Post by Admin on Apr 9, 2022 8:50:14 GMT -5
I immigrated to this country with my wife and family to a northern suburb of ATL, GA when I was 34 with 5 suitcases and $6K dollars. We achieved the American dream using common sense spending and very good investing (link).
The first 4 years were surviving and get established.
House/RE(real estate): We bought our first 3000 SQ FT house after 2 years of savings using FHA loan because it's better than renting where we live. This house was in an older subdivision with great amenities (15 tennis courts, 3 pools, school, lake and trails). The house was in a great zip code where new houses prices were double. 8 years later, we bought a much bigger+better house in the same subdivision. Our HOA is $60 monthly while it's $200-250 in these expensive subdivisions while our amenities are better. Today, these expensive subdivisions are selling at only 50% more. This is how our kids went to excellent free public school and we invested the rest. The stock market return is a lot higher than RE(real estate).
Vehicles: After 4 years since we came, we bought our first new Honda Accord and since then we owned only new Hondas(sedan+minivan) and changed to Toyota. My IT co-workers were spending double+ on German vehicles and fancy big SUV. While our vehicles hardly break, these other fancy vehicles broke more often with huge expenses.
WORK:I hardly worked more than 40-43 average per week because I wanted to have a life-work balance and participate in our kid's life and be involved. I had to convince my managers that you can achieve quality with fewer hours. I didn't care to get lower increases sometimes(3-4% vs 5%), while working 20% fewer hours. The best salary increases were thru changing jobs. After I reached the age of 50 until retiring at age 61, I was laid off 3 times which is very common in IT per age related, but I always found a job with a lower pay. Lower pay in IT is still better than other options, the work was a lot easier + less stressful.
Travel: we love to travel and have been in many countries (48 states, Canada, many countries in Europe, Asia and Central America). Every year we took at least 3-4 weeks vacation. It's so easy to take the van and just drive in this great country.
I plan all our vacation. I always used a vehicle in our vacation, including in Europe. In the first 15-16 years, we traveled in the US with our kids. In the last 13 years, after the kids started going to universities, we traveled to Europe. Many people travel to Europe for 10 days and see several countries(too fast), we do 1 or 2 (if smaller) countries in 2-3 weeks. We spend a lot less than others on vacation. Organized tours will cost you double+ and will miss many spots we enjoy.
Hotels: We don't stay in expensive hotels, many without free breakfast. We stay in good hotels for the money that include breakfast. When we traveled with kids, we stayed a lot in Comfort Suite because you get 2 bedrooms for the price of one. When we travel without kids, we stay at Fairfield Inn, Comfort Inn. In Europe, we stay in a smaller bed & breakfast outside the center. These places must have free parking and great access to public transportation. In smaller cities, we just walk a 1-1.5 miles to the center. In major cities, we buy 2-3 days tickets for the public transportation, which is clean, fast and reliable and leave the car at the hotel.
Restaurants:We stopped eating junk at fast food restaurants. You can pay a bit more in regular restaurants. We love Mexican, Thai and Mediterranean. Instead of junk food for $7-8 we eat Mexican for the same price. We love fajitas. I can find several who serve dinner portion fajitas for $13-16. It's huge and enough for 2 people. We tell the server to cut the beans, cut half the rice and sub it for lots of salad. Instead of dining in, we take out Thai/Chinese. The meat portions are huge, we take out 2 dinners, about $30, I make a huge salad and we make 3 dinners out of it.
No, you are not going to catch me in a fake Italian restaurant paying $10-15 for a glass of wine and $20+ for pasta that costs $1. Funny thing, we were surprised the food was much cheaper, and better in Italy. They use better local ingredients. We love great sweets too. My wife is a great baker. It's fantastic in Europe. I'm sure it's more expensive now, but we paid just 1 Euro just several years ago for a great coffee in Italy (you must seat inside at the counter). Since we stay in the big European in the suburbs, we experience the local vibe. We found great bakeries selling a piece of cake for 1 Euro, our favorite is tiramisu. We had similar experience in other countries, stay away from tourists expensive traps.
