David,
I love your blog and I’d just like to share with you that my husband and I have just retired. 30 years ago when we were in our 20s, we bought our first house and made it (our) number one priority to pay off our mortgage. 10 years later, with one more mortgage payment to go, we refinanced and bought a vacation home. We paid that off a few years later, and have owned the house free and clear ever since.
My husband and I only make close to the median income all our lives, but ever since then we started living off one salary and saving the other. There were many times when we wanted to use our money that was saved up but we toughed it out and lived within our means.
Now at the ages of 54 and 52, my husband and I are totally debt free, own our house and vacation home outright and can retire. We did this because we had our goal of being financially free all along. Without it, we would never be able to keep ourselves from taping into our savings when times got tough. We are so happy now that we have reached our goal that I want to share this with everyone. I hope that you can help.
Sincerely,
MoneyNing Reader
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I have a habit of reading old magazines – it is amazing to see how thrift became the new fashion in such a short time. People were still talking about spending over 100k on remodeling projects 1 year ago…
There is a simple formula that relates savings rate to the number of years one needs to work. At 50% it’s 15-20 years. For the usual recommended 15% savings rate, it’s 30-40 years. Since many people want to work that long, 15% is number that is usually given by financial planners, but it does not need to be that way.
WOW, what a cool letter you received from a reader. Delayed Gratification will defnately get you to your goal.
But what about those that want to smell the roses along the way. Any hope for us? The answer is to create additinal income streams!!!!
Greg
That’s fantastic. The family home and holiday house full paid off. It’s amazing that they saved the second income. Most people splurge the second income as soon as it comes in because it is seen as “extra”.
That’s something I never thought of, two income earners but living off one income.
What a novel approach but certainly a wise one.
Yeah. And then you get divorced and then what? Somebody’s going to be bending over to accept the Probing Thruster of Justice right up the bum, that’s what.