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Thread: When did you feel you were really financially independent?

  1. #1

    Default When did you feel you were really financially independent?

    Some of us have gone through ups and downs in the financial department.

    Homelessness, job changes, extreme debt etc.

    It looks to me like everybody is doing okay now. Good.

    When did you start feeling comfortable with your money situation? What is financial independence to you? And did you wait for your money situation to clear up before getting involved in a serious relationship?
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    I’ve always been debt free and financially independent since I’ve never had credit card and never taken a loan. As far as I know in the USA those things help your credit score so it seems like people get them for that reason but it doesn’t work that way here so I never bothered although I got rejected for a travel card because I left it too late and I’d already left my job before applying. I’ll hopefully be getting a home loan this year so that’ll be my first major financial situation.

    I would say I took control of my finances about 3-4 years ago. I used to spend money on dumb shit and never saved but I started to save after reading a book called the barefoot investor and I liked his approach to saving and spending money and so I mostly follow that and save as much as I can, I like seeing my savings account go up.
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    That's a very good question and I can't think of exactly when I became good financially, but the anxiety/pressure/stress of having to pay your bills when you're not financially secure is the worst.

    In the moment you don't really realize it, but one of the best feelings is being able to buy whatever you want without having to wait until pay day. And i don't mean a new car or diamond ring, i just mean everyday things. if tomorrow, i wanted to go buy a new gas grill, or a pair of shoes, or if one of my tvs break, i won't have to sit down with all my bills and budget out how and when i'm going to be able to afford to do it.

    i hadn't even thought about this until we bought the house we're in now. we were saving money for a down payment. not that we wouldn't be able to buy the house, but we were trying to hit a certain dollar amount for a lower interest rate and pmi that would save us a lot of money off our mortgage. we were really cutting it close and were watching what we spent. also, once you sign the papers to begin the closing process, you can't make any major purchases or the banks could deny you.

    it really brought me back to being young and dumb with racked up debt, trying to figure out if i bought a video game, would i be able to buy food for the rest of the week.

    i can't speak for non-americans with how their system works, but in america, you definitely want some debt to build your credit, but you just have to be very smart about it. i am basically credit card debt free and that is something i had to work on over the years. i will never do that to myself again.

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    I never fell into credit card debt. I rarely use it unless I make a larger purchase but usually for an appliance or something like that you go through the stores financing and you can get zero percent for higher purchases for a 6 months to a year.

    I always saved as much as I could and paid my bills on time. Buying a car helps. By the time I bought my house I had outstanding credit but my saving got drained a bit with the down payment, inspections, upgrades etc.

    But now that I’ve built that back up I can start contributing to my retirement account every year. I had stopped for about 5 years.

    Definitely saving more now and accumulating wealth through the house equity and the savings and investment. Hammering away for another 20 -25 years we will be able to have a comfortable retirement.

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    During this corona shit lol. My side venture kind of exploded and I'm reaching the point that I don't 'need' my job. If I leave it I'll be taking a major pay drop but 1 dime of my own money is better than 100 dollars of a paycheck. So independence on that level is very much on the horizon. I'm trying to diversify as well so that I'm not dependent on just that either.

    I've always saved money. For the last 6-5 years I would just put 30% of my paycheck away but I've realized that it's smarter to invest it or at least a sizeable portion of it because
    savings alone isn't it (completely). I've had a side venture pay off in the recent past but the amount of work I had to do and the type of customers I was dealing with made it absolutely not worth it at all. My main money issue was anxiety about spending which was also anxiety about investing as stupid as that sounds but I'm getting over that. Is shitted out my credit like any red blooded american in my early 20s thinking a credit card was an amusement park token but I've been repairing it over the past 3 years and it's at a great place now.

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    Not until I moved in with my current wife about 6 years ago. When things ended with 1st one, I got stuck paying two car notes,a ton of credit card debt and miscellaneous bullshit I didn't even know about, on top of her being absolutely non redeeming waste of a life. Thank god we never had kids. Was working 7 days of week 60 plus hours trying to work my way out of that hole.

    Luckily my situation now we both are earning well and bought a small house that is paid off. All debts are paid and building up the 401k and a ESOP my employer provides. Would like to retire early or maybe upgrade to a bigger/newer home

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    Wow I'm amazed at how soon you were able to pay off your current house. That's great.

    Typically loans down here for houses are twenty years to, these days, even thirty years. It's a really overpriced housing market, in the cities and suburbs in particular.

    I was lucky enough to take out a loan when prices still reflected actual value and you could still get a sizable loan based on one wage instead of two. Four more years and the house is mine, it's a twenty year mortgage.

