeah, it's gonna be tough as hell, but then again, nothing worth having is easy. and they may end up being meth smoking chicken fucking hooligans, but i'll deal with that if that's what happens.

[benagain]

yeah, it's gonna be tough as hell, but then again, nothing worth having is easy. and they may end up being meth smoking chicken fucking hooligans, but i'll deal with that if that's what happens.

Yea I'm planning on it being the hardest thing I ever did, but like you said, nothing worth doing is easy. And to quote Chris Rock "Once you're a daddy, your only goal is to keep your daughter off of the pole. If you're daughter became a stripper....you fucked up"

[Breukelen advocaat]

How is not buying a house going to be a good investment? I'm not asking to be an asshole, I just want to know. It's my understanding that buying a house is much smarter than renting or leasing. You can rent for years and have nothing to show for it, but at least with buying you have some equity.

Ohh and I'm not looking forward to being old, but getting to retire would be nice. I'd love to golf and fish all day long and not worry about work. Sounds fun to me. I've allready settled down, now if I can figure out how to get away with not working....

You have to put a FORTUNE into maintenance, or DIY - which takes a lot of time and effort. You also have to pay property taxes, and if the housing market goes bad, you're stuck with it. When you want to sell, you'll have to upgrade the roof, new plumbing, heating, etc. No, I'd rather pay rent and let the landlord do all of that. The mortgage payments alone on a small house would have cost much more than the rent we pay. We don't pay for heat, hot water, maintenance, or any of that.

My wife and I were thinking of buying a house in the 1990's. Not doing that was the smartest thing we ever did. You can live in an apartment and if there is a problem, you just knock on the super's door.

If you live in New York City, in an apartment, you're as good as the owner of the building. Where does Trump live? In Trump Tower! All the rich live in apartments. If I won the lottery, I'd live in a luxury hotel. That's what luxury is - not having work to do and be a slave to your home.

One more thing - we could have easily afforded a house, so it's not "sour grapes".

[benagain]

You have to put a FORTUNE into maintenance, or DIY - which takes a lot of time and effort. You also have to pay property taxes, and if the housing market goes bad, you're stuck with it. When you want to sell, you'll have to upgrade the roof, new plumbing, heating, etc. No, I'd rather pay rent and let the landlord do all of that. The mortgage payments alone on a small house would have cost much more than the rent we pay. We don't pay for heat, hot water, maintenance, or any of that.

My wife and I were thinking of buying a house in the 1990's. Not doing that was the smartest thing we ever did. You can live in an apartment and if there is a problem, you just knock on the super's door.

If you live in New York City, in an apartment, you're as good as the owner of the building. Where does Trump live? In Trump Tower! All the rich live in apartments. If I won the lottery, I'd live in a luxury hotel. That's what luxury is - not having work to do and be a slave to your home.

One more thing - we could have easily afforded a house, so it's not "sour grapes".

No I figured you had a good reason for not wanting to buy. It must all depend on the market you're in. I'm sure that in cities it's much cheaper to rent, but when it comes to living in the burbs, then buying seems to be the best bet I've found. If you can get a decent interest rate, then mortgage payments on a house is much less than renting. I've been looking around and to rent a house is anywhere from $1000 a month to $3000. Same house that rents for 3000 can be bought and have payments of less than a thousand. Taxes are a bitch, but if you're smart you can find an area with cheap taxes. Considering we have a dog and smoke, my best bet is to buy. The plan is to purchase a house, live there a while building equity...sell it for more (unless you're on a sinkhole property only goes up and up in FL) and move back home to NC to get a bigger house with more land with lower taxes and cheaper payments. This will all work out great as long as I can keep my job. I can move back home where cost of living is cheaper and still get the same paycheck I'm getting now.

[Breukelen advocaat]

Hey, at least you have a good plan and know what you're doing. :thumbsup:

We're not ruling out buying a house, eventually, but I'd like to be able to afford to pay others to maintain it, lol - which may not happen. A co-op in an adults-only community might be the ticket - which isn't much different from renting

I honestly don't know what we're going to do in a few years - but so far, not having a house has worked for us. We've traveled, but always lived in the City. Maybe I'll go for a change of scenery one day. I'd love to have a "country" place, in PA, or upstate New York.

We're thinking of checking out Virginia for retirement.

[benagain]

Hey, at least you have a good plan and know what you're doing. :thumbsup:

We're not ruling out buying a house, eventually, but I'd like to be able to afford to pay others to maintain it, lol - which may not happen. A co-op in an adults-only community might be the ticket - which isn't much different from renting

I honestly don't know what we're going to do in a few years - but so far, not having a house has worked for us. We've traveled, but always lived in the City. Maybe I'll go for a change of scenery one day. I'd love to have a "country" place, in PA, or upstate New York.

We're thinking of checking out Virginia for retirement.

Hey, being flexible is never a bad thing. Having a plan isn't bad, but you can't put everything on it. It just makes it that much harder whem the plan falls apart

[benagain]

trigger happy double post...