DISQUS

"But I’d feel better having some debt AND some cash flow, rather than no debt and no cash flow."

That statement reminds me of when I just graduated from college. No debt, but no income either. A little on the scary side because you still got to find the money to eat some how.

Now I have a mortgage and cash flow from my job. I guess I am the type of employee that the bosses like, enough debt to be reliable at work, but not too much debt to compromise my integrity.

asithi

I don't think smart people and wealth goes hand in hand. However, I do believe that smart people have a higher chance in getting wealth (whether it is earning more income or just from inheritance). But I have known some smart people with big money issues. They just do not know how to manage their money.

Always like your blog. Now give me the prize! :D

I am starting to see that myself with my peers. People that I thought were going much better than me and husband are actually in a worst financial situation. Here we were pitying ourselves that we could not afford a house during the peak when everyone brought their first homes, and just three years later we brought our first home at a huge discount. The boats, the jetskis, and iphones are starting disappear among my peers. Since we never have those toys to begin with, our lifestyle have not change. Sure, we are nervous, but not worry. We are so lucky. But then again, we did not upgraded our lifestyle the first 8 years after college graduation like our friends did. Often we wondered why were not doing as well as our friends, but I guess I can see that they are doing that much better than they appear. I feel for them and do not talk about my home purchase and plans with them, but I cannot help but feel surviver guilt that this economy is not effecting us.

"I always felt a little bit sick saying it. I knew that telling people “I am an accountant” was not embarrassing or shameful - it’s a perfectly good profession, I’m good at it and I have had a good run with it. But for years I have not felt it represented who I was … or am."

You know Steve, I often feel the same way about telling people that I am an engineer. There is nothing shameful about it like you said and I am licensed, but sometimes I feel that certain people start to look at me a little differently when I say it to people that I meet for the first time. Maybe it is because I am female. Maybe it is because I look young. I am not sure what it is. But when I tell people that I am a paper pusher, that ends the discussion. But when I tell them that I am an engineer, I start getting all kinds of questions or sometimes complaints (because I work for a local government agency) that I just do not want.

Lucky you, I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. But I am generally happy at my job, so I am not in any rush to figure it out. It is great to discover my passion, but I am practical enough to know that sometimes having a passion for something and being good enough to make a living can be two different things.

Exactly. Drinking buddies are for entertainment.....just like Paris Hilton is entertainment.....

I look forward to having kids in a couple of years. Being the eldest in my family, I love having younger people around asking for my help and opinions. It is an emotional decision.

As for saving money, you can't take it with you when you die. What is the point of accumulating all this wealth if you are going to die alone? People first, money second has always been my governing value. No matter how much money you have or how great your career is, you are going to be remembered by how many people cried at your funeral.

As Kate mentioned, having kids means that there will be at least one human being who will take an interest in my care when I am elderly.

I heard that they are going to press charges against the first 20 customers. There was a security guard at the scene who basically did nothing while this was happening. But then again, would you charge into a crowd like that and risk getting trample yourself?

Every year something happens at a Walmart. I would think that the company would know from previous experience how to handle a crowd. They should not be allow to advertise for Black Friday if they do not have a plan for crowd control! This is too sad.

asithi

I work as a civil engineer with the government my entire working career. Compared to a lot of friends, I started out making $10k-$15k less than them. But with incremental pay raises and promotions, we are making the same amount now 5 years later. My husband is the entrepreneur in my relationship and we need the stability with health insurance and steady paychecks that my job provide. But you need a lot of patience working for the government.

A few of our local government entities are already planning 1 day a month furloughs for 2009. Which is a 5% pay reduction. Though the government entity I work for also have budget problems, I am okay with a furlough as long as we do not have any laid offs. That is the great thing about living on only 40% of your income. We can go to bed at night no matter how bad things get.

Since everything is on autopilot, it requires more effort for me to stop the wheel than to just let it keep turning. With 25 years until retirement, I have plenty of time. I try not to think about it too much.

I been putting off going to my dentist for a cleaning. I think my problem is that I do not like my dentist too much, but am too lazy to look around for a new one. You figure I would learn my lesson by now since the last time I put off seeing my dentist for a while, I ended up having to do a root canal.

I am mildly concern, but not enough to stop me from continuing our contributions to our 401k. As a matter of fact, we are going to increase our contributions by $300/mon. We should have at least 25 year to retirement. I am just glad that this is happening now for us than later.

But with my parents, I think my dad might have to work a little bit longer than he initially planned.

Having good health is always important. When you are feeling aches and pains, it is hard to stay positive. But when you are healthy and moving, things really do not look that bad after a good night of sleep.

I think sometimes guys are clueless this is how some women feel about the work environment. Being a civil engineer, I have been in situations where I am the only female in the group. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable, especially out in the field compared to working in the office. I am not a girly girl by any means, but it is easier for the guys to go water a tree than me.

