Planning Ahead, or Living For The Moment?

[sabrinathecat]

Well, the remodelling of the apartment that was empty is finished, and this coming week I get to fumigate another building.
All of this has burned down my cash.

Only reason I managed was because I had built up cash in an account that I haven't touched in 5 years.
People were surprised.

But this has come up a few times.
Seems to me people live only hand-to-mouth these days, spending everything they have as soon as they get it, or even before they have it. Do people put aside any of their income for a rainy day?

I've done both--while I was married, everything was gone as soon as it arrived. Once that was over, I went back to my previous habit of putting aside about 10-20% for when things go wrong.
Anyone else?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Alas, I am more grasshopper than ant.

(Aesop's Fables, y'all.)


I do save, but not anywhere near what I ought to. And I go on spending binges from time to time. Example: I play guitar, and from 1987-2012, I had amassed a collection of 5 guitars. Since a particular conversation in August of 2012, I have acquired another 15...and I'm not done.

Gotta do better.

 

[Kramodlog]

I'm Grass-Ant, the bastard child of Ant and Grasshoper add because Grasshoper traded some [redacted] for some food.

In other words, I both save money and live large (without being at).

 

[Elf Witch]

I used to be big on the practice of save for a rainy day and I did. It did help when I became disabled and had to endure the long fight to get on disability. Now a days I live hand to mouth simply because of just how low my income is. It so stressful when emergencies happen so I am not sure why people who don't have to do live like this. But there is another side of the coin I had a friend who always saved to the point of denying herself many luxuries. All saved for that one day in the future.

She passed away suddenly at the age of 54 and she all that money went to a relative. So I do think there needs to be a balance if you can do it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My grandparents lived through the Depression, and as a result, they saved religiously- my Grandmother saved 100% of every paycheck she earned. However, they saved beyond the point of self-denial, but into the realm of self-endangerment. Their lives were a ticking time-bomb, until Katrina intervened and took their house away.

Before that storm, they had 2 TVs in their bedroom...1 for sound, 1 for picture. And they had a rental rotary phone until the mid-1980s. Not so bad...

But they often ate off of the styrofoam packing trays that come with your raw chicken or beef from the store. They were washed, yes (and by hand, despite their owning a dishwasher), but that's a health hazard. That material is too porous to be used that way.

And their gas stove? Only one burner worked. When my Dad replaced it with a new one out of concerns for their safety, my Grandmother almost went Wolverine on the asses of the delivery crew.

 

[Kramodlog]

Nothing says savings like salmonella.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yeah, after a certain point, we didn't eat there when we visited. Didn't sleep there often, either- one of their old pillows was so moldy it nearly killed me.

 

[Janx]

Yeah, after a certain point, we didn't eat there when we visited. Didn't sleep there often, either- one of their old pillows was so moldy it nearly killed me.

how does a pillow get moldy?

kind of like eating off re-washed styrofoam instead of using plates, even cheap plates. How does that save money? How hard is it to acquire some cheap plates at a garage sale?

Sadly, Danny's grandparents seem to have doddered off into faulty moist robot land.

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

how does a pillow get moldy?

Pretty easily, depending on the area you are in, how humid it gets, how much you use the AC, how often the pillow is clean and the cover is washed.

kind of like eating off re-washed styrofoam instead of using plates, even cheap plates. How does that save money? How hard is it to acquire some cheap plates at a garage sale?

Well, not buying plates saves you the money, regardless of how little, you would spend on those plates. Sure, a bad case of food poisoning is far more expensive than even modestly priced plates, but if you don't get sick, you could save a little money.

I myself tend to save for the future but enjoy the present. I'm fortunate enough that I can save enough that by the time I want to retire, I'll be able to do so in comfort, but I do enjoy spending money. Some times I spend too much out of boredom. It also doesn't help that I have a short work week, and I end up trying to find ways to entertain myself.

 

[GSHamster]

I follow the dictum that one should have about 4-6 months living expenses in an easily accessible account, even if it pays trivial interest. A cushion for everything.

After you've built that cushion, then save/spend like normal. I find that just the fact that I have that money available relieves a lot of anxieties, and seems to make it easier to smooth out expenses, and not actually have to dip into it.

It also means that if I have to find a new job, I don't have to take a terrible job right away just to get some cash flow. Before I started this practice, about 8 years ago, I was in a terrible job for 2 years that made me very unhappy, but I stayed because I needed the money. So enough ready cash that I can quit a bad situation safely is important to me from a mental perspective.