Interesting article on Nomadic lifestyle

[TCINTN]

Nomadic lifestyle

[jplante4]

I remember around the turn of the century, the popular message at commencement speeches was "carpe diem". Maybe it should have been carpe posterum to set the proper tone. I see a lot of millennials with high end cars and clothing living at home.

[spoon059]

pnichols wrote:

But IMHO you're still living a bit too High-On-The-Hog. 😉

i.e. We own three vehicles: The newest is our 2005 motorhome, the next newest is our 2002 daily driver sedan, and the oldest is our 1995 4X4 pickup that we use for carrying stuff and fishing. One of the Golden Rules for living might be Buy it Right and Buy It Once. :B

You are 100% right, we COULD be investing more. We are trying to strike the balance between saving for the future and taking advantage of the now. As I write this, we are in Florence SC on our way to Florida for 3 weeks to spend time with my parents, and we will overlap one night with my in-laws as they drive down in March.

toedtoes, yes there are some people who legitimately are just plain down on their luck. The majority of people who plan ahead don't find themselves in this position though. Its usually the people who plan to plan ahead, but don't actually plan ahead. Those that plan ahead and get hit with an unexpected expense usually fare a LOT better than people who just hope for the best...

[Grit_dog]

No one is saying that there aren't people that literally fall on hard times through no fault of their own, or don't have the potential to earn enough to not live paycheck to paycheck, but even some of those folks could if they found more motivation. I employ plenty of Laborers that don't even have a high school education. The motivated ones make $100k a year some years and don't do too shabby the rest of the time. Yet I have a brother in law that wouldn't work if you whipped him.

Spoon and winnietrey are right on point. Ya don't have to pass judgement, but everyone makes irresponsible financial decisions. Some just more than others.
I have plenty of friends and peers that have had the same or similar incomes and career paths as I and most of them don't have half the capital or liquidity. Typically because they are gotta haves. Gotta have this, gotta have that.

[toedtoes]

Wish I could have afforded to put $300+ away every month since I was 21. But some folks didn't/don't make enough to do so.

Some folks did and then had a major health crisis that wiped them out.

Some folks made bad choices - maybe they didn't have a parent who taught them about financial wisdom. Maybe they had to learn it by making mistakes along the way.

There are people I know who throw their money around with no cares. If I know them well enough, and know it was greed, then I have no sympathy for them. However, just because I know them doesn't mean everyone else acted the same. I also know people who struggle and work their butts off just to survive.

[pnichols]

spoon059 wrote:
Nah, I'd be willing to bet that most of us planned ahead (see the common theme there...?) and stretched before we started patting. That should alleviate most of the pain.

This was written tongue in cheek, but the message is still there. Those that plan ahead tend to be better off when we eventually get to the "ahead" part. Not all will be successful, but most will be far better off.

Like I said, I drop $400 a paycheck into a retirement plan. That is on top of an IRA in which we put "extra money" at the end of the year. That extra $800 every month sure would be nice to spend. Heck, I could have afforded a NEW Ram instead of a used. My wife could afford a NEW car instead of her 10 year old car. We could live in a much larger house. We could eat out more. We could vacation more. We could do a LOT of stuff now... but we are choosing to plan for the future instead. I'm 37 and I've been putting away AT LEAST $300 a paycheck since I was 21 years old.

I should be much better off than the majority of my coworkers... you know the ones, those guys laughing at me for living frugally now. I might fail, I might lose all my money. But I also might do alright. I might learn to leave within my means, even when my means are far greater in 20 or 30 years.

Well stated ... and ... good for you!!

But IMHO you're still living a bit too High-On-The-Hog. 😉

i.e. We own three vehicles: The newest is our 2005 motorhome, the next newest is our 2002 daily driver sedan, and the oldest is our 1995 4X4 pickup that we use for carrying stuff and fishing. One of the Golden Rules for living might be Buy it Right and Buy It Once. :B

[Hammerboy]

spoon059 wrote:

irishtom29 wrote:
Some of you jaspers must have sore arms from patting yourselves on the back.

Adding contempt to misery is unseemly.

