Best financial decision every made?

[PRaffen]

Taking a $5,000 inheritance received when we were in our late twenties and opening up a college fund for our DS. He graduated last year debt free

After our first car was paid off, we continued to make payments to ourselves. Never had another car payment.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

1. Trading my Jeep Wrangler in for a Mercury Mariner. Same car payment amount just better on gas and more comfortable and something I could see myself keeping long after it's paid off.

2. Starting an Automatic Savings Plan with ING. At first it was just a little bit but now I am proud of myself for how much I've saved.

3. Living with my parents instead of getting my own place. I save so much money and am glad my parents love having me live at home because I love being around them.

4. Being young and knowing how important saving for retirement is.

5. Staying at jobs I hated for the experience. I probably wouldn't have the job I have today if it wasn't for sticking with the horrible ones.

 

[dvcgirl]

The biggest would be starting early....my first 401K at age 22 and consistently increasing the amount until I maxed it out, only four years later.

Not getting greedy like many did and selling my DH's stock options on several occasions before the big tech fall. By diversifying what we invested we avoided losing more than most did from late 2000 through 2003.

Using half of that major windfall (well, a series of windfalls) to pay cash for the home we built in NJ despite just about everyone telling us we were nuts. "You'll do so much better in the market!!" Our gains here more than offset any losses we had in the bear market to come.

Lucking out and building/buying that house when we did because we sold it four years later for twice the amount.

Buying another house for cash in Orlando for about 1/3 of what we walked away with from the NJ house and investing it.

Never, under any circumstance borrowing money after my student loans were paid off in my 20s. This was only possible because of two of the events that occured above though.

And finally, continuing to save aggressively and live beneath our means.

When we look back on the last 15 years, we credit everything I mentioned for us being financially successful. A whole lot of it is the result of very hard work. But we are the first to admit that the very large windfalls we've had are a result of my DH being an executive in the right field at the perfect time, and also buying our first home just as an unprecedented real estate boom was beginning.

Don't get me wrong, our portfolio would look good had those things not happened because we are quite frugal. We would have easily retired in our early 60s. However, they opened up a whole lot of options for us that we would not have had if we we both came along just three years later. And because those things happened when they did (and we didn't squander what came our way), we'll retire ten years earlier.

 

[dnoyes]

Buying my first home when i was 21, my 2nd at 25 and the third at 32. Selling the first two after renters paid them off for me. and paying cash for a cabin in Oregon and buying my mother a condo in Clearwater Fl. with the money. (I'm a good son)

The last car payment I had was in 1985.

My wife and I have always lived off ONLY what I earn.

In the everybody needs a little luck dept. My wifes job. After being a SAHM for many years she wanted to get back to work. Started as a two day a week part time job and turned into a full time position in an Insurance/trust company. They pay our insurance and our kids (up to 24 years old and in school) I am self employed so this saved us over $70k in the last eight years.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

um, well to be honest for me personally, marrying my husband because he makes some good cash.

But I guess as a couple - back when we just got out of college we were renting a house from an elderly couple. They decided to sell the property and move to Florida so we were out looking for a new place to live.

A lady with the rental department of a Real Estate company took me aside and told me that we needed to BUY and not rent. She encouraged us to scrape up every spare penny we could find for a downpayment, and then walked us through the FHA mortgage process and acted as our buyer's agent. We were clueless but she directed us to a safe neighborhood filled with affordable housing --- tiny tiny houses that all needed a bit of work, but a clean area that was safe for me to take a walk with the dog at night.

We purchased a house for $68k that year and sold it 2 years later for over $90k. This was well before the days of huge housing profits. That profit allowed us to pay off alot of student loan debt, our car, and put a nice down payment on a bigger house. Actually I probably should have sent her flowers because she did us a nice favor.

 

[Skatermom23]

To never pay one cent in credit card interest. It has worked so far!

 

[DVC Sadie]

I can't take all the credit for making the right decisions because my parents were so financially knowing that by the time I was 18 I already had a CFP and bought my first piece of property on the water in Florida by the age of 21. I had to be legal before I could sign that contract. It took 5 years to pay it off then I managed to buy another piece of property.

By the time I married my dh I was on my second townhouse and that is how it has been for us ever since. We rarely sold property but instead rented them out and had others pay the mortgage and put the rest in investments or more real estate.

 

[grlpwrd]

um, well to be honest for me personally, marrying my husband because he makes some good cash...

