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Thread ID: 66172	2006-02-13 21:32:00	Retirement planning - boring but necessary!	Tony (4941)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
430136	2006-02-23 05:34:00	It's simple. Your bank will love you if you use your credit card to pay off a mortgage. :D As for the magic of compound interest ... Scott Adams (the Dilbert man) in one of his books gave a way to make everyone rich. At birth, deposit $100 in a bank acount for the child. Governments could do this, he suggests. After a number of years, by the "magic of compound interest" these accounts would mean that noone was poor. He then remarks that what would happen is that by fees and other tricks, the banks would have managed to get all the money, and everyone would owe the banks money. The only good result, he thought, would be that all the bankers would be killed. That book has a number of such economic ideas, presented as jokes. Like dereguklation of power generation and distribution. This might, he thouight, lead to advertisements on the lines of "Our power is better than theirs". He thought he was joking. :( I think that Blair's government (The Labour government you get if you think that Mrs Thatcher was Labour) has done the investment at birth trick. It wil be interesting toi see the results in Britaion.	Graham L (2)
430137	2006-02-23 19:37:00	... would it be better to defer LR investments to later? Every year deferred is lost interest in the long-term. Remember $50 per month is about 2-3 coffees per week. Not a real hardship. You are right and agreeing with me. Pay off the mortgage first. Getting that monkey off you back is a great relief. We now go on big overseas holidays, have $$$ in the bank, I have my dream car. We also save over half our net salary into various investments. !!!! CLEAR YOUR DEBTS !!!! otherwise the bank will love you, and keep offering you more and more credit. Never buy anything on Hire-Purchase. Always save for what you want. If you must use your credit card, pay it off in full each month. Don't get sucked into the consumer-credit spiral. Things do not make you happy, people do.	KiwiTT_NZ (233)
430138	2006-02-23 19:45:00	Never buy anything on Hire-Purchase. Always save for what you want. If you must use your credit card, pay it off in full each month. Don't get sucked into the consumer-credit spiral.I would agree with all of that, with one proviso. The only time to sign up for a HP agreement is if you can get one of these interest-free deals, and (very important) you pay it all off within the interest-free period. Paying off the credit card in full each month is a very good thing.	Tony (4941)
430139	2006-02-23 20:04:00	KiwiTT - did you raise a bunch of rug rats during the time you were paying off your mortgage? Just interested in how you did it, because we were not able to do more than the basic payments whilst we were raising our brood of locusts, then by the time they were leaving home (yeah, right!) we had the older generation to subsidise/frequently fly to see and put them back together, and now they have gone we have grandchildren who seem destined to take over from our children as the next set of locusts. We have now paid off our mortgage, and we have had some big trips, but it has been in our 50's before we could accomplish that. How did you do it?	John H (8)
430140	2006-02-23 20:23:00	No Rug-Rats. That helped for sure. But the biggest help was increasing our salaries by an average of 15% per year while we paying it off (average is now 8%). Every increase went straight onto the principle repayment. As our salary increased we did not increase our lifestyle. I suspect most people could clear their mortgage in 10-15 years, with a lot of hard work. Our 5 years is certainly an exception to the rule.	KiwiTT_NZ (233)
430141	2006-02-23 20:46:00	Zowie, five years! My daughter and son in law who both work in the finance industry and who are currently rug ratless seem to be doing amazing things with their mortgage as well . A high base salary and regular impressive increases help! If you work in areas like my wife and I have all our lives (teaching and social work), you tend not to get either . . . I should have followed my father's advice and stayed with the law (my first qual), but I would probably be dead by now if I had . I guess it is a no-brainer to choose a happier and longer life and a poorer retirement, than a miserable life and either no retirement or a rich and miserable one as a bitter old man!	John H (8)
430142	2006-02-23 20:52:00	I started on $10 and my wife on $7, we have more than tripled these in under 20 years, by increasing our skillsets in IT and Teaching respectively. We did have to move from job to job (i.e. 3 years here, 7 year there, etc.). You can't usually stay in the same company and step up.	KiwiTT_NZ (233)
430143	2006-02-23 20:56:00	Our first house would have been paid off in approx 10 yrs give or take a yr . . . (most of that was rugratless . . . . . ) . . . . . . but needed bigger better he said, and we never got past 20 yrs to go with 2nd house . . . . . and now we have no house, no debt apart from my student loan . . . . . but no home . . . . . :( Not sure it was worth working so hard now, and have nothing to show for it . . . . . . . . Money saved now, or even in the bank at the moment helps me not because the prices of house's have gone up . . . . I dont want to be sick, alone or poor when im old . . . . . . . . . . . and what money i have now unless i save it, wont be there by then . . . . . . . . . . . . . and everyone wants there share before i get old . . . . . . . . . tax, banks, living, emergencys, and children . . . . . . :stare: beetle	beetle (243)
430144	2006-02-23 21:01:00	We bought a modest 2 brdm place in a good area. Just right for our needs.	KiwiTT_NZ (233)
430145	2006-02-24 20:14:00	1 . Mortgage paid off asap but a small Auto transfer savings account with the bank keeps the savings habit going at the same time . 2 . Having any amount saved is a nice back stop for emergences . 3 . Don't borrow on items that deprecate in value . Save the amount needed first, it's cheaper . :2cents: 4 . Pay off the credit card balance every month, why should they have your hard earned money . 5 . If you have to borrow, upping the mortgage is usually the cheapest option but pay it back as quickly as possible . No mortgage ~ Auto bank transfer every pay day to a high interest savings account ~ several available at over 7% interest with no fees or minimum deposit at the moment . SuperBank is one (all online) . You will soon have enough to invest elsewhere . Fun ~ Make up a large multi coloured spreadsheet graph to watch the savings increase . Don't go window shopping when the shops are open and don't have kids late in life if possible . Paying child support till 64 isn't a good option :thumbs: Best .	Sue (33)
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