Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 31 to 42 of 42

Thread: Tough spots and a 401K

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    South Bend IN 46613
    Posts
    843
    I have gotten the okay from Meg to start keeping track of where our money goes. We pay bills on Thursday nights: my wife works at our credit union and knows what the deposit is going to be on Friday, bills are then mailed on Friday. I am going to do a fairly simple small notepad and pencil to keep track then transfer to an Excel spread sheet once a week. It will be interesting to see if I stick with it.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "You don't have to give birth to someone to have a family." (Sandra Bullock)




  2. #32
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    5,427
    If you're really mailing your bills you can probably save some money on stamps and checks by doing online payments where possible. You probably bank at the credit union and they may offer free online billpay.

  3. #33
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Los Chavez, New Mexico
    Posts
    753
    Blog Entries
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by Moses Yoder View Post
    I looked at "Mint" and find it utterly astounding that people will actually give access to all of their accounts to a third party. Astounding. I would love to have a free program similar to the "Quicken" I used to use, where you simply enter your expenditures and designate a category and it will do all sorts of reports for you.
    Look at GnuCash, runs on almost everything and works great for home accts

  4. #34
    No one has mentioned this but I wonder about what you will do after this "event" is sorted out. You mentioned in first post that you lacked any "certificates". That pushes you into less well paid jobs. Should you not consider becoming certified in something, go to night school if necessary, learn and earn.
    Al

  5. #35
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    South Bend IN 46613
    Posts
    843
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Elfert View Post
    If you're really mailing your bills you can probably save some money on stamps and checks by doing online payments where possible. You probably bank at the credit union and they may offer free online billpay.
    A couple is made of two people. I would love to do online bill paying. My wife distrusts all things electronic. In other words, there is no way in hell we will ever do online bill paying. A few of our bills are auto withdrawals; I thank my stars she allowed that much.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "You don't have to give birth to someone to have a family." (Sandra Bullock)




  6. #36
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    South Bend IN 46613
    Posts
    843
    Quote Originally Posted by Alan Beech View Post
    No one has mentioned this but I wonder about what you will do after this "event" is sorted out. You mentioned in first post that you lacked any "certificates". That pushes you into less well paid jobs. Should you not consider becoming certified in something, go to night school if necessary, learn and earn.
    Al
    This is an interesting proposition here, one I have given considerable thought to. I was raised to believe I was too stupid to accomplish anything. Seriously, every night my dad sat at the supper table and told us how worthless we were. I was the personality type that believed him. My brother refused to believe him and is now an electronic engineer. He works about 80 hours a week, his wife threatens to kill herself every week, his son is in jail, but overall they are pretty well off. So far as I know they do not have problems paying their bills now, although at one point they were nearly bankrupt.

    I met my wife and gradually accepted the fact that someone could love me, that I was worth something. I stumbled into cabinetmaking and have been there ever since; steady work but does not pay much. Now I have 20 years to go before I retire on Social Security and build stuff to sell out of my shop. We are not going to discuss relying on SS for retirement. With 20 years to go is it worth changing careers? How would I finance an education and then pay it off? Or should I rely on the government to forgive college loans? What occupation would I apply for? I like computers and realize now that I am more than smart enough to go into IT or programming or whatever, I just did not feel that way when I got out of high school which is when it really should have been pursued.

    Then there is the fact that I like my job now. I start work at 5:30 am and am usually done at 2 pm. My wife and I both have a credit score over 800. In 24 years of marriage we have never had a bill that we we didn't eventually pay. One thing I noticed this summer as I was selling tools is that as I made money, I spent it. I wonder if it would not be the same if I switched careers.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "You don't have to give birth to someone to have a family." (Sandra Bullock)




  7. #37
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Fort Wayne IN
    Posts
    1,210
    Moses,

    if you want to return to school, apply for financial aid. You might qualify for Pell Grants which are gifts from the government. If you are not sure what you would like to do, there are assessment tests available at the colleges that can identify what you have an aptitude for.

    Good Luck...
    Last edited by Raymond Fries; 09-12-2014 at 8:51 AM.
    Sometimes decisions from the heart are better than decisions from the brain.

    Enjoy Life...

  8. #38
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Cincinnati Ohio
    Posts
    4,731
    Quote Originally Posted by Raymond Fries View Post
    Moses,

    if you want to return to school, apply for financial aid. You might qualify for Pell Grants which are gifts from the government. If you are not sure what you would like to do, there assessment tests available at the colleges that can identify what you have an aptitude for.

