Do you have a money tree?

[953 nut 60,348]

 

How much would you like to bet that most people don’t know August 14 is National Financial Awareness Day?

It’s more important than you think. And plus, what’s more fun than financial independence? First off, think about that great feeling you get when you don’t have the looming specter of debt hanging over you.  Also, sound financial decisions can really make a difference down the road. Remember, retirement is a time to take all those vacations you couldn’t when you were working the daily grind. Because money is important to our overall peace of mind, Financial Awareness Day is a great time to review where you are now and where you’re going financially.  Don’t let bad financial decisions ruin the best years of your life!

Start saving, investing, and building up that nest egg on National Financial Awareness Day on August 14.

Investing will make money do the work for us, which will result in less time spent working and leave more time for us to enjoy our lives. David Ravetch, a senior accounting lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, says, “We live in a world of financial illiteracy.” What he means is that most of us have not acquired the knowledge and skills that are necessary to make informed and effective financial decisions with our existing financial resources.

It seems overwhelming, but everyone has the capacity to learn sound financial principles and save up. Just making small changes to our daily habits can reap great financial benefits. Finances can be quite straightforward once we distinguish our wants from our needs and take inventory of our spending. Joining an investment or money management club or consulting a financial advisor is encouraged, and books and blogs on personal finance are promoted.

 

 

[SylvanLakeWH 28,588]

Unfortunately, our Country has been doing the Candid Camera routine since the advent of the Great Society... sooner... later... we run out of ink and paper... 

[WHX?? 51,909]

@Achto lost his wallet on the plow field now he has a money tree. 

He was planning for the future but then bought more horses ...

[Beap52 1,479]

I have was a wife that used her work bonuses and doubled the principal on house payment, (Look at a amortization schedule.  The first month's payment might be $200.  $190 interest and $10 principal.  By kicking in an additional ten dollars you've just paid two months payment.  Of course the return diminishes the later in the payment schedule but for us it was wise decision,) 

 

We've only purchased one new vehicle in our 48 years of marriage.  I've never owned a new lawn tractor.  

 

Living modestly, we were debt free when I was 35 years old and have managed to remain so. 

 

I saw a graft showing that something like 15% of married 30-somethings are on tract to owning a home.  To me, that's a sad statistic. 

[Brockport Bill 1,971]

2 hours ago, Beap52 said:

I have was a wife that used her work bonuses and doubled the principal on house payment, (Look at a amortization schedule.  The first month's payment might be $200.  $190 interest and $10 principal.  By kicking in an additional ten dollars you've just paid two months payment.  Of course the return diminishes the later in the payment schedule but for us it was wise decision,) 

 

We've only purchased one new vehicle in our 48 years of marriage.  I've never owned a new lawn tractor.  

 

Living modestly, we were debt free when I was 35 years old and have managed to remain so. 

 

I saw a graft showing that something like 15% of married 30-somethings are on tract to owning a home.  To me, that's a sad statistic. 

SMART of you both......Knowing and understanding an amortization schedule for a mortgage for your home is one of life's most important pieces of financial knowledge....and then acting accordingly. 

Sadly most homeowners don't take the time to actually look at it.

..

[C-85 768]

We've paid off our mortgage early too and have been debt free for many years.   When we watch TV we see all kinds of ads for National Debt Relief and can't believe that many people would need that service, but apparently they do.  We've never made that much money but have all we need and more.  An old fella once told me that "it's not what you make, it's what you spend that counts."

I jokingly tell people that "we can't afford a down payment on a free lunch!"   One of my nicknames is - Dirt Poor Denny!

 

C-85 aka Dennis

[953 nut 60,348]

Any "EXTRA MONEY" had always gone to paying down the mortgage in the early years. We have purchased a few new cars over the years, but not until we were debt free and could pay cash for them. When 401K savings programs became available my wife and I both invested the maximum amount that was allowed plus continuing to fund our IRAs. The money in those funds allowed us to know that we could retire some day. Being frugal allowed us to retire when we were sixty one years old and build our North Carolina home for cash. 

It is a sham that our schools don't teach financial literacy beginning at an early age, then again many of the teachers and administrators need some education along these lines too.            

