Congrats Class of 2021

[BrunswickDawg]

I have no idea if we have any students or grad school students on this board or not -

So if any of you on here are graduating today or tomorrow, congratulations!
Hope you enjoyed the experience and are off to successfully make your way in the world.

As a parent of a member of the class of 2021 I give you this advice I?m giving my child today - "Terrific work - now go get a job!"

[Lord McBuckethead]

Another bit of advice, once you get a job.....max out your 401k and then start an investment account and set yourself up on automatic deposits.

Take your financial plans as serious as your drive to advance in your career.

Another thing, do not rush out to buy a house and spend above your means on getting married and such. Stay within your means.

Also, you do not know everything. Ask tons of questions.

[Commercecomet24]

Another bit of advice, once you get a job.....max out your 401k and then start an investment account and set yourself up on automatic deposits.

Take your financial plans as serious as your drive to advance in your career.

Another thing, do not rush out to buy a house and spend above your means on getting married and such. Stay within your means.

Also, you do not know everything. Ask tons of questions.

Amen! Dang good advice. Solid!

[Dawgbite]

Another bit of advice, once you get a job.....max out your 401k and then start an investment account and set yourself up on automatic deposits.

Take your financial plans as serious as your drive to advance in your career.

Another thing, do not rush out to buy a house and spend above your means on getting married and such. Stay within your means.

Also, you do not know everything. Ask tons of questions.
This is probably the best advice you will ever get right here. I had an uncle who said that you should save 15% of your take home over and above any company retirement plan. He would ask me every time we met if I was saving 15%. It took about ten years in the workforce to understand why but in my early thirties I started saving and trying to catch up for past years. I retired at 55.

[Offshore Dawg]

The sooner you start saving and investing, the sooner your money starts working for you = principle of compound interest and the time value of money

[Offshore Dawg]

Oh and on the subject of marriage. It's cheaper to rent that stuff than it is to own it.

[Joebob]

Another bit of advice, once you get a job.....max out your 401k and then start an investment account and set yourself up on automatic deposits.

Take your financial plans as serious as your drive to advance in your career.

Another thing, do not rush out to buy a house and spend above your means on getting married and such. Stay within your means.

Also, you do not know everything. Ask tons of questions.

Before you worry about starting a retirement investment plan though, you need to build up an emergency cash reserve of several months of expenses. You don't want relatively minor problems to turn into catastrophes which cause you to go into debt.

[BeardoMSU]

Oh and on the subject of marriage. It's cheaper to rent that stuff than it is to own it.

And it's beneficial to marry someone who makes way more money than you, lol.

[Dawgbite]

And it's beneficial to marry someone who makes way more money than you, lol.

Amen brother, and if you can keep her working after you retire it’s just icing on the cake. I don’t agree with Dave Ramsey 100% but his book should be required reading for anyone starting adult life

[Rex54]

And it's beneficial to marry someone who makes way more money than you, lol.

Your goal should be for her not to have to work.

[msudawg1200]

My son graduates with honors tomorrow with a degree in Computer Engineering.

[BeardoMSU]

Your goal should be for her not to have to work.

Uh, huh.

If a girl has a DVM and a PhD, she's gonna work, but sure...

[BeardoMSU]

My son graduates with honors tomorrow with a degree in Computer Engineering.

Congrats dude. I bet you're super proud!

[Commercecomet24]

My son graduates with honors tomorrow with a degree in Computer Engineering.

Congrats!

[BrunswickDawg]

My son graduates with honors tomorrow with a degree in Computer Engineering.

Congrats - my daughter was this morning. Major was Operational Meteorology
She’s a lot smarter than her Dad.

[Commercecomet24]

Congrats - my daughter was this morning. Major was Operational Meteorology
She’s a lot smarter than her Dad.

Congrats man!

[Commercecomet24]

Y'all don't stone me. My oldest son graduates from usm next week, he has a double major in athletic administration and spanish.

[BrunswickDawg]

Y'all don't stone me. My oldest son graduates from usm next week, he has a double major in athletic administration and spanish.