Two weeks ago, I had this discussion with another young engineer. I was telling him how I am anxious about my upcoming rotation next year to the construction office since I know I will once again be the only female in the entire group. Of course, he did not get it - saying that he does not look at female engineer as being any different than a male. Yeah well, he has also not earn less than a female while doing more work.

But one thing I learned is that I always need to ask for more because I know I will end up getting less, which will then be what the guys are getting. In general though, this type of gender bias is very subtle in the work place.

Every spring and summer, I work overtime. Instead of getting paid for it, I take it as credit time. So once I am done with the rush at work, I take a week or two off and just bum around the house, going to the movies when everyone else is at work or sitting at the local Starbucks with my journal. That is the only way I can reasonably getting through it knowing that I have the time afterwards to just live life. My co-workers are often amaze that I would "waste my overtime" like this. But seriously, how many new TVs do a person need? My big boxy one works just fine.

Hmm....that is food for thought (no pun intended). I never really think too much about what I eat being an extension of my beliefs before. In general, I eat pretty healthy and dining out once or twice on the weekends. Almost everyone seems pretty surprise that I eat pretty healthy, snacking on fruits most of the time at work. Of course, they do not know that I write a health and fitness blog. I guess they see anyone under the age of 30 as being junk good fanatics. But you are right though...if you are serious about money, you serious about what you feed yourself.

Yep, that is why I stopped providing full text feeds. I know I probably lost some readers that way, but I am willing to have less readers as long as my content remains on my blog.

This is pretty amazing! I would love to be able to see it in real life.

"I am almost 40 years old, and this is the first time since I was an eligible voter that my presidential ballot will not have the name “Bush” or “Clinton” on it"

Got you beat here. I cannot remember when the presidential office is not occupy by a Bush or a Clinton. I remotely remember my teacher talking about Chelsea in my government class in junior high school when Clinton was running for prez. Geez, I am ready for a change.

I think a long commute does not help because you are "wasting" that time traveling to and from work that you can be with your family. Even though I am using audio books on my commute to learn new things, that is only trying to make the best of the situation.

That is why I am really excited that in two weeks I am starting my new job that is ten minutes away from my house. Now it feels like I am still within the sphere of my family even though I am gone most of the day. Seriously, if my job ever offer to let me work only 6 hours a day, pro-rated pay, I would jump all over it.

I think the source of conflict between my two younger sisters and me are the listening part. They are not interested in listening to any advice I give them (especially financial advice). My husband and I looks like we are "poor" when compared to the external trappings of my sisters with their constant consumption of new cellphones, toys, and designer handbags. But we never worry about money and we go on at least two vacations a year.

At this point, you are probably thinking maybe I should try listening to them? But sometimes I can only listen to so much about new toys, clothes, and how much money they are planning to spend (WBTW, they do not have), that I just want to roll my eyes and walk away. Makes me wonder if I was like them when I was in my early twenties.

I have to agree with Eric Foard. I think too many people are not taking responsibility for their own health. Sometimes they wait until the it becomes a crisis before taking action. However, I do believe that our food supply is not as nutritious as it used to be when my grandparents were growing up and that the processed food landscape is a little bit more confusing.

I agree. My post lengths varies and frequency varies like crazy. The only consistency is that I post every week, but as for how many times, it depends.

I do not equal possessions with happiness, but certainly a friend of mine does. This last month, she spent approximately $52k. Her thought process on the purchases:

-wanted to buy a RV, realized the maintenance and storage is not worth it. hence decided to rent one for our annual camping trip instead.

-since renting a RV, maybe she can buy a houseboat instead. found a good deal for a rental, so she rented a houseboat until the end of the year.

-now that she got the houseboat, it sure would be nice to rent some jetskis to go with it. searching around for jetskis, found a good deal and by one instead.

-since she got a jetski, she needs a new truck and trailer to tow the jetski. so she wenting shopping on Monday and purchase a new truck and trailer.

All these purchases have given her much fuel for discussions with her friends. Her though process is just plain scary! And when she asked us to join her for the a weekend of fun at the lake, most of us turn her down because we have other plans. She was really disappointed and hurt.

I think you have to be content with what you do have to be happy. My husband and I made a pact when we got married to not to upgrade our lifestyle quickly with an increase income. We do not have paid TV, eat out as much, or have as much "toys" as our friends, but sometimes I think we are happier than they are. Even if one of us stop working, we can manage our current lifestyle without too much hardship. I think having that peace of mind is worth more than anything else.

Like weiszguy said, I am too invested in the social network in my community. I love to travel, but I really cannot see myself away from my home for more than 1 month out of the year. I like my home and I like my friends. It took a few years to establish this after moving here. I am not sure I am willing to give that up just yet.

My husband is does not fill every social role that I need in my life. I think that if you are location independent, you have to be satisfy with whatever social role your spouse can fill. My husband is my best friend and we can talk for hours. But he cannot fill the role of my girl friends where we get together and talk about the things that he will never understand. Sure, you can talk on the phone with your friends, but it is not the same. You do not connect the same way as you do with a face to face conversation.