Same here. Hubby started out at $7 an hour working in a computer lab then he worked for Boeing for years and now his dedication has paid off. We think alike financially.

Investing in real estate - We own 2 homes and plan to buy a condo in Hawaii plus develop our family land on the Big Island (my childhood home).

Learn good savings and investment habits at a young age - I even paid for own braces at age 19. My parents couldn't afford it, but I saved all my paper route money and worked a part-time job for it.

Invested in myself - Taking classes and doing stuff that enrich my life. People make fun of me ( ), but one of the best investments was in myself. I pay about $213 per class at my community college - a great investment as I am sure I will get lots of dividends once I start my career.

 

[sara74]

1. EDUCATION!! Sure, I took out loans, but they have been more than offset by the income and flexibility I have as a dentist. What could have been a mistake for me/us was that when DH chose his specialty in dentistry I cried over the three extra years it would take him. Silly me. It was a very wise decision on his part to ignore my moaning and groaning!

2. OTOH, buying our house when we did meant dragging DH into it kicking and screaming and it has been a great investment for us. So I am not all that full of mistakes!

3. Paid off my only credit card balance over 10 years ago (at 21 years old) and haven't had one since.

4. Automatic savings plans. Automatic deduction from my check to max out my IRA at work (with a match from the owner). We also have automatic deductions from our checking for the kids 529's. We never miss the $ because it is gone before we realize it.

5. Living beneath our means. We lived on so little in dental school that none of our friends could believe it! It has continued to this day - DH takes less in salary than he is entitled to so he can buy into his practice faster, thus increasing his overall earnings in a few years.

 

[neatokimmo]

For me it was ignoring the bank when they offered a huge amount of $ for my last mortgage

I bought a small house that was 1/3 the cost of what they were offering and I paid it off in 3 years. At 30 I was mortgage free and I love my house because I've had the extra cash flow to fix it up exactly how I want it

Kim

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

For us it was:
1. Buying a smaller home than we could afford. We didn't want to be so burdened by our mortgage payments that we would have to stop travelling/saving.

2. We bought it back in 1996 for 1/3 of what it would sell for now. This was just a matter of luck I suppose. No one knew the market would explode a few yrs later.

3. A couple years into our mortgage, we refinanced for 15 yrs. rather than 30. Only 11 yrs. to go and counting down! We don't want to be old & gray and still paying a mortgage.

 

[MrsPete]

For us it was:
1. Buying a smaller home than we could afford. We didn't want to be so burdened by our mortgage payments that we would have to stop travelling/saving.

2. We bought it back in 1996 for 1/3 of what it would sell for now. This was just a matter of luck I suppose. No one knew the market would explode a few yrs later.

3. A couple years into our mortgage, we refinanced for 15 yrs. rather than 30. Only 11 yrs. to go and counting down! We don't want to be old & gray and still paying a mortgage.

Yep, we did that too. We bought our first house while we were planning our wedding -- closed on it two days prior to the wedding. This was not a great choice in retrospect; we were so stressed about the house, getting moved, and combining our things that we didn't really enjoy the wedding as much as we would've otherwise. If I had it to do again, I'd have moved into his apartment after our wedding and started looking for a house THEN. Financially, the house was the right thing to do; it was just too much good stuff happening all at once.

But I digress . . . we bought "less house" than we could've afforded. As newleyweds, we didn't know what the future would bring us. If we'd had surprise twins, or if I'd decided to stay home once we had children, we could've afforded the house on JUST his salary. Buying less house gave us choices for the future.

Also, we took out a 30-year loan, but we paid it on a 15-year schedule (and actually paid it off in less than 15 years -- we made it a major priority). Of course, to make this work, you have to have the right kind of loan. I specifically remember my math teacher making us repeat these words out loud as we studied compound interest: "I want a simple interest loan with no pre-payment penalty."

 

[minnie1928]

1. Buying our current home. In 5 years it's increased atleast 33% in value.
2. Getting the lifetime contract on our Tivo. Paid $200 back in 2000, more than paid for itself!
3. Dave Ramsey-inspired us to be debt free (still working on it, but down to 1 car pymt + mortgage)
4. Using Quicken
5. Started saving money in Mutual Funds during my sr. year in high school. Thank you goes to Mr. Burdette, my Economics teacher (one of the best classes I ever had!)
6. Getting in 401k and upping the amount each year when we get raises.

