[QUOTE=Scot,May 9 2007, 04:07 PM]
ya, i started an "idiot live for today" type thread a while back.... all of my tenants, 2/3 of my relatives are in that boat.

 

Well, I can tell you why, based on how I am.

I make decent money, more than enough for us to live on. My wife works as well for a non-profit organization, so that money is pretty much "free" for us. We make about six figures, combined. We don't live extravagantly, though, and we don't advertise how much money we make (mainly because it's not big compared to a lot of people, anyways). We'll pay for people if we go eat out and we give a lot of it away to charity, but again, we don't advertise that to people. We spend money quietly, in general. Medium sized house, eight year old car (plus a newer one, but I'll get to that), normal clothes, no really fancy jewelry, no expensive habits (until now, but again, I'll get to that), just normal people.

However, I have always been good with my money. Never blew it on things (or else saved up religously to buy what I wanted), never got extravagant, basically was just responsible with it all. I had $10K in the bank before I turned 17, all of it from working summers at a law firm and communications company.

That all changed after my recent car accident. For starters, I felt vindicated for saving up money and being responsible because it allowed us to spend money as needed to pay for doctors bills and medication and all that.

"Hi, my name is Jonathan and I am a responsible money saver."

However, it also got me to realize that life is (potentially) quite short. So I bought an S2000 finally. My wife sort of had to convince me to do it (honestly, I wasn't going to do it) but now that she has, she can't stop me from spending money. At any given time, I've got 20 to 30 items in my Ebay account that I'm watching, all of it for the car. I've got about 20 different websites bookmarked with parts I want to order and I'm already getting quotes for modifications that require a mechanic.

"Hi, my name is Jonathan and I am an S2000 addict."

I think the thing is, you get into a habit and you stick with it, even when you've passed the point where it doesn't really matter any more. For me, having an experience that shook up my lifestyle and perception on health/well-being/stability was all that was needed. For most people, that won't really happen (or else when it happens, they die shortly afterwards)...

People downplay their money because they don't consider themselves to have a lot of money since what they have is held in reserve for an emergency or major catastrophe or something. They don't even "think" they have that money, because for all intents and purposes, it isn't theirs to spend freely. There are some people that are genuinely humble or quiet about their money, and they don't want people to feel lesser because they have so much money, but those seem to be few and far between. Others are just stingy in general ("over-responsible" is perhaps a better word) and so they always say they're broke.

That's my hypothesis.

 

my father drives an 8 year old car...

he has a little bit of money.

 

up until about 5 years ago my dad drove an '87 jeep cherokee, and my mom had an '88 nissan maxima.... both of which they had purchased brand new. i can't tell you how long it took me to convince them to finally buy new vehicles. even then they wouldn't spend more than $25,000. they bought a tacoma and an xterra and i'm sure they'll drive the wheels off those as well.

my mom gets mad if she suspects you're using too much TP to wipe your ass. they never go out to eat, they never go on vacations... i don't understand it, but that's how they live and they wouldn't have it any other way...

 

Yikes, dude . $150K house and you pay 2 G's in property taxes, !

One of my rentals ,20 minutes away from Laguna Beach here in SoCal has appraised for $950K ( bought in 96 for $139K ) and I paid $1980 in property taxes for the year on it.

Let's see So Cal with girls and bikinis or Pa.

You guys are being bent over in taxes

 

We've got Prop 13 to thank for our low property taxes but his cost-of-living is still lower. So we're paying through the nose for the girls, sun, surf, and twisty roads...

 

Amen for that

God bless So Cal and the girls,surf, twisty roads. SoCal where we can drive a hour to our snow have fun and then go surf in the afternoon.

Sure would suck to have to pay property taxes on a home purchased here in the last 2 years.

My little boys 6 & 8 each own their own townhomes that my wife and I paid $70K for back in 96. The renters paid off those mortgages a few years ago. The property taxes on those are pocket change.

 

My grandmother is similar. Something to consider though is this: she lived through the Depression and her family experienced very difficult times (lost the family farm, etc.). That kind of experience has to have an impact. Growing up I never knew what was going to be in her "soup" - it was always a concoction of leftovers. I don't know that she's ever bought a car that wasn't at least 5 years old. On the other hand, in her later years, she has taken advantage of relatives living abroad and has travelled overseas (sometimes on a whim!) several times.

 

that is more like it. I would think these 70 year olds would be treating people to nice stuff that maybe the others couldn't afford... nice vacations, nice meals, etc... not really material stuff.... I wouldn't go buying my grandkids a bunch of Ferrari's, but a trip to Italy would be awesome!