[Gasaholic 304]

Yeah .. my money tree is a $50K portfolio that pays me $550+ a month in dividends monthly average (over 6K a year) which I've been compounding back into it along with adding another $100/month every month 

[rmaynard 16,371]

Our only income is Social Security, a very small pension that my wife receives after retiring from the library, and my RMD (minimum required distribution from my IRA), we are very happy that we paid off our mortgage early and started to put that money into savings. We don't have car payments. My wife knows exactly how much money we need each month for regular bills, and we pay for everything with a credit card that earns us cash back. That credit card is paid off every month. We locked our credit reports so that credit card offers stop. I feel sorry for those who max out one card, get another, and so on. As those ads on TV say, you will never pay them off only making the minimum payments. When you hear that nearly half of Americans have $500 or less in their savings accounts, you have to wonder if schools even teach anything about budgets and finance to our students. 

 

I'll get off my soap box now 

[953 nut 60,348]

On 8/15/2025 at 9:32 AM, rmaynard said:

we pay for everything with a credit card that earns us cash back. That credit card is paid off every month

The first  time my mother saw me pay for groceries with a credit card she thought I had run out of money and couldn't pay for them. I told her about the cash-back and how much money is added to my Roth IRA each year from the credit card.

Our credit has been frozen for about twenty years, when that was first offered we got on that program and haven't needed to thaw it yet. 

Edited Saturday at 10:52 PM by 953 nut

[Brockport Bill 1,971]

Baby boomers like me grew up with parents who when they grew up were children of the depression and also typically WW2 vets -- Therefore, our parents knew economic hardships in their younger life so my sisters and I were taught Economics 101 and real life graduate level finances at the kitchen table -- plus, also real life $$ examples every day of the week from Mom and Dad.

My sisters and I were fortunate to grow up in a "middle class" financial situation - In their adult years, my sisters and their families also lived a comfortable middle class life and financially secure senior years thanks to those financial lessons taught by our parents. 

My most basic learning about finances and economics from my Dad actually is a tractor story - no not a WH - but still it was a tractor story.

When I was age 14, I harrassed my Dad until he caved and he bought a Montgomery Wards tractor with mower and plow -- In those days lawn/garden tractors, or the then versions of riding mowers, were rare in a typical subdivision neighborhood. I had the idea as a teenager I should have a tractor to mow neighbors lawns and plow their winter snow rather than me use a push mower or a snow shovel. Of course I had zero $ to buy a tractor myself.

So my Dad said "sure, I'll buy the tractor and you will keep a log journal and you will keep 40 % and since I your Dad am fronting the $$ you will pay me 60 percent" -- ( including Dad paying for gas, oil, belts, blades, parts, etc).

My lesson over about 5 years, age 14 to 18, was about $$ capital, loans, expenses, overhead, time value of money, interest earned or lost, labor expenses, ROI, etc -- 

Best $$ lessons I ever learned that served me well the rest of my life was from a tractor - and now I am doing a WH tractor rehab project with my age 12 grandsons - explaining the same $$$ lessons I was taught.... ( and as footnote my Dad "gave" me his 60% share back as a contribution for some of my college expenses).

and as a p.s. to the story -- while I strongly believe consumer finances should be a mandatory course in the schools ( but mostly is not ) , I have zero confidence my grandchildren will learn most of those economic and financial lessons in school.  

[lynnmor 7,858]

On 8/15/2025 at 7:44 AM, 953 nut said:

 

It is a sham that our schools don't teach financial literacy beginning at an early age, then again many of the teachers and administrators need some education along these lines too.            

I believe that teachers and administrators are government employees with a pension, every dime they make can be blown immediately with the taxpayers supporting their retirement. 

[Razorback 1,133]

13 minutes ago, lynnmor said:

I believe that teachers and administrators are government employees with a pension, every dime they make can be blown immediately with the taxpayers supporting their retirement. 

Amen, brother. It's quite an empire they have built for themselves. Not a fan of the public school system. I hope that the dismantling of the federal Dept of Education is a step towards getting our kids educated again. 

[Handy Don 14,129]

On 8/15/2025 at 7:44 AM, 953 nut said:

then again many of the teachers and administrators need some education along these lines too

I was the implementation lead on a project to transition a huge Virginia school district onto a new payroll system. Their original system paid teachers, aides, cafeteria workers, etc, over ten months, Sept-Jun, which was challenging for household budgeting, heath insurance payments, etc. While we were in the midst of fixing that, and other shortcomings, one administrator (only half-jokingly) said that many teachers would be happy if we could just pay their bills and give them an allowance! I realized in that moment that to succeed, our project had to include a lot of guidance and education for all the educators and staff and adjusted our plans accordingly.