"Investing" in stuff

[BFD]

I never made any real money. Spent a lot of time in a ditch with a shovel. I am 59 and pretty much do what I want now. I think the most important thing is to control your spending. When I first moved to Ak 35 years ago I made a goal to save 10000 a year. Pretty much stuck to it just leaving it in the stock market. Had cash when good opportunities showed up. The small investments I did best on were some land I subdivided and a house I bought when the market collapsed in 1986. My take live within your means save and wait for opportunities, timing can be your best investment.

[GeezerSteve]

If you have any brains at all, invest in learning to do something that you reasonably enjoy and that earns money.

I think the most important thing is to control your spending.

A combination of the two worked for me, although I gave more weight to the latter because I preferred to spend less and work less than full time. I had a law partner for 10 years who year after year busted his ass and made roughly twice as much as I did but he spent whatever he made. When we dissolved our partnership 10 years ago I learned that while I was maxing out my contribution to our firm's 401k every year he had put in nearly nothing, est. 5% of what I had. He is now with his 4th wife, a young kid (his 3rd) and a big fat house payment, i.e., the work-'til-you-die plan. (I flew solo after that, maxing my SEP-IRA each year.)

I used to tell him that the fastest way to fill a leaky bucket is to plug the holes.

[BFD]

Whoever thought live simply so others may simply live would turn out to be good financial advice.

[Danno]

I'm not trying to piss in anyone's Cheerios but it's not that simple. You'll face Diamond Joe's problem no matter what if you're using bank financing for any additional property purchase after your already (assuming financed one - or face arduous underwriting hurdles).

Assuming you own a place and want to rent it out and want to buy a new owner occupied property (and will need to mortgage it and the one you're leaving still has a mortgage on it) the bank will require either proof that the old one is rented, the new one is not going to be the rental (substantial value increase and not in a vacation area) or an increased down payment as DJ stated.

Long story short, if any mortgage other than the one you're trying to get shows up on credit (and it's not a home that you're selling) the bank will make you either pay more or jump through some serious hoops to make sure it's a rental or o/o (which in some cases means higher rates/more down payment/guarantor, etc).

ymmv.

Yes, YMMV, because this was not true for me. Sure, it was not the same as walking in for a first home, but I found lenders that were willing to count some not-yet-earned income from the rental of the existing house as part of the transaction, and because it was not a rental purchase, did not even require 20% down. Of course, I had a lot of equity in the existing home, and live in a hot market where there is very little chance of foreclosure or rental vacancy.

[GeezerSteve]

Whoever thought live simply so others may simply live would turn out to be good financial advice.

Lots of people, e..g.:
--Ben Franklin
--Henry David Thoreau
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
--Possum Living (1978)
--Your Money or Your Life (1992)
--The Millionaire Next Door (1996)

These days Mr. Money Mustache -- Financial Freedom Through Badassity peddles the "theology of conservation—disguised as a personal-finance advice column."

[El Chupacabra]

I had a law partner for 10 years who year after year busted his ass and made roughly twice as much as I did but he spent whatever he made.

This, 1000X this. I see this everywhere. This is why there are so many people earning $100K/150K/250K/etc per year, who live paycheck-to-paycheck: they just spend it all.

[Timberridge]

Blurred?

Fry cook> Restaurant concierge
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article...ce=twitter.com

"The only visible employee present is a single "concierge" available to assist customers struggling with the high-tech devices."

[XXX-er]

In Niseko the ski hill cafeterias did not have cashiers, you select what you wana eat from a bunch of pictures which may or may not have engrish, feed bills & coin into a m/c which spits out your change & a ticket which you hand to someone at a counter, your food shows up in 10min or so ...Hai!

[Benny Profane]

This, 1000X this. I see this everywhere. This is why there are so many people earning $100K/150K/250K/etc per year, who live paycheck-to-paycheck: they just spend it all.

This is your next great social upheaval. Everybody's talking about the poor working class, but, they're fucked, have been for a while, and nothings saving them. Next are the upper middle class with zero savings, deep in debt with mortgages, car loans, education bills and loans, and credit card debt, just a few paychecks from poverty. AI will eliminate their jobs, along with Internet outsourcing. Maybe some will have family to fall back on, but their aging parents are already stressed big time.

[Timberridge]

In Niseko the ski hill cafeterias did not have cashiers, you select what you wana eat from a bunch of pictures which may or may not have engrish, feed bills & coin into a m/c which spits out your change & a ticket which you hand to someone at a counter, your food shows up in 10min or so ...Hai!

I will add they make beautiful fake food in Japan. It was the only way for sure to order as a non-japanese speaking gaijin in some areas.

[PNWbrit]

In Niseko the ski hill cafeterias did not have cashiers, you select what you wana eat from a bunch of pictures which may or may not have engrish, feed bills & coin into a m/c which spits out your change & a ticket which you hand to someone at a counter, your food shows up in 10min or so ...Hai!

How did you do the breakfast buffets?

[BmillsSkier]

How did you do the breakfast buffets?

Precisely why Benny lives in Frisco and not Niseko.

No free breakfast meats.

[XXX-er]

How did you do the breakfast buffets?

great! I got the right jeans eh?

edit: re-read that and i think you could get the buffet from a machine but the buffets were at the more upscale restaurants so they had an engrish speaking person minding the till

[54-46]

Art? Art is funny - I bought a Max Beckmann print in Munich in 1989 for ~$300, and saw the same one recently sold for E4800.

https://www.lempertz.com/en/catalogu...-beckmann.html

Last time I checked before a few years ago, it hadn't appreciated much. Hard to tell if/when to sell.

I think it's interesting. Wife hates it. E-ther, I-ther...let's call the whole thing off...