    Good Luck...
    I use to work with a lady who son took an assessment tests at a local collage. Test came back he should train to be a Mime. LOL!!!!
    "Remember back in the day, when things were made by hand, and people took pride in their work?"
    - Rick Dale

  9. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Lehnert View Post
    I use to work with a lady who son took an assessment tests at a local collage. Test came back he should train to be a Mime. LOL!!!!
    Was it an oral exam where he refused to talk?

  10. #40
    Quote Originally Posted by Moses Yoder View Post
    This is an interesting proposition here, one I have given considerable thought to. I was raised to believe I was too stupid to accomplish anything. Seriously, every night my dad sat at the supper table and told us how worthless we were. I was the personality type that believed him. My brother refused to believe him and is now an electronic engineer. He works about 80 hours a week, his wife threatens to kill herself every week, his son is in jail, but overall they are pretty well off. So far as I know they do not have problems paying their bills now, although at one point they were nearly bankrupt.

    I met my wife and gradually accepted the fact that someone could love me, that I was worth something. I stumbled into cabinetmaking and have been there ever since; steady work but does not pay much. Now I have 20 years to go before I retire on Social Security and build stuff to sell out of my shop. We are not going to discuss relying on SS for retirement. With 20 years to go is it worth changing careers? How would I finance an education and then pay it off? Or should I rely on the government to forgive college loans? What occupation would I apply for? I like computers and realize now that I am more than smart enough to go into IT or programming or whatever, I just did not feel that way when I got out of high school which is when it really should have been pursued.

    Then there is the fact that I like my job now. I start work at 5:30 am and am usually done at 2 pm. My wife and I both have a credit score over 800. In 24 years of marriage we have never had a bill that we we didn't eventually pay. One thing I noticed this summer as I was selling tools is that as I made money, I spent it. I wonder if it would not be the same if I switched careers.
    Moses, pardon me for getting a chuckle out of this, but when this text is taken by itself it's pretty amusing:

    >>He works about 80 hours a week, his wife threatens to kill herself every week, his son is in jail, but overall they are pretty well off<<

    I can imagine Ricky from trailer park boys describing someone using all of those same words in that order.

    As far as your dad goes and college stuff and going to hell, there was a lot of that where I grew up, some of it separate. There were a few religious sects around us who told their members that, I suspect because they believed it was bad for membership and a reasoning group of individuals would be too much trouble for the leadership. My grandfather told my mother the same thing, though. My mother was college bound, and her father said to her "I don't know why you are opening those books, you're not college material". He wanted her to get outside and work (on the farm). I guess he didn't know she was college bound, but to this day, she still gets irritated by that - it drove her to succeed and outdo her sister (who had gotten great marks in school and was in college).

    I see some parallels between what you say and where I grew up (which is an area dominated by germans who fled germany in the 1700s, some amish and some not).

    I personally think you should consider what you want to do and do it, you can ultimately do anything you really want to do. If you want to change careers, and you can map out a plan of how it would be feasible, you can do it. But if you don't want to really change careers, then don't - you're ultimately the boss of what you do.

  11. #41
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Hanover IL
    Posts
    20
    Moses, years ago my wife and I were in a very tight situation and really had no choice but to cut spending to the bone. I mean we weighed every penny we spent. We even gave up the daily newspaper to save the 50 cents. We had a woodstove insert in our fireplace, bought in better times, so we heated our 2 story house with wood and turned off the furnace. We never went out to eat, too much money. we were forced to do this for several years til we got out of the hole. in all this time we always made our two thousand contribution to our IRAs. We could not afford this, but it came first, before anything else. We knew we,d need this down the line if we ever hoped to retire. In short the key to success is to control your outgo, cut out every thing possible in your budget and you'll manage and hopefully not have to touch your 401K. I've now been retired 22years and well off. Hope you can do the same. Good luck to you.

  12. #42
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    NW Indiana
    Posts
    3,078
    Not all people who go to college and work 80 hours end up with that situation. It is all up to the person and family. During my career, there were times when the job required a lot of hours and my family worked out pretty well. Being successful and working a lot of hours does not equate with having a family with all types of issues.

    As mentioned, each person ends up making the choices as to what they want to try for or maybe they are happy with the way things are. There are a lot of good career choices out there that do not need a college degree but rather a technical training from a local school. In my area, the community colleges offer all types of 2 year programs that can lead to good jobs. One just needs to determine what is best for themselves.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •