All Things Personal Finance

[Cushi]

On 12/8/2023 at 12:50 PM, computerwiz said:

Get ready!  😎

 

 

I like Kevin and have been watching him since he started his YouTube channel. Haven’t watched much of his stuff lately, so it was good to see this. 
 

Richard Fain was saying something similar. He made a video entitled “the greatest wealth transfer in American history is coming” and was talking about how 2024 is looking like a good year for the stock market. It fired me up to invest. I started to post it here but the video was too long. Here’s a shorter video saying something similar.

 

 

[Cushi]

1 hour ago, trottigy said:

I was getting ready to post something a little more personal and then went and saw that this forum is "Available to the public". They can see comments .... It's good to remember that.

 

Anyway, we love being in California. It's been just a little over a year and soon (March'ish) we'll be looking for a home to buy. After I know the final price for where we want to live, I can make a decision as to retiring. I'm getting closer .....

Texas is a great place to retire. I know several people who moved from places like Southern California and were shocked at how cheap homes are in North Texas. True, property values have skyrocketed, but they are still relatively low in Texas. I don’t know much about the rural parts of Texas, but If you want to live in a nice city, places like Allen, McKinney, Plano, and Richardson are nice North Texas cities. If you really want to live in a nice area, Frisco is the place to go. It’s a suburb of Dallas and is extremely nice. It’s my all time favorite city in the US. 
 

The cons would be the heat in summer, North Texas being in tornado alley and occasional hail storms.

[Witness1970]

16 hours ago, *Jack* said:

Texas is a great place to retire. I know several people who moved from places like Southern California and were shocked at how cheap homes are in North Texas. True, property values have skyrocketed, but they are still relatively low in Texas. I don’t know much about the rural parts of Texas, but If you want to live in a nice city, places like Allen, McKinney, Plano, and Richardson are nice North Texas cities. If you really want to live in a nice area, Frisco is the place to go. It’s a suburb of Dallas and is extremely nice. It’s my all time favorite city in the US. 
 

The cons would be the heat in summer, North Texas being in tornado alley and occasional hail storms.

One of my older sisters lives in Kilgore, TX.  I have been there a couple of times,  It was about 40 miles east of Dallas on I20 I think.

[Cushi]

 

[computerwiz]

 

 

[computerwiz]

For those looking for a safe way to save (and not have temptation to spend the money), you can open a 7 year CD with this bank:

 

https://www.fnba.com/

 

Better to lock it in now before rates go back down!  First rate cut is expected in March of 2024...

[Hotteok]

How real is this.... CBDC thing? 

Is the concern just due to the conspiracy theory? 

For sure, China is increasing control on people,I can feel it, living near it and knowing people coming in and out of China. 

[Cushi]

Saw this some time ago. The banking industry can be truly disgusting.

 

 

[Cushi]

19 hours ago, Hotteok said:

How real is this.... CBDC thing? 

Is the concern just due to the conspiracy theory? 

For sure, China is increasing control on people,I can feel it, living near it and knowing people coming in and out of China. 

This should answer your question. Currently 130 countries are exploring a CBDC. Also watch this video where a women from the better than cash alliance is talking about CBDC.

 

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/#:~:text=130 countries%2C representing 98 percent,advanced stage of CBDC development.

 

Don’t want to get too much into the “conspiracy theory” side of it but I personally believe the purpose of a CDCD is to control and surveil citizens. In my opinion, there’s too much of a potential for control for power hungry governments to be able to resist. I’m not buying all of that financial inclusion stuff. 

[Cushi]

Here are a couple of people, who in my opinion, are unbalanced when it comes to money. There’s nothing wrong with putting things in place to retire early or having a goal of obtaining a certain amount in your IRA to live comfortably off the interest once you become old enough to withdraw it. You become unbalanced when you “wear yourself out to gain wealth” as Proverbs 23:4 cautions. You also become greedy and unbalanced when you take big risks to make money or resort to unethical practices.

 

The first guy is basically describing wearing yourself out to make money and the second guy is basically encouraging discontentment. Don’t be like these guys.

 

 

 

[Cushi]

 

[bigvince]

@Cushiso, how do I get out of carrying a balance over when charges hit after I've zeroed it and other charges come in?

[Cushi]

24 minutes ago, bigvince said:

@Cushiso, how do I get out of carrying a balance over when charges hit after I've zeroed it and other charges come in?

Just pay the new charges off when your statement balance hits. Your balance doesn’t always have to be zero. You just want to have it either low or zero when it gets reported (most likely after the statement balance hits). I personally pay my balances down to 1% right before the statement balance hits for the best credit results and then pay it off no more than 5 days afterwards but before the due date. So if I were to use 50% of my available credit, only 1% gets reported. It doesn’t matter if you always have a balance on your card as long as the statement balance is always paid before the due date.

 

Hope this helps.

[Cushi]

On 11/29/2023 at 6:34 PM, Cushi said:

I should finish up reading one book tonight so I’m going to start this one tonight or tomorrow. I was going to read it later but since I plan to start investing early next year, I want to learn more about investing and will read it now. I’ve heard a ton about the book from the Ramsey show and am looking forward to it. I’ll let you guys know what I think.

I forgot to mention that I finished reading this book a week ago. It’s a must read for anyone who plans to invest. I actually liked it more than The Total Money Makeover. He talks about how easy it is to become a millionaire if you invest wisely and are patient. It breaks a lot of stereotypes about millionaires and shows by statistical data that millionaires are quite frugal and don’t live the opulent lifestyles many people think they do.

