What % of your takehome pay are you spending on living expenses?

[AllInForISU]

That was my point and I would say that an apprenticeship is a degree, you are being trained in a specific field to do a job, how is that any different from going to college to get a degree of some sort? The whole point is to open doors for you that would otherwise be closed without the training. Our MSU friend wants to talk in semantics and nothing more.

Yea, I’d never call it a degree, but at the end of the day, who cares. I think point can be taken that post secondary education is important for success, regardless of where it comes from. But just “getting a degree” (college) does not do you any good anymore.

Specialization is important whether it’s apprenticeship, trade school (which I would not suggest unless it’s the only option for a potential job), or traditional college

 

[motorcy90]

My family has been looking at bigger houses as we have a small one for five of us. Im blown away by housing prices, literally every single house we had interest in we were like it needs to be 30-50k less. To move right now would put us closer to 40% of my monthly check to a mortage/insurance.

We're in the same boat. Current house with mortgage, taxes, insurance escrow payment and utilities is maybe 15% by quick math. Trying to move closer to wifes work in Ames and will basically tripple that payment for what we want.

 

[motorcy90]

As long as you aren't going into debt to do it, fine. Never borrow for wants.

Idk parents easily borrowed money growing up to pay for ATVs/Motorcycles, new/newish vehicles about every 8-10 years. Though granted those were also way cheaper too.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Most people in the trades don't go to school. It's usually on the job training. Electrician and plumbers have to get licensed but you don't need to go to a secondary school for that. Most don't. Union Jobs are different but that's highly dependent on where you live.

 

[motorcy90]

'Just go to the trades' sounds awesome when you're 20. It's less awesome when you've got a mangled body at 55.

I'm in the trades, mostly sit/stand looking at a computer screen most days, maybe pull some cables once or twice a month. A bunch of mid to late 50s into early 60s guys getting ready to retire in the next few years for us. One of the older guys who started traing me runs cross country moto endurance races for fun. Though the one guy who smokes 2-3packs a day is looking pretty rough recently.

 

[motorcy90]

You could get an AAS from a technical school. While a degree, that’s not a college. It is post secondary education though.

An AAS is still an Associates degree though. It's a post secondary education. It's what I have from University of South Ankeny "DMACC". And it's what opened the door to my current apprenticeship/journeyman career.

 

[TitanClone]

I hate talking about financial success because I don't want to discourage the young, who are mostly doing better than they realize. I have a 26-year-old who, unlike many his age (myself included at that time), wants to learn from the fiscally responsible people around him. My advice to him is simple: max out 401k, stay 100% in S&P 500 for the next couple decades, and think very carefully about long-term commitments (marriage, kids, major loans).


I am four years away from early retirement myself. I also continue to save aggressively, but the real driver of my portfolio is the compounding growth over the last 30 years. Now, for better or worse, our investment swings are often greater than our total yearly paychecks combined. We are debt-free at this time and on track to pay off our new home before we retire. We don’t have any kids so we’ve always spent money on travel and luxury cars, which I pay cash for. We’ve been able to live off the rest of our income worry-free by prioritizing our career growth and retirement savings above all else.

Only suggestion I'd make is 70/30 to 80/20 split between VOO and VXUS. Having the 20-30 in international markets is a good safety net that's not crazy conservative like bonds or target date funds.

 

[JP4CY]

I think we may need to not have a generalization on "heck ya you can do it making $X, because I do."
There's a lot of people out there with maybe a special needs child or a mom they're taking care of that's battling breast cancer.
I applaud so many of you taking care of your families but not everything is a cookie cutter.

Back to the topic, my wife and are content spending $10k/$20k here and there for a new roof or windows after we paid off our 15 year note because we want to build an empty nest home when that time comes that will hopefully have age considerations like minimal stairs, wide doors, etc.

 

[AllInForISU]

An AAS is still an Associates degree though. It's a post secondary education. It's what I have from University of South Ankeny "DMACC". And it's what opened the door to my current apprenticeship/journeyman career.

I know. But you can also get one from a trade school, which isn’t college. That was my point.

Good luck tracking back that argument on what a degree is and post secondary education though.

 

[burn587]

Glad to see this topic devolved into ******** about the definition of what a degree is. Peak CF offseason.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Glad to see this topic devolved into ******** about the definition of what a degree is. Peak CF offseason.

It's been a lot of bootstraps and pedantic semantics.

