Money

The other week in clam we talked about the dreaded word.... money. However I'm a nerd and its something I've thought quite a bit about. A little background first. I come from a single income family of twelve people. Due to this fact money has always been a part of my life. I got my first job at 15 and have never been unemployed since. Through this my dad has taught me great money management skills.... the hard way needless to say. My parents have never borrowed me a dollar in my life. My dad always taught me if I didn't have cash for it I didn't need it. While kids in high school were playing les pauls and pearl drum kits their parents bought them I was rocking a $50 dollar first act guitar that i bought from the neighbor. When i turned 16 my friends would show me their new cars while I drove a 94 mini van. I don't say this is as a poor me story but a reference to that fact that I have a good handle on the value of a dollar. Many of my friends talk about their 80-150k in student loans they have and complain about being broke after maxing out their credit cards.... On the other hand i've worked two jobs throughout college and paid cash for a significant part of my degree.... My student loan debut is that of a middle of the road new car.... well shy of a mortgage.

So in calm when we talk about money and retirement i don't freak out because I understand that a majority of the time we have a spending problem which is easily fixable as opposed to an income problem. Learning to live with-in your means is more valuable than having a high paying job. Mel Gibson is broke and he's made millions.

The main point in class was investment and retirement. I feel like the numbers at face value seem high... like saving 3,000 dollars a year. When in reality that's two gigs a month or saving the money from 5 lessons every week. Much more due-able from that perspective. And on second thought if I could opt out of social security that'd be a couple thousand I could invest every year as well.... but thats a whole different subject. I guess I'm also much more inclined to invest in a business model that will produce an income stream for life instead of sitting on a pot of cash and hoping it grows as much as i'd like in the stock market. Also what do you do if you outlive your pot of cash? People live to their 90's in my family. If i retire at 60 thats thirty years of income i'll need. At a modest 30,000 a year life style i would need close to a million dollars in retirement to live until i'm 90.