It's very easy to find great and cheap restaurant. I look for Google restaurant reviews with rating of 4.3-4.5 and prices = $ or $$.
TOURS:Did you know there are many cities with "FREE" tours? You can find it in major cities around the world. The tour guides are pros with a tour guide license, but instead of paying $50+ per person using a company, you take a tour from a local guides who get paid directly. They must be good to get paid and prove themselves. Most times I pay $20 for 2 people for 2-3 hours tours. In big cities, I take several tours from several guides. Many of these guys like their jobs so much they are doing it for many years. A good guide can make $250-500 per day for 2-3 hours, that is about $5000+ for 20 days of work per month.
Weekly shopping: mainly in Aldi + Walmart. Aldi is a great store for basic item and cheaper prices (30+% in many cases) with good quality. Aldi gets even better in Europe. We usually land in Europe, take our car rental and stop at Aldi for wines, chocolates and fruits and stock for a week. In most cases, it's half the price of other supermarkets.
Other shopping: the internet, especially Amazon+eBay, opened the best global competition. You can find great prices and if you don't like it, just get a free return from Amazon. No more running to stores, spending a lot of time, gas with higher prices.
We still visit special stores with great customer service and knowledge. Think REI and Road Runner for sport shoes. After a while, you learn what sport shoe you like. We buy last year model because the new version is 50+% more expensive. You still get a great shoe, you are just a year behind. BTW, most of the outlets are selling inferior shoe models by famous manufactures. It's easier, faster and cheaper to surf the net than drive to outlets.
The above basically prove that you can experience all the good stuff frugally without missing much. Every additional saving went to investing, after all, the US stock market compound returns are amazing. I don't believe in FIRE investing(link). We want to enjoy life, and be sure we can afford it with good healthcare for decades to come.
Lastly, we don't have a pension, no profit sharing, never owned or sold a business, no inheritance in the past or the future, very small and only several bonuses from work, no huge salaries from Silicon Valley. It all came from savings and investing.
The first 4 years were surviving and get established.
House/RE(real estate): We bought our first 3000 SQ FT house after 2 years of savings using FHA loan because it's better than renting where we live. This house was in an older subdivision with great amenities (15 tennis courts, 3 pools, school, lake and trails). The house was in a great zip code where new houses prices were double. 8 years later, we bought a much bigger+better house in the same subdivision. Our HOA is $60 monthly while it's $200-250 in these expensive subdivisions while our amenities are better. Today, these expensive subdivisions are selling at only 50% more. This is how our kids went to excellent free public school and we invested the rest. The stock market return is a lot higher than RE(real estate).
Vehicles: After 4 years since we came, we bought our first new Honda Accord and since then we owned only new Hondas(sedan+minivan) and changed to Toyota. My IT co-workers were spending double+ on German vehicles and fancy big SUV. While our vehicles hardly break, these other fancy vehicles broke more often with huge expenses.
WORK:I hardly worked more than 40-43 average per week because I wanted to have a life-work balance and participate in our kid's life and be involved. I had to convince my managers that you can achieve quality with fewer hours. I didn't care to get lower increases sometimes(3-4% vs 5%), while working 20% fewer hours. The best salary increases were thru changing jobs. After I reached the age of 50 until retiring at age 61, I was laid off 3 times which is very common in IT per age related, but I always found a job with a lower pay. Lower pay in IT is still better than other options, the work was a lot easier + less stressful.
Travel: we love to travel and have been in many countries (48 states, Canada, many countries in Europe, Asia and Central America). Every year we took at least 3-4 weeks vacation. It's so easy to take the van and just drive in this great country.