Nah, I'd be willing to bet that most of us planned ahead (see the common theme there...?) and stretched before we started patting. That should alleviate most of the pain.;)

This was written tongue in cheek, but the message is still there. Those that plan ahead tend to be better off when we eventually get to the "ahead" part. Not all will be successful, but most will be far better off.

Like I said, I drop $400 a paycheck into a retirement plan. That is on top of an IRA in which we put "extra money" at the end of the year. That extra $800 every month sure would be nice to spend. Heck, I could have afforded a NEW Ram instead of a used. My wife could afford a NEW car instead of her 10 year old car. We could live in a much larger house. We could eat out more. We could vacation more. We could do a LOT of stuff now... but we are choosing to plan for the future instead. I'm 37 and I've been putting away AT LEAST $300 a paycheck since I was 21 years old.

I should be much better off than the majority of my coworkers... you know the ones, those guys laughing at me for living frugally now. I might fail, I might lose all my money. But I also might do alright. I might learn to leave within my means, even when my means are far greater in 20 or 30 years.

There's got to be a balance. There have been people who saved and pinched penny's all their life only to have their health fail by the time they retire and not get to enjoy life. I'm somewhere in the middle, my wife and I religiously put money away every month but we live in the now too. Tomorrow is never guaranteed and we are healthy and able bodied today. I don't want to save all the fun for when I'm old.

Dan

[spoon059]

irishtom29 wrote:
Some of you jaspers must have sore arms from patting yourselves on the back.

Adding contempt to misery is unseemly.

Nah, I'd be willing to bet that most of us planned ahead (see the common theme there...?) and stretched before we started patting. That should alleviate most of the pain.;)

This was written tongue in cheek, but the message is still there. Those that plan ahead tend to be better off when we eventually get to the "ahead" part. Not all will be successful, but most will be far better off.

Like I said, I drop $400 a paycheck into a retirement plan. That is on top of an IRA in which we put "extra money" at the end of the year. That extra $800 every month sure would be nice to spend. Heck, I could have afforded a NEW Ram instead of a used. My wife could afford a NEW car instead of her 10 year old car. We could live in a much larger house. We could eat out more. We could vacation more. We could do a LOT of stuff now... but we are choosing to plan for the future instead. I'm 37 and I've been putting away AT LEAST $300 a paycheck since I was 21 years old.

I should be much better off than the majority of my coworkers... you know the ones, those guys laughing at me for living frugally now. I might fail, I might lose all my money. But I also might do alright. I might learn to leave within my means, even when my means are far greater in 20 or 30 years.

[irishtom29]

Some of you jaspers must have sore arms from patting yourselves on the back.

Adding contempt to misery is unseemly.

[RGar974417]

The author could only live in an RV for a week? Must be very spoiled and obviously never served in the armed forces where had to endure much tougher conditions. And in the article,it says the one couples savings were wiped out in 2008. What were they invested in? I took a 40% hit but it came back.Some people just don't save money for retirement. I have friends who took some expensive vacations and bought new cars every 3 years and saved nothing. One friend is 66 and still working because he admits they didn't save anything. But they bought a house,put and addition on, built a 3 car garage so they have a mortgage. And some bought houses during the boom that were way over priced, then one or both spouses lost a job and they got in a hole.It happens. I guess I was lucky because my mom instilled into me to save money. I built a small rancher and still live in it 40 years later. We don't live high off the hog or take expensive vacations. That's why we camp.We stay in state or federal parks which are cheaper and with the America the beautiful pass we have saved alot of money.I started saving money 30 years before I turned 65.And while I don't have a million,I did pretty well.I'm still working, but not 40 hours a week. I do that so I don't have to tap into my retirement just yet.But I would imagine that many people living the full time RV lifestyle do it because they want to,not have to. And some like me work so they don't have to tap into their nest egg.

[winnietrey]

Not up to me, to judge, if that is how folks want to live, and they are happy, I say more power to them, and maybe they are smarter than the rest of us. ( would not argue that)

Where I run into trouble, is the heartbreaking, stories part. While I truly believe this can be the case. I also have been, in the people business for almost 40 years. And I would just say this, we all have self inflicted wounds, the key is, to keep them to knife wounds not shotgun blasts.

