Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Are you Middle Class ?

We did the same thing 4 years ago.

Previously we had 3 financial priorities:

Mortgage
Retirement savings
Boys 529 plan for college

I always wanted the mortgage done before my son started college as an added buffer in case. Once the mortgage was paid off, we focused on the other two and a high yield savings account to use as a bringing strategy until I start collecting SS at 65.

Now without the mortgage, my pensions cover the bills and some savings, the bridging money is going towards the taxes on a Roth conversion in Dec.

i always say people use to work to eat know they work to play and blow their money on it
my father grew up on a farm and they would not butcher a cow always ate chicken and pork because they could get more for the beef...that says a lot about how people use to get by, now they just charge it

My dad used to make silk purses out of those…

Thanks, as DR says, "I did a whole lot of stupid." I failed to comprehend what my what my parents were teaching. My bad habits I mainly picked up in the Army, keeping up with others of my pay grade.

While my parents taught me a little about money and a whole lot of hard work. I never understood that they only borrowed money on things that made work more efficient, or to buy land. My parents are millionaires by DR standards, but they look like dirt poor ranchers/farmers. Dad turned 83 in March and still running 250 pairs of commercial cattle by himself, for the most part with minimal help from us kids and the grandchildren. Down from the nearly 500 he ran 10 years ago when he sold down to 100 pair due to the drought.

It took a lot of stupid, before we realized we were out of control. I know there are many ways to take control of your finances, the amount of financial gurus out there selling their product proves it. Just find the one that works for you. We chose DR FPU because it was offered at our church. It was nice to know we weren't alone in our community with wanting to take control of our finances. We had people who weren't even in our church attend.

I think the thing that most people are bothered about DR is his financial advice is very simple. Live within your means, have an emergency fund, and save for retirement. The rest of his program is more of a mental health counseling, and correcting the behaviors that got you in financial trouble in the first place. A lot of people don't want to hear that they are the main cause of their own situation.

My wife grew up on a farm. She never knew why they always ate cheese corn and pork, but never killed a cow until I explained it to her. I guess if you are immersed in it, you don’t really think about it.

I've told I have no class, so there is that.

Depends on location. In NE Arkansas many would say I was upper class even rich. Some places where cost of living is high I would be poor. I think I'll stay around here to live.

Being debt free except for the mortgage has been essential for us as a with two kids and the wife staying home. We drive old cars. We don't have any big toys (ATV, UTV, motor boat). We can still have fun - lots of camping and canoeing in our $100 aluminum Grumman canoe. But we never take expensive vacations. Those sacrifices enable us to live very comfortably, and they honestly don't feel like sacrifices because it's been how we live since we got out of college. I would like to get an ATV someday... maybe when the boys have gone to college and the house is paid off.... a couple of decades from now haha.