Edited January 24 by Cushi

[computerwiz]

7 minutes ago, Cushi said:

invest wisely and are patient

 

I coulda told ya that!  You mean I coulda put that in a book and made millions off of it?  

[Cushi]

7 minutes ago, computerwiz said:

 

I coulda told ya that!  You mean I coulda put that in a book and made millions off of it?  

It’s not that you can become a millionaire. I was stressing how he was saying how easy it is. I’ve always known you can become a millionaire through the stock market. But I didn’t know how easy it was and that most millionaires in the U.S. made their millions in the stock market and that there’s about 22 million millionaires in the U.S.

[computerwiz]

3 minutes ago, Cushi said:

It’s not that you can become a millionaire. I was stressing how he was saying how easy it is. I’ve always known you can become a millionaire through the stock market. But I didn’t know how easy it was and that most millionaires in the U.S. made their millions in the stock market and that there’s about 22 million millionaires in the U.S.

 

Right.  The market is where big money is made.  Big risk = big reward.

 

Had no idea there were so many, but then again it doesn't go as far as it used to.  Many nice homes in certain areas go for half a million or more.  And that's "normal" and "to be expected".  When you count the assets, it's easy to be "millionaire" status.  But how many "millionaires" have that in liquid funds?  🧐

[Cushi]

2 minutes ago, computerwiz said:

 

Right.  The market is where big money is made.  Big risk = big reward.

 

Had no idea there were so many, but then again it doesn't go as far as it used to.  Many nice homes in certain areas go for half a million or more.  And that's "normal" and "to be expected".  When you count the assets, it's easy to be "millionaire" status.  But how many "millionaires" have that in liquid funds?  🧐

I’m trying to do things where I make more money in retirement than I did working, not the other way around. I just don’t want to take big risks. I’d rather invest in low risk, large growth stocks. I’m trying to retire with a million dollars or more, not just net worth millionaire.

[computerwiz]

3 minutes ago, Cushi said:

I just don’t want to take big risks. I’d rather invest in low risk, large growth stocks.

 

Then use Wealthfront OR buy into ETFs that resonate with you OR put money into all the big boys (Google, Apple, Tesla, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, etc etc....just pick 40-50 of them)

 

Or do all 3 if you can't make up your mind.  😅

Edited January 24 by computerwiz

[Cushi]

Just now, Cushi said:

I’m trying to do things where I make more money in retirement than I did working, not the other way around. I just don’t want to take big risks. I’d rather invest in low risk, large growth stocks. I’m trying to retire with a million dollars or more, not just net worth millionaire.

I’m about to get in the market soon. Hopefully next month. I’m about to do major renovations to my house and I just bought a truck (to flip) so I have to wait a little longer. I plan to retire at 59 1/2. Period. I’m not working a day longer than I have to. It will be 22 years until I’m 59 and if this system doesn’t last that long, great. But if it does, I want to be prepared financially. My job matches 5%, so I plan to invest 5% in a Roth 401K and max out a Roth IRA every year. I plan to live off the dividends until I can withdraw social security and my pension. So many brothers and sisters don’t plan for retirement because they think the end will come before then and they end up living paycheck to paycheck in their golden years and don’t have the money to travel or have fun. I don’t want that to be me. It’s better to put things in place so you can retire with dignity.

[Cushi]

9 minutes ago, computerwiz said:

 

Then use Wealthfront OR buy into ETFs that resonate with you OR put money into all the big boys (Google, Apple, Tesla, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, etc etc....just pick 40-50 of them)

 

Or do all 3 if you can't make up your mind.  😅

I’m gonna go with Vanguard. This is the index fund I’ve narrowed it down to. My job uses Merrill Lynch for their 401K. I got to see what they offer.

 

https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vftax

[computerwiz]

2 minutes ago, Cushi said:

I’m about to get in the market soon. Hopefully next month.

 

I hope so too.  Mark my words that now is the time to be investing.  Get in while rates are high, because people can make more money in the "safety" of banks.  Soon as rates drop, we might have a recession that will tank the market (and give you more time to buy more) or since this is election year, we might "skip" the recession and the market will take off because of the rate cuts.

 

I don't remember if I shared this here yet or not.  But yeah, look at the average returns after election year.  I think the election will override recession woes.

 

[Cushi]

5 minutes ago, computerwiz said:

 

I hope so too.  Mark my words that now is the time to be investing.  Get in while rates are high, because people can make more money in the "safety" of banks.  Soon as rates drop, we might have a recession that will tank the market (and give you more time to buy more) or since this is election year, we might "skip" the recession and the market will take off because of the rate cuts.

 

I don't remember if I shared this here yet or not.  But yeah, look at the average returns after election year.  I think the election will override recession woes.

 

Thanks. I got a notification on my phone recently that said the market was at an all time high. I nearly kicked myself in the butt 

[computerwiz]

3 minutes ago, Cushi said:

the market was at an all time high

 

Oh it is, that's absolutely true.

 

But how much money has been created out of thin air since the last ATH?  What direction is the supply of money heading?  All that new money has got to end up somewhere....  😉

 

 

 

[davanz]

On 12/15/2023 at 5:19 AM, Witness1970 said:

One of my older sisters lives in Kilgore, TX.  I have been there a couple of times,  It was about 40 miles east of Dallas on I20 I think.

Randall, is this sister a Witness? My wife and I live only about 30 miles from Kilgore, and that Congregation is in our circuit. If any of your family is in that congregation we may know them.