 

[ducklite]

Paying my bills on time. This has allowed me to look over extended on paper but still get credit at favorable rates when I was in the process of buying and selling several peices of real estate at the same time a few years ago and had most of my cash flow seriously tied up for a few months.

Buying my NJ house (now sold) during a buyers market at a rock bottom price. It was very basic and had no upgrades at all. Over the nine years we lived there we probably put $20K into it, and sold it for a $200K profit during a sellers market. We also bought a LOT less house than we could afford and had a 15 year loan, gained equity really fast.

Buying my Florida house and making $300K on it in three years--and that's taking into consideration a cooling market, a year ago it would have been closer to $400K.

I had another piece of real estate that I had bought thinking I'd do "something" with it, then took advantage of a smoking market and sold it about 18 months later at a 30% profit.

But without spotless credit I never would have been able to have the successes in real estate that I have. So I guess ALWAYS paying bills on time is number one.

Anne

 

[TenThousandVolts]

Stretching ourselves to buy the best house we could afford when we purchased our 1st home. Out of the 3 homes we considered buying- the one we chose trippled in value after 7 years- the others had not quite doubled.

Also- doing the equity accelerator (you pay early and a little extra each month) Just doing that alone we would have our 30 year mortgage paid off in 21 years (but we are on target to have it gone in 9 more years- 17 years total from the purchase date.) Also we have afixed 5% rate and never have/never will refinance.

 

[jay-nee]

Getting divorced from my overspending ex-H!

Still doing the happy dance. Now, if only he could pay the CS on time!!!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[minnie1928]

About 3 years ago I got a refi offer from Wells Fargo. No points, no closing costs, nada at 5.25%. I work for a local bank and that was the rate they were offering + closing costs! I did the Wells Fargo mortgage, then once that closed I refinanced my 2nd mortgage with them (lowered my rate from 11.125 to 7.25%!!!). About a year ago I received an offer for a Home Equity loan from a competing bank at 6.24. I called Wells Fargo and told them that I was very happy with their service, but that this rate offer was attractive. They modified my 2nd mortgage down to 6.24% fixed at no cost. I kept my payment the same, but now much more is directed to principal.

 

[barkley]

working my way through college so i could graduate debt free.

dh taking a less than glamours job with great benefits that included partial reimbursement for pursing a degree so we could pay for his college as he went.

going with our 'gut feeling' and putting our house on the market back in march. caught the tip of the tail end of the sellers market and will benefit from a buyers market when the time comes. and not being greedy when it came to pricing-set the price a bit lower than competing properties and sold right away (vs. the identical houses that are still sitting months later despite 85K price drops).

did'nt realize it at the time but-choosing to always work full or part time starting at age 16. when out of the blue i became totaly disabled and unable to return to work i learned i was eligible to full social security disability benefits (vs. ssi which is about 25% of what i receive)-all those 'little jobs' contributed quarters to the system.

dh and i buying life insurance when we were young and newly married-much lower premiums and now that we have kids great peace of mind. also bought the kids each one when they were born-minor cost, they'll be paid off before they are likely to wed/have kids-and can provide peace of mind for them when they are responsible for someone other than themselves.

 

[stealthnet]

-From ages 16-18, I saved $18k working at a movie theatre for 30 hours a week. I was very careful with spending. Looking back, I should have invested most of it and not used it for a car, however.
-At age 23 last year, maxing out my Roth IRA with $4k. I plan to save 10%+ every year, and will utilize a 401k later this year when I qualify at my job.
-Never paying any interest to credit cards, never late on a payment. Perfect credit.
-Checking fatwallet.com daily. Even without buying anything, I have made well over $500+ just from a couple bonus offers.
-Selling my GM card points during a special bonus period where I was randomly selected. Sold my $5k in GM dollars for $2.5k -- I didn't really need a new car and the bonus points would have expired.
-Worked all through college and graduated with no loans and plenty in the bank. While financially smart, I missed out on some of the social aspect.
-Numerous times of e-mailing either my college or various companies when I am disappointed with the quality of something and getting reimbursed for it. We all work incredibly hard for our money, so when I buy something that breaks unreasonably early, I make sure to let the company know. Additionally, if I have a incredibly positive experience, I e-mail that also. Also, my college was giving me a hard time about a grant I qualified for. I went through the requirements one-by-one in an e-mail and shortly thereafter I was credited the money.

The next goal is a house within two years.


Robert

 

[deltachi8]

double down on 11