    My parents fronted renovation costs - originally I did not even want to renovate and just wanted to move in right away - and they only made me pay back 15% or so of the total amount. The reason being that my sister got a house for free that I was originally supposed to go and live in. (I'm the eldest.) My parents had inherited that place from a family friend when my sister and I were in our twenties. Because of family stuff I did not want to move into that place.

    I'd never be able to buy a house in the current market. I'd say I now pay off half or 3/5ths of what people pay these days for a house.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hal Incandenza View Post
    Wow I'm amazed at how soon you were able to pay off your current house. That's great.

    Typically loans down here for houses are twenty years to, these days, even thirty years. It's a really overpriced housing market, in the cities and suburbs in particular.

    I was lucky enough to take out a loan when prices still reflected actual value and you could still get a sizable loan based on one wage instead of two. Four more years and the house is mine, it's a twenty year mortgage.

    My parents fronted renovation costs - originally I did not even want to renovate and just wanted to move in right away - and they only made me pay back 15% or so of the total amount. The reason being that my sister got a house for free that I was originally supposed to go and live in. (I'm the eldest.) My parents had inherited that place from a family friend when my sister and I were in our twenties. Because of family stuff I did not want to move into that place.

    I'd never be able to buy a house in the current market. I'd say I now pay off half or 3/5ths of what people pay these days for a house.
    Yea I was fortunate enough to be buying when the market was low and even got the house about 15g’s below appraisal. Now it’s gone up. I kinda feel bad for people buying right now they are paying premium prices but at least they’re getting a great interest rate.

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    The ABBOTT
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    To clarify. I moved in with her. She had been living there 10 plus years paying mortgage. Typical home loans here are 15 to 30 years. A lot people buy more house than they need. Especially young couple as a status thing and mess up their finances doing so.

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    "we both earn well and bought a small house" "she actually bought it herself 10+ years ago while I was married to someone else" that's quite the clarification.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hal Incandenza View Post
    Wow I'm amazed at how soon you were able to pay off your current house. That's great.

    Typically loans down here for houses are twenty years to, these days, even thirty years. It's a really overpriced housing market, in the cities and suburbs in particular.

    I was lucky enough to take out a loan when prices still reflected actual value and you could still get a sizable loan based on one wage instead of two. Four more years and the house is mine, it's a twenty year mortgage.

    My parents fronted renovation costs - originally I did not even want to renovate and just wanted to move in right away - and they only made me pay back 15% or so of the total amount. The reason being that my sister got a house for free that I was originally supposed to go and live in. (I'm the eldest.) My parents had inherited that place from a family friend when my sister and I were in our twenties. Because of family stuff I did not want to move into that place.

    I'd never be able to buy a house in the current market. I'd say I now pay off half or 3/5ths of what people pay these days for a house.
    I don't think anyone could buy a house in Sydney without financial help from their parents or earning something stupid as a single person or $100k+ each in a relationship. I'm buying a 2 bedroom unit and my entire mortgage would probably be about the same maybe even less than a deposit goes for a house. My parents sold their house for $1.2m and it's nothing special at all, I think it was built in the 1920s, the housing market is insane.

    I was able to save for a deposit because it really isn't much for 20% even 30% and the mortgage should come in <$200 a week
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    I had an australian friend try to break down the housing market over there and he was saying the same thing, super expensive and you can't legally build on most of the land in the country.

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    The housing market here is affordable. I think it's one of the reasons people stay here. Because our weather sucks, (hot summers-cold winters)there is no ocean/mountain view, and doesn't offer some of amenities a major city.

    You can easily find something for $150k or less that is good condition. Some places in the U.S that buys you a shack or studio apartment.

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Hound View Post
    "we both earn well and bought a small house" "she actually bought it herself 10+ years ago while I was married to someone else" that's quite the clarification.
    Bought doesnt mean owned. So she would have been paying the mortage for next 15 to 20 years. Us living together with combined income could pay it off soon. Trust me I paid my fair share. And even if I didn't who gives a fuck.

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    Quote Originally Posted by b-dolo View Post
    The housing market here is affordable. I think it's one of the reasons people stay here. Because our weather sucks, (hot summers-cold winters)there is no ocean/mountain view, and doesn't offer some of amenities a major city.

    You can easily find something for $150k or less that is good condition. Some places in the U.S that buys you a shack or studio apartment.
    Yes I enjoy Ohio’s affordability. I don’t know how anyone live in a place like NYC just working a normal job.

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    Sydney is the official 3rd most livable city in the world (GLI was postponed for 2020 for obvious reasons) https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/glob...the-world.html so it's expensive for a reason and well worth it. Melbourne being above Sydney is horseshit but they are insecure and insular and need the validation.

    "you can't legally build on land in Australia" lol what is that nonsense?
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