Congrats back!

[THE Bruce Dickinson]

Than you can work for in a lifetime.

Remember these things

[Johnson85]

This is probably the best advice you will ever get right here. I had an uncle who said that you should save 15% of your take home over and above any company retirement plan. He would ask me every time we met if I was saving 15%. It took about ten years in the workforce to understand why but in my early thirties I started saving and trying to catch up for past years. I retired at 55.

That's pretty good advice. I wish somebody had explained to me that 15% was barely adequate when I started off.

If you get 6% real returns (which I view as on the optimistic going forward), and save 15% year in, year out, you'll be financially independent in 38.6 years. Obviously that assumes you will the same amount of money in real terms your entire career which won't be the case, but that means to do any better, you actually have to start saving more than 15% as your salary grows if you want to maintain the same lifestyle in retirement as you do while working. And that assumes that you save every year, and don't have setbacks, which is not going to be the case for most people.

Of course you should have social security on top of that, but I'd never want to be in a position where I felt compelled by my financial position to argue that younger and on average poorer people should have to pay more taxes to support my lifestyle.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Save up 5k prior to doing anything else.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Before you worry about starting a retirement investment plan though, you need to build up an emergency cash reserve of several months of expenses. You don't want relatively minor problems to turn into catastrophes which cause you to go into debt.

If you have enough in your personal investment accounts, it will continue to grow and is accessible if something crazy happens.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Than you can work for in a lifetime.

Remember these things
Shit, that is gold Jerry!

[BrunswickDawg]

If you have enough in your personal investment accounts, it will continue to grow and is accessible if something crazy happens.

The problem is that it isn't available when something usual happens. If I could do the last 25 years over again, I would have banked $10k in a regular savings account. The adage when I came out of school was "always have 2 months salary in the bank." Well fresh out of school in the mid-90s, my salary was only $2,500 a month. That wasn't nearly enough to have when my transmission blew, or the refrigerator died, or the compressor on the AC went out one August, and I didn't have enough monthly cash flow just to absorb the hit. Those smaller emergencies led to credit cards, and that credit card debt let to a tighter monthly cash flow - which made it harder to save and harder to handle the next thing - let alone when something real bad happened like a hurricane hit and shut my wife's business down for a month. 401ks are great long term, but life's realities require you to be more liquid than they allow you to be. Bank $10-15k before you start investing. That liquidity will save your ass a lot of interest in your lifetime.

[msudawg1200]

My son graduates with honors tomorrow with a degree in Computer Engineering.


Congrats dude. I bet you're super proud!

That I am. As stated by Brunswick, he's a lot smarter than his dad. He's already got a job lined up. Also, a 2nd generation Dawg. Appreciate it.

[Coach34]

C34 rule for my children:

No marriage before age 25. Your level of maturity is much better than at 21-22. If they love you at 22 and want you in their life forever- they will still be there at 25

[Offshore Dawg]

C34 rule for my children:

No marriage before age 25. Your level of maturity is much better than at 21-22. If they love you at 22 and want you in their life forever- they will still be there at 25

This also.

[BeardoMSU]

C34 rule for my children:

No marriage before age 25. Your level of maturity is much better than at 21-22. If they love you at 22 and want you in their life forever- they will still be there at 25

Not a bad philosophy.

Also, (and I'm sure some will have issues with this) I think if most couples lived together prior to marriage, the divorce rate in this country would plummet. I know soooo many people who rush into marriage just so they can live together (and bang, lol) without the ire and judgement of their families, and get divorced a year or so later....because they don't really know that person. Once you've lived with someone for an extended period of time (especially early in a relationship), there are no more secrets.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

That's pretty good advice. I wish somebody had explained to me that 15% was barely adequate when I started off.

If you get 6% real returns (which I view as on the optimistic going forward), and save 15% year in, year out, you'll be financially independent in 38.6 years. Obviously that assumes you will the same amount of money in real terms your entire career which won't be the case, but that means to do any better, you actually have to start saving more than 15% as your salary grows if you want to maintain the same lifestyle in retirement as you do while working. And that assumes that you save every year, and don't have setbacks, which is not going to be the case for most people.