We all tell ourselves stories, to justify our actions. So when I hear these bleak stories. I want to reserve judgment. I think just listening to what someone says, can be a poor way to understand the total picture and how they ended up where they are. You would really have to know them and their history, before you could really make a judgment. Because, very few people will ever mention the self inflicted wound part. Just human nature we want to blame someone else for our troubles. Not always the case, but frequently is, from my experience

[MrWizard]

that is the same article i read on the New York Times website

[toedtoes]

A much better article - actually provides some information.

Although, is any of this really new? Aren't these just the current "hippies" of the era - those disillusioned of their lives (or those of people around them) and looking for a different way?

[Fizz]

I finished the book. It's not for everybody. It paints a bleak picture certain to break out in a 'Political' argument if I quote from it, so I won't.

Coincidentally this article came out today.
HOBO

[toedtoes]

Grit dog wrote:

TechWriter wrote:

Grit dog wrote:

TechWriter wrote:

Grit dog wrote:

While there, again, are many who have a good reason for being in the situation they are, there are more that who spent more than they earned and somehow thought it would magically work itself out.

How do you know this?

Go back and read my post above. That’s how I know. Saw these folks daily and hung out with several of them.

Well, if I had known that you are drawing your conclusions from a whole "several" people, I never would have questioned your vast generalizations.

First before I go off on vast generalizations, remember I said I understand that there are many that get down on their luck through no fault of their own.
But think about this genius. There never would have been a crash of 2008 or 2006 depending on what part of the country if people weren't generally spending "equity" that they never had in hand in cash money.....it was like perpetual motion, fueled by millions keeping up with the joneses. Maybe I met the only 20,30, 50, however many people that went ahead and spent all the "free money" they though they had. Or maybe it was the banks' fault for handing $ out like candy at Halloween.
When I get pre approved for over a 300k loan with no money in the bank (well like only 10-20k) and a JOB OFFER LETTER only for $70k a year and no employment history the year prior. (Built a house for free....just so you don't think I was hanging out playing video games). Something is wrong. I laughed at the clown and asked him if he thought I was as dumb as he was for offering me that much.
BUT alas, few years later, after getting more offers for home eq loans than I could count, we pulled an eq loan for a quick 100k, in 10 minutes in our living room from a door to door equity loan salesman. Seriously, door to door salesman. Needed cash for a downpayment on another house and got it as easy as going to the atm machine.

What's all this matter for? Because there weren't door to door loan salesman because no one was making poor choices. It was because dang near everyone was making poor choices. Period end of story. Sorry you were either someone who made the same greedy dumb decisions or ended up supporting someone who did...

So you were smart enough to see something wrong with that $300K loan. How many people didn't understand what that means? When asked "how will I pay for it?" they were told "don't worry, you'll have ARM financing. This will keep the payments low. By the time the payments increase, you'll have enough equity to refinance with a fixed rate mortgage".

Not everyone is money smart. Not everyone went out and bought stuff. Many folks trusted the experts to tell them how to do it. Unfortunately, the experts stopped caring about whether the people could pay for the loan.

When my mom was selling my grandmother's condo, she got an offer. It included a letter from the bank stating that the buyer had been pre-approved for a loan at x percent interest for $xxxK. Six weeks later, we found out the real estate agent had faked the letter and had told the buyer that "it was no problem because they were sure to get a loan at that rate in no time". They couldn't and had to renege on the deal. Who's fault was it? The buyer who trusted their real estate agent to help them buy a home? My mom for accepting an offer that looked completely legit? Her agent for believing the offer was legit? Or the other agent who lied to his clients, forged papers, and gave bad expert advice to people out of his own selfishness and greed?

Yes, greed and selfishness were at the heart of the housing collapse. But it was the greed and selfishness of the experts that allowed it to happen. Many people trusted what those experts told them through no wrong doing of their own. They were lied to by those very people who should have been preventing these events.

I always think how this would have affected my great grandmother. Widowed at a young age with 5 yound children, didn't get her citizenship because it was dependent upon her husband's and he died before his went through, didn't speak English - had she been offered the opportunity to own a home where she could raise her children and she was told by the experts that this was a great way to do it, I have no doubt she would have listened to them. Would it have then been her fault for being greedy and wanting something she couldn't afford? Or would it have been considered a scam and she the victim?