 

[BanjoCy]

Think it's in the ballpark of 40-45% of net, mortgage, utilities, (including phone, TV/streaming), 1 car payment, gas, etc.

 

[BCClone]

Medicaid, food or rental assistance mostly come to mind. Everyone in my family under 43 with kids is getting government healthcare and food assistance.

I really F’d 10 years ago. I got none of that with 3 kids.

 

[ghyland7]

I think most people who already have houses do not realize how much worse things are for the last 4-5 years compared to the previous decade.

It’s always been hard, but right now it’s very difficult to buy a house, and from roughly 2009-2019 housing in particular was much cheaper.

I live in the DSM metro; the house we bought in 2023 jumped roughly 45% in price from 2018 (when previous owners bought) to 2023. Interest rates, while not nearly as bad as like… the 80s… are well over double what they were in the post-2008 world where most of the scrupulous posters here either bought or refinanced.

It likely will even out for people buying now in another 5-10 years, but it’s been particularly painful for a little while now.

 

[BCClone]

There are a lot more trades that arent physcially demanding these days. Sat through a community college graduation the other night and was delighted to see so many grads and so many jobs out there that I didnt know about. It was great to see.

Many of the friends/relatives I have in the trades, started with the physical work and about 10-15 years in they were more management or oversight and not doing the grunt work.

 

[Tailg8er]

Glad to see this topic devolved into ******** about the definition of what a degree is. Peak CF offseason.

Well to be fair, it could have all been avoided if that guy just admitted he didn't mean degree. Instead, he dug his heels in & got more twisted than a pretzel trying to equate degree to certification.

 

[KnappShack]

I think most people who already have houses do not realize how much worse things are for the last 4-5 years compared to the previous decade.

It’s always been hard, but right now it’s very difficult to buy a house, and from roughly 2009-2019 housing in particular was much cheaper.

I live in the DSM metro; the house we bought in 2023 jumped roughly 45% in price from 2018 (when previous owners bought) to 2023. Interest rates, while not nearly as bad as like… the 80s… are well over double what they were in the post-2008 world where most of the scrupulous posters here either bought or refinanced.

It likely will even out for people buying now in another 5-10 years, but it’s been particularly painful for a little while now.

To buy my home again the payment would be pretty close to double what I'm paying now.

The mortgage payment keeps my outgo low enough to where I can actually feed the kids and seriously consider retirement in my 50s.

So Dave Ramsey can suck it if he thinks I should pay off 2.99% and not put it into a simple S&P fund.

Side Note: When I bought my first home in 1999 it was ******* hard. Buying a home is hard.

 

[ghyland7]

To buy my home again the payment would be pretty close to double what I'm paying now.

The mortgage payment keeps my outgo low enough to where I can actually feed the kids and seriously consider retirement in my 50s.

So Dave Ramsey can suck it if he thinks I should pay off 2.99% and not put it into a simple S&P fund.

Side Note: When I bought my first home in 1999 it was ******* hard. Buying a home is hard.

Yeah, it’s pretty much always hard to buy a house.. I just think it’s been particularly bad for the last few years financially.

Hopefully things will start to even out after another few years.

 

[BCClone]

To buy my home again the payment would be pretty close to double what I'm paying now.

The mortgage payment keeps my outgo low enough to where I can actually feed the kids and seriously consider retirement in my 50s.

So Dave Ramsey can suck it if he thinks I should pay off 2.99% and not put it into a simple S&P fund.

Side Note: When I bought my first home in 1999 it was ******* hard. Buying a home is hard.

Most people my age rented for 5-7 years before buying a house. Those first houses were also 800-900 sq ft. Now they are 1500-2000, have granite counters and 3 car garages.

The starter homes of the past don’t seem to exist anymore.

 

[clones_jer]

So Dave Ramsey can suck it if he thinks I should pay off 2.99% and not put it into a simple S&P fund.

Side Note: When I bought my first home in 1999 it was ******* hard. Buying a home is hard.

Even Dave Ramsey currently states that buying a house is hard right now and that the housing market is skewed in a tough direction for most buyers. He's notoriously conservative on his buying recommendations and admits they're hard to follow in today's housing market. If Dave's saying that, you know it's tough.

Of course, he believes (or says?) that any housing market "correction" is going to be long term. Prices stagnating over a 5-10 year window to let wages play catch up. He doesn't believe a drop in prices is ever coming to most of the US (of course, he also owns half of Tennessee, so that may color his views lol)