School me on investing...

Nope I’m 48, just tired of seeing the younger guys I work with get ragged on like the current economic situation is their fault.

 

Depending on how they voted, it probably is their fault ...

 

Regardless,They still overpaid for a cup of coffee.

 

I had a banana shake at Dairy Queen about 4 or 5 years ago.

That five bucks still chaps my ass.

 

It seems we've somewhere veered from the investment topic to our gripes with Gen Z.

First, we're still in the first house my wife and I ever bought. We didn't buy until we were 30, I married her when I was 19. We moved a lot, became pros at it really. Being in IT, I was a contractor for quite a while. We moved 9 times in 10 years. We never bought a home for the investing. We were young, stupid, and just HATED moving and apartment life. We got our home because I finally got a permanent job, was in the location that I could almost always get a job in my field, and it was finally the right time. The thought of going back to being in an apartment complex makes me feel almost "icky". Hearing your neighbors (on all sides) stomp around, argue, screw, and party at all hours of the day and night is just a big damn no for me. I have a garage where I get to park my bikes, work on my cars, and store lots of the things we've acquired over the years is priceless. While my home has gained 3x its value, that really doesn't mean much. If I sell it, then what? I do admit, it's nice to have that equity if I ever need it; but I don't really think about it.

As for Gen Z, well I've gotten to know the "working force" pretty well lately. Thanks to *insertanamehere*'nomics I'm now working a second job flipping pizzas. No, I don't HAVE to, but I have financial goals I'm dead set on reaching and my monthly food bill DOUBLING has kinda f'ed that up. Feeding 5 people and a dog, well that isn't a tiny sum. So here I am, coming up on 50, working with kids flipping pizzas 3 nights a week. Some things I've noticed, their work ethic is FAR LESS than mine. I outperform them in every metric. Second, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM VAPES! I'm not joking when I say EVERY... SINGLE... ONE. That's gotta cost money. Now, for one thing I noticed that just plain caught me off guard, is how they spend money thinking it's a requirement; and it's already been mentioned. So one of my coworkers (that calls in or doesn't show up at least once every other week) complains that all he does is either pay rent (rents a house with his dad) and pays for food. That's his entire paycheck. He has no car, he walks to work. Ok, I get the rent. That sucks. But then he says he gets Door Dash, EVERY DAY. I about flipped over when he said that. EVERY DAY?!?! Geez dude, walk the hell down to WalMart and buy your food, make it at home, and easily save 500 bucks a month. My wife and I have been at this for a long time now. We only eat out ONCE A WEEK. Saturday night is our night together. Other than that, we take turns cooking. We eat leftovers for lunch. We laugh about our early days together, with Pizza Rolls being our most common nightly meal. Why would anyone think that Door Dash is a necessity? Lots of blame to go around every which way, but damn kids, you don't NEED half of what you spend money on. *SMH* Ok, back down off my soap box.

 

Did you ever have kids?

I ask because I was way more of a tightwad, before kids.

 

None that got pinned on me.

I used to spend like a drunken sailor, back when I was actually a drunken sailor. I think I get cheaper every day.

 

I can’t recall anyone in the last 40 yrs that reduced the National debt or made any progress towards a sensible budget. They haven’t been voting that long.

 

You forgot that every one of them probably has and thinks they need a thousand dollar phone.

 

Hey @Clay VERY IMPRESSIVE!!!

I used to be very cost conscious and in my old age I’ve let some of that go. I think you are setting an incredible example for your kids!!!

I remember bringing a sack lunch in everyday to work. Finally after like 9 months on the job, a co-worker talked me into going out to lunch with him on Fridays. Now I almost always eat out for lunch. Unless I have a bunch left over from the night before, then I will bring that into the office.

Very smart how you are saving money!!!

Since I’ve decided I don’t really want to retire before sometime in my 70’s, I’ve really loosened up financially. I like to spend money and so does my wife, and since I currently really like what I do, the pressure of saving a bunch for retirement has gone away.

I’ve spoken to a lot of retired people that go back to work, because retirement isn’t as fulfilling as they hoped. Plus, since @motion already pointed out I’m stupid, I need to keep engaged and working. I don’t need to lose anymore bandwidth!!

 

I don't know as I don't know phone models. I always buy an old model android when it's time. (Always around 300 bucks, current phone is 3 years old.) I did mention to him that he could save money by going to Mint Mobile if he doesn't use never ending data.

 

I am my family's garbage disposal. Nothing is left on any plates. "Don't you dare throw that away, that's tomorrow's lunch!'. Thankfully my kids have followed suit and pack their own lunch. Both have excellent credit scores. My son just bought a car, was able to put 10k down on it and got a 48 month for the rest @6%. I was proud.

My wife and I weren't good examples at his age; but we learned and made damn sure they learned the same lessons from our experiences.

 

When was the last time the .gov sent out $1400/person checks? Kept pushing higher unemployment payouts for longer period of times? Not to get political here, since that frowned upon, but you know, you can't just invent trillions of dollars and not expect any repercussions.

 

I think you and I may be on the same page here but we are headed for bansville lol.

 

The Son (17) of one of my Coworkers comes in and sweeps the floor for an hour or two every couple nights. Everytime he get's there, he orders skip the dishes Mcdonalds to be delivered to the shop. Usually around $20-25, and then he works for about an hour or two at $15/hour. Complains to his Dad that he's always broke.

He rides his bike into work, and the Mcdonalds is about a 1km detour........on a 5k ride.

We've all tried to explain this to him, but it's like there is a switch set to stunned on the back of his head.

I don't remember being that dumb when I was that young, but looking back I probably wasn't far off.

 

I'm too lazy to search... have we talked about PLTR? Various youtubers made a good case so I bought in a couple times and have done pretty well.

 

Cmon Rob I hope you know I'm just bustin ur balls!

 

Dude of course I do, I’m just having fun back with you. This place is full up of ball busters!!!!!!

 

Well we couldn’t be that stupid, because we didn’t have the opportunity to have fast food delivered!!! Most likely we might have done it occasionally if it was around. Although when I was that young, I was such a cheapo, I’m not sure.

 

I had fast food delivered as a kid. All it took was knowing someone that worked to close and having them pass by your house on the way home. Never cost me anything but hang out time with a friend.