Comments on: How to Not Worry About Money – Reader’s Take

By: Gringa

Gringa — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:14:27 +0000

I save money and sanity by not going to church or tithing.

By: lifeisdynamic

lifeisdynamic — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:58:40 +0000

Marcie,
How right you are. Of course, I can say that now, with hindsight and maturity.
My children are adults and my husband deceased and its just me, my home and my career.
I now organise my work life around my personal life. Instead of the other way around. I can work extra shifts if I wish/need to or I can work for another employer on a casual basis if it suits me or I need extra income for those harder times to pay larger household bills (it is a desperate day indeed if I sacrifice saving every fortnight to pay bills – I really think laterally to avoid using my savings at those odd times).

I work part-time in a professional capacity after completing a degree at 50yrs of age and after my husband died. My mortgage is almost paid. I am saving an average 65% of my income and I have retirement super (sadly less than $100K). I am frugal although not mean in my spending and I support my children in easing their lives in some financial way from time to time (encouraging them to use money wisely while not becoming dependant on support regularly). In reality I am proud to say they are mostly independant of my help. I would like to be proud to say I will be independant in my retirement – although I sometimes doubt it.

What I can say is that in the past 5 years the reality of retirement looming shocked me. I had no independant income or savings and was living from a meagre widow’s pension which did not keep pace with inflation. Since then I have achieved a degree; been working mostly part-time and managed to save several thousand dollars; improved my home to improve its value; made a few necessary purchases including a near new vehicle; helped my children get on their feet with deposits for their own homes and I have been continually tweeking my finances to ensure I get maximum value.

Sometimes I forget how fortunate I am. Money is not everything – most of us know that – but it helps to provide securtiy. Isn’t that what we all want so as we can relax and enjoy our lives with the people we care most about?

Yes, I do more for myself too (what I am capable of anyway) and that means I save money, but it means I do need to work less to achieve that end – so yes, semi retirement 10 years earlier than many others.

Of course, it is ‘horses for courses’ many do not want to labour for themselves, so they need to have an income to pay others. Thats fine, because it provides an income for someone else to attain their dreams too.

Helping others in some way, such as a charity or an Aid organisation means so much in terms of a healthy life for others and takes just a little of your income. It is a win:win for you the donor also, as it gives you a health boost knowing it is helping others.

I still have a way to go to attain my goals – makes life worth living to be striving for something and seeing it get closer.

2014 will be the year of my dream holiday – part of the savings goal and I will be having fun finding the best deals in the meantime.

Millions $’s – who wants the worry and the hard work attached to keeping it! One Mill. is enough to earn an income from for one person if invested wisely. I doubt I will have that amount of money in my lifetime.
Hope my story inspires someone, as others have for me on moneyning.com

By: Sean H

Sean H — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:23:40 +0000

I like a lot of this article; also glad that you are interested in how we deal with this stress? First off, my belief is that my belief and the power to enjoy money come from God. If you dust off the Bible and read Ecclesiastes 5:19 it clearly says, “Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil- this is the gift of God.” The whole theme of Ecclesiastes 5 is this:

The more you have, the more you want. The more you want, the more you spend. The more you spend, the more you need. The more you need, the more you have to have.

Give up your worry by living with gratitude.

By: American Debt Project

American Debt Project — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:02:18 +0000

I love knowing I’m not the only one who’s worrying! I definitely tend to over-worry in all aspects of my life, not just money, and I am working on changing that. For example, this past week, I was taking a test which would earn me a great new credential for my work. I kept planning to fail and was already thinking of when I would reschedule the test. But I went in the test, took my time and remembered all the hours of studying I put in. I passed! It felt so great and I don’t know why I nearly choked myself with worry. I do the same with my bills every month. I am learning that that is not productive. Besides my blog, I’m working on a few new income streams, and that’s a lot more fun than worrying about money!

By: richard

richard — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 18:34:48 +0000

I took my 17 year old vehicle to the dealership for minor repairs recently.
I have been very good about keeping up with oil changes , transmission service and so on.
The old pickup truck looks very much like “the truck your dad drives” when compared to the sleek new ones on the showroom floor.
The sharks were circling.
They had a million and one reasons as to why I was going to be a more happy person with a brand new large status symbol pickup.
I asked for a calculator.
you’d think that I had asked for moon rocks.
possessing a calculator at an auto dealership is like a cross in the face of a vampire.
after putting it down on paper, I was able to show them(and my 12 year old) that every year this old vehicle gets more and more cheap to register,insure,keep running,
plus its paid for.
it has a little 6 cylinder motor that runs all week on a tank of fuel with enough left for A road trip on Saturday.
it is not a big Macho road warrior that has giant expensive tires and a motor that can tow things that I will never own anyway.
so my child got a real life lesson in living within one’s means, as i check mated those sharks time and again.
we drove home in my little truck with the comfort in knowing that the big end of summer road trip was going to be a mechanically free event for all of my family.

By: josh

josh — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:47:50 +0000

if you say you are already frugal…. consider buying a taxdeed sale home rather than a traditional mortgaged home. You may have to compromise a little on location and quality. But the money you could save on rent and mortgage payments will be totally worth it.

By: Witty Artist

Witty Artist — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:34:21 +0000

I say we worry about money all the time; either we have lots of it or just a few.
I liked what you’ve said about confidence. That’s the key to succeed in everything we undertake. Plus an optimistic view of the things. And instead of keeping our mind paralyzed with fear and impossibility, focusing on solutions and making attempts would be of greater help.

By: Doug Phan

Doug Phan — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:15:33 +0000

Very nice and enlightening info. Yeah no one wants to worry about money and that’s why need to be looking for smart deals like this one.

By: Cert

Cert — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:47:17 +0000

I think the author of this article has the right frame of thoughts.
As I understand his situation is that of a 2 earner family living in a One bedroom apartment with no kids. He expects to buy a house and have kids.
However, I don’t think he has a clue of what he will face when he does the above. For him and Emma to be working he has to send kids to day care and pay mortgage. That would effectively wipe out more than one person’s income. Plus we are talking about the expenses kids will bring to the financial situation. If one of them loses the job he will be in the red faster than he can say “red”. I think he needs to be more pessimistic of what the future holds. Remember, worrying about money makes you proactively frugal.

By: Jewelsmom

Jewelsmom — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:09:04 +0000

Good luck The Cash Doc. You are on the right path.