Good advice is only good if you're willing to use it

[GeorgeParker]

Here is an excerpt from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wa...rly-2021-02-23

My husband and I retired early. We were very frugal. Friends called us cheap. We prefer thrifty or frugal. We had no children, they had three kids; we rarely took vacations, they vacationed every year. Who deserves an annual vacation? There’s a reason why we retired early.

We always paid cash for our modest cars, but then drove our cars for 10 years or more. I don’t think they ever went two months without at least one car payment.

We love our financial adviser, and our extravagant neighbors, keen to retire early like us, asked for her business card. I asked our friends how the appointment went, and they replied: “Well, she’s a lousy adviser! She doesn’t know what she’s talking about!”

At our annual review, I asked our adviser if they could retire early. She replied, “Warren Buffett and Harry Potter couldn’t get those two retired early.”

It isn't good advice until you're willing to use it. Or as Lewis Carrol says of Alice "She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes."

[Yppej]

I guess it is human nature. There is one person here I blocked because she was always complaining about being overwhelmed but refused to take anyone's advice to simplify.

Sometimes people just want to vent. That's me on occasion.

[Gardnr]

At our annual review, I asked our adviser if they could retire early. She replied, “Warren Buffett and Harry Potter couldn’t get those two retired early.”

These are the same people who get upset when: 1. I didn't buy a new car after raises. 2. Didn't build a big new house. 3. Didn't go on overseas vacations 4. Didn't hire a housekeeper even though I worked 50=70h/week for 33 years. And then:

How did you retire at age 58? You're not old enough. You're just living the life of luxury.............

Sigh................ Yes. My life was sooo easy. I didn't have to lift a finger. Silver Spoon.

Oh spare me your angst.

[ApatheticNoMore]

My husband and I retired early. We were very frugal. Friends called us cheap. We prefer thrifty or frugal. We had no children, they had three kids; we rarely took vacations, they vacationed every year. Who deserves an annual vacation? There’s a reason why we retired early.

Maybe those friends enjoy their life though. Who is to say. Except that people always want whatever it is they don't have, that's the only certain thing in the world.

I hope despite never going on a vacation they at least used their vacation time even if just for a day trip, even if just for a mental health day to sleep late and watch t.v./read/spend time outside/stare at the wall. Otherwise you are just giving your employer the benefits that are yours.

[razz]

Simple living is living within your means and modest doable goals, IMO.

[GeorgeParker]

I hope despite never going on a vacation they at least used their vacation time even if just for a day trip, even if just for a mental health day to sleep late and watch t.v./read/spend time outside/stare at the wall. Otherwise you are just giving your employer the benefits that are yours.

There's no indication that they worked on paid vacation days. In fact there's no indication of whether they had jobs or were self-employed. But since they say their neighbors "vacationed every year", I'm 99% certain they mean they stayed near home on their days off instead of going to a vacation destination and staying in a $100-$300/night hotel.

[Chicken lady]

Oh!

jeppy isn’t ignoring me! She can’t see me!

[GeorgeParker]

Simple living is living within your means and modest doable goals, IMO.

No, simple living is being content living within your means and also having reasonably doable goals.

Having only modest goals when you're capable of better things is sloth or lack of ambition, not simplicity. Living in a one-room shack with barely a pot to pee in is poverty or insanity if you're not truly content.

Simple living is optimum living that gives you the best return, measured in contentment and results, for every hour you live.

Whether that means sitting by a lake all day fishing or spending 60 hours/week happily building houses for poor people, simple living is whatever makes you the most content with the least friction.

[Yppej]

Not everyone can be content with their means. People experiencing $2 a day poverty often lurch from crisis to crisis. Many goals are not doable for them. Covid has made things much worse for them after years that saw improvements in tackling extreme poverty.

[Simplemind]

I was an ant in a workplace full of spendthrift grasshoppers. Through the years I watched them live in the fast lane on their overtime. They leased their cars and often changed neighborhoods with each pay raise. Restaurant take out after shopping spree lunches was the norm. I was given a lot of grief for bucking the trend. Years into it many of the single women asked me to teach them about money and I honestly told them I didn't think I could. Like they say, it isn't what you make. It's what you don't spend. Their entertainment was shopping, their identities were tied up in stuff.
I ended up retiring at 55 and was told..... "It must be nice." It was nice, it is nice. I guess it all comes down to how you look at it. We all made the same amount of money and we all got to decide how to allocate it. I never felt I was scrimping. If I wanted something I bought it but what I wanted the most was to retired early with no debt. So I drank coffee at home instead of stopping at Starbucks. I went home for lunch. I tried to duck out of the huge office gift exchanges whenever possible. I paid cash for my cars and kept them at least 10 years. You know..... simple living. I have now been retired for nine years and they are all still working, eligible to retire but feeling like they can't afford to. Still asking me how I did it.