I plan all our vacation. I always used a vehicle in our vacation, including in Europe. In the first 15-16 years, we traveled in the US with our kids. In the last 13 years, after the kids started going to universities, we traveled to Europe. Many people travel to Europe for 10 days and see several countries(too fast), we do 1 or 2 (if smaller) countries in 2-3 weeks. We spend a lot less than others on vacation. Organized tours will cost you double+ and will miss many spots we enjoy.
Hotels: We don't stay in expensive hotels, many without free breakfast. We stay in good hotels for the money that include breakfast. When we traveled with kids, we stayed a lot in Comfort Suite because you get 2 bedrooms for the price of one. When we travel without kids, we stay at Fairfield Inn, Comfort Inn. In Europe, we stay in a smaller bed & breakfast outside the center. These places must have free parking and great access to public transportation. In smaller cities, we just walk a 1-1.5 miles to the center. In major cities, we buy 2-3 days tickets for the public transportation, which is clean, fast and reliable and leave the car at the hotel.
Restaurants:We stopped eating junk at fast food restaurants. You can pay a bit more in regular restaurants. We love Mexican, Thai and Mediterranean. Instead of junk food for $7-8 we eat Mexican for the same price. We love fajitas. I can find several who serve dinner portion fajitas for $13-16. It's huge and enough for 2 people. We tell the server to cut the beans, cut half the rice and sub it for lots of salad. Instead of dining in, we take out Thai/Chinese. The meat portions are huge, we take out 2 dinners, about $30, I make a huge salad and we make 3 dinners out of it.
No, you are not going to catch me in a fake Italian restaurant paying $10-15 for a glass of wine and $20+ for pasta that costs $1. Funny thing, we were surprised the food was much cheaper, and better in Italy. They use better local ingredients. We love great sweets too. My wife is a great baker. It's fantastic in Europe. I'm sure it's more expensive now, but we paid just 1 Euro just several years ago for a great coffee in Italy (you must seat inside at the counter). Since we stay in the big European in the suburbs, we experience the local vibe. We found great bakeries selling a piece of cake for 1 Euro, our favorite is tiramisu. We had similar experience in other countries, stay away from tourists expensive traps.
It's very easy to find great and cheap restaurant. I look for Google restaurant reviews with rating of 4.3-4.5 and prices = $ or $$.
TOURS:Did you know there are many cities with "FREE" tours? You can find it in major cities around the world. The tour guides are pros with a tour guide license, but instead of paying $50+ per person using a company, you take a tour from a local guides who get paid directly. They must be good to get paid and prove themselves. Most times I pay $20 for 2 people for 2-3 hours tours. In big cities, I take several tours from several guides. Many of these guys like their jobs so much they are doing it for many years. A good guide can make $250-500 per day for 2-3 hours, that is about $5000+ for 20 days of work per month.
Weekly shopping: mainly in Aldi + Walmart. Aldi is a great store for basic item and cheaper prices (30+% in many cases) with good quality. Aldi gets even better in Europe. We usually land in Europe, take our car rental and stop at Aldi for wines, chocolates and fruits and stock for a week. In most cases, it's half the price of other supermarkets.
Other shopping: the internet, especially Amazon+eBay, opened the best global competition. You can find great prices and if you don't like it, just get a free return from Amazon. No more running to stores, spending a lot of time, gas with higher prices.
We still visit special stores with great customer service and knowledge. Think REI and Road Runner for sport shoes. After a while, you learn what sport shoe you like. We buy last year model because the new version is 50+% more expensive. You still get a great shoe, you are just a year behind. BTW, most of the outlets are selling inferior shoe models by famous manufactures. It's easier, faster and cheaper to surf the net than drive to outlets.
The above basically prove that you can experience all the good stuff frugally without missing much. Every additional saving went to investing, after all, the US stock market compound returns are amazing. I don't believe in FIRE investing(link). We want to enjoy life, and be sure we can afford it with good healthcare for decades to come.
Lastly, we don't have a pension, no profit sharing, never owned or sold a business, no inheritance in the past or the future, very small and only several bonuses from work, no huge salaries from Silicon Valley. It all came from savings and investing.