Yeah huh.

No it isn't. Live below your means. Why is this concept so hard for people to understand?
Some of you think I live in a shit hole in Lakemoor. Could I literally have bought a better house? Probably. But we live below our means. So we have savings. So we don't carry credit card debt.

I service the homes of so many people with big ass fucking houses, like 5000 sq. Foot homes with one or two kids that could be living in a place like mine but when their furnace blows up they can't do shit because they're leveraged up to their eyeballs because of too much show home, Lexus cars, Viking appliances and what not.. it is so stupid.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Even if you live below your means it's hard to save 6 mo salary. I (we) live below our means but sometimes that's a trade off to do something else. I know the people you are talking about in a general sense but that doesn't make them awful people.

The 96' Bulls mean more to me than our troops. Anyone can dive on a live grenade to sacrifice their life to save a comrade but few can drain shots like Kukoc could.

Stupid people aren't awful people. They're just stupid.
If you can't save half a year's salary by the time you're 40 you're not living below your means. YOU might be living within them. But not below them.
How is this simple concept so complicated for some folks?

Again, there are extenuating circumstances like accidents and illnesses. I know this.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

and having kids.

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To the point Darko is making about an amount of savings he is right. Spaulding though is on point that it is very hard to do IF you are not taught to do that early on. If you are not shown at an early age and more importantly when you are leaving college on that first real job to save 10% minimum of every single check you get it is hard. Getting to having a half year's salary is a long term goal/effort. Trying in your 30's after you are already on the hamster wheel it is nearly impossible.

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Elections have consequences.

i had a very unconventional journey through adolescence and into adulthood, and didn't have the cookie cutter midwest suburban lifestyle to hold onto.

i can't really relate to the writer of the piece, but i can appreciate those who are struggling, even if they made the wrong choices. it's just purely judgmental to declare everyone who doesn't have the "$400 for emergency" as stupid or lazy.

but you're right, pitt, it's very hard to climb uphill the older you get.

Personal finance absolutely needs to be taught in school and starting at a younger age. The only true personal finance class I was ever in was in college, and it was in the college of business as a 300 level class. Prior to that I recall 12 week session on stock picking. The irony is the absolute last thing you want to teach people about investing is looking at a short time period and see who can make the most money. The most important thing for 90% of students is to learn to buy the whole market and watch expense ratios and fees. The fact that Edward Jones has over 800B of investment assets means these lessons aren't taught.

Best lesson I was ever taught was you don't save. Your retirement is a monthly expense like anything else. You don't set aside what was left over.

You are projecting that on everyone.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

This all sounds nice, but then life happens. My dad had over a million in his retirement account on paper at one point and a good job. Then 2007-8 hit. The account tanked to about half of that. He was making good money then was laid off. When you lose the monthly income you don't have time to wait until your holdings bounce back either. And his health started to go.

It goes quick. Even several hundred thousand. What about the millions without any retirement savings? Don't think there is a social structure in place to take care of all of them.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Don't worry, helicopter money may be coming sooner than you think:

http://image.exct.net/lib/ff02127074650 ... y+2016.pdf

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This.

This is by far the best post in this thread. Most people prefer to appear to have money, than to actually have money.

wait, Lakemoor is a real place? I thought it was some made up place.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I don't understand your point, since your Dad saved, panic sold when he was laid off, personal finance and investing shouldn't be taught to other people?

Where would he have been if he didn't have that 500K when he was laid off.

4 pages & not one Dusty Rhodes referrence.

This isn't a thread for the common man.

You clearly did not get the point. And it was not "panic selling", there were bills and no job. The point is that he was that he was fairly well prepared, and it vanished fairly quick. Now what happens to the millions with nothing saved?

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

I forget 2008 and no job could lead to uncapped medical expenses. Don't really have an answer for those with no savings. A good chuck of my wives family falls into the bucket.

I agree that people are stupid about planning, but if it is half of the US population or possibly more what does that mean? Feels like the recipe for an epic collapse.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?