Comments on: What it feels like to be Rich

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 18:55:00 +0000

Stay strong, mama. I’m your age as well, and a married mom of three. We have made a lot of mistakes over the years, and are just starting to see things more clearly. Student loans up the wazoo? Check. Lost home to foreclosure? Check. Credit card debt? Check. Drove two cars when we only needed one? Check, check, check. Some of us start later in life, it’s o.k. It’s your life, not anyone else’s. The only thing we did right was keep our little family strong. You have strengths as well. Are your federal student loans being repaid under the IBR plan? I’d look into it. After ten years in the public sector, or 20 years in repayment in any market, your federal loans are forgiven (someone please correct me if I’m wrong). And it’s true that singles get hit hard by taxes. Start studying ways to reduce your taxable income. Look at ways to decrease your biggest expenses (probably rent, then debt?) Don’t underestimate what lowering your rent $100-200 can do for your finances, and therefore your happiness. The child will help, tax wise, and you will be able to deduct her child care expenses. Find a decent consignment store, and buy and resell all your daughter’s clothing. Garage sales are good in my area so I buy all my kid’s clothes there, then resell at a higher rate at consignment when they outgrow them. Our adult clothes are re-sold on ebay. Nearly everything we own is purchased used, and then resold later. Our groceries come from the day-old bread store, and a grocery outlet. No big deal. We survive, learn, and our kids learn from it as well. Also, one word of advice, you are still in the trenches. Still recovering emotionally and physically. Your babe is young. It gets better, I promise. The hormones adjust (for me around a year after birth, but I nurse so it probably takes longer for me than some), and you just start to feel more like yourself, you know? Anyway, don’t let the haters get you down. You actually make a good salary, (more than us!) but you are in an expensive part of the country, and I’m pretty confident your debt is a huge portion of your budget. You can do this. It took years to get through school, the debt will take years to go away. Just like building savings will take years. Start small, work your way up.

By: eh

eh — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 20:50:00 +0000

Yes but in Yugoslavia that kind of ethnic hatred only came about precisely because of the United States applying economic pressures and stirring up old hatreds — ironic since in the time of Tito and Yugoslavia’s version of State-Capitalism, Yugoslavians saw eachother as brothers.

By: Rafer Johnson

Rafer Johnson — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:38:00 +0000

Um……….”stop whingeing”?

By: Rafer Johnson

Rafer Johnson — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:32:00 +0000

I agree Zack, I hope those who come after me have the same opportunity I did. What a wonder of a nation.

By: dratman

dratman — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 05:41:00 +0000

That is wonderful. Is that a quote (“if you’re wealthy, death is the ultimate loss. If you’re poor, death is the ultimate relief”), or is that your own writing? Because it’s brilliant.

I actually feel both ways about death at the same time. My feeling on the subject is something like this line from near the end of the song “Old Man River”:

“I’m tired of living, but scared of dying.”

We really have very little control of our lives, almost no control. We can gamble, sure, but we can’t determine whether we will win or lose in terms of happiness, satisfaction, wealth. Almost anything you can think of is actually outside our control.

Your own health and the health and survival of people you love are the most meaningful results of life. But those are largely outside the realm of our control, and ever more so as we grow older.

By: dratman

dratman — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 05:22:00 +0000

I like this a lot.

By: Meme

Meme — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 01:11:00 +0000

Or get a house with an extra room or two and invite another solo mother and child to live with you and share costs (company,too!) or get students in to help pay your bills. Don’t freak out, plenty of people have nothing at 40 and still make out OK.

By: kitkat30

kitkat30 — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 06:50:00 +0000

I never feel like I have enough money, some times it is like my own prison for me. I do not make nearly what you do, my husband and I live in a small condo and make due. When we hit $10,000 in our savings a couple months ago that was our goal, but then suddenly it didn’t feel like enough for us even though before I thought that was a lot.

I think no matter how much you have, it is never enough.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:08:00 +0000

I actually lost everything and then some. Best thing that’s ever happened to me. Changed my life for the better in every way! Nice article thanks!

By: Kenny Fabre

Kenny Fabre — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:23:00 +0000

James

your story is really great,, but what advice do you have for me as being an aspiring self-made multimillionaire and yes thats what I will be. I love money I want the finer things in life, but I do understand the value of money,, I understand the consequences,, and the price a person must pay for being wealthy,, right now I dont have much but I live in state of gratitude,, I’m a firm believer in the law of attraction and the power of love,, so I do understand this path that I’m choosing. SO WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR ME,, and I want to know are you still rich today,, and I do want to let you know that you can always get rich again,, and lastly,, do you still want to be rich again if you are not currently

Kenny Fabre
http://www.kfm24.com