Of course you should have social security on top of that, but I'd never want to be in a position where I felt compelled by my financial position to argue that younger and on average poorer people should have to pay more taxes to support my lifestyle.

I assume that "38.6 years" is the time it takes to where the interest alone allows you to retire. If you set up an annuity obviously you can retire before that time

By the time you retire, your house is paid off and kids are out of college, so that's significantly less $$$ needed to live than when you were say 40.

Lastly I agree in about SS, BUT there's no way in hell the Gov't will ever say "Hey largest group of voters in the country, I know we promised you SS your whole life, and you paid into it, but F you you're going to starve to death". They'd never do it because of the old people vote, they'd never do it because our kids (who'd suddenly be responsible for keeping mom and dads' electricity on) would riot, and they'd never do it because there's NOTHING the Gov't loves more than to have us dependent on them. They'd print $$$ or raise SS taxes before they gave us nothing. So yeah, there will definitely be something we can count on in addition to our own savings

[Rex54]

Not a bad philosophy.

Also, (and I'm sure some will have issues with this) I think if most couples lived together prior to marriage, the divorce rate in this country would plummet. I know soooo many people who rush into marriage just so they can live together (and bang, lol) without the ire and judgement of their families, and get divorced a year or so later....because they don't really know that person. Once you've lived with someone for an extended period of time (especially early in a relationship), there are no more secrets.

US divorce rates are at 50 year lows.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Dude, a personal investment account can get you your money in less than a day.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Not sure who you are trying/going to convince on SS. Need to step back from the ledge. This entire overplayed conversation on SS is pointless.

My entire family relies on SS to live their life. Without it, they would starve. I am grateful they get it. I am grateful the boomers are going to get it, because they are useless.

So no shit, govt is never going to stop SS. Cause they cannot. It has nothing to do with having people under their control. As it was the day it was passed, SS is an absolute necessity to keep our country moving forward and keeping that anchor off of the workers backs so they can do what they need to do, ve productive.

[BeardoMSU]

US divorce rates are at 50 year lows.

Are you citing the IFS article? You obviously quoted it (https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-us-divorce-rate-has-hit-a-50-year-low). This article doesn't really provide anything but a chart not of their making and a bunch of conjecture of what this means to families going forward, and they obviously fail to mention that people are waiting until they're older to get married (when they do, which is obviously a wise decision). And that fewer people are actually getting married, despite still remaining in solid relationships. Women being active members in the workforce is a major factor in this phenomenon, obviously, to your chagrin, I'm sure.

[Maverick91]

Another bit of advice, once you get a job.....max out your 401k and then start an investment account and set yourself up on automatic deposits.

Take your financial plans as serious as your drive to advance in your career.

Another thing, do not rush out to buy a house and spend above your means on getting married and such. Stay within your means.

Also, you do not know everything. Ask tons of questions.

rep given!

[Offshore Dawg]

One good rule to follow if you can is to have a six month supply of cash to operate with if you become unemployed. However in the real world half of this country could not come up with $1,000 in ready cash.

[Johnson85]

Not a bad philosophy.

Also, (and I'm sure some will have issues with this) I think if most couples lived together prior to marriage, the divorce rate in this country would plummet. I know soooo many people who rush into marriage just so they can live together (and bang, lol) without the ire and judgement of their families, and get divorced a year or so later....because they don't really know that person. Once you've lived with someone for an extended period of time (especially early in a relationship), there are no more secrets.

This may have changed in the last ten years, but living together prior to marriage used to be one of the stronger predictors of divorce. Study authors didn't have an explanation but guessed that maybe people that held to the norm that you shouldn't live together before marriage were more likely to hold to the norm that you shouldn't divorce. There was also supposedly some research showing that outside of traditional "at fault" causes of divorce like abuse or infidelity, the main difference between people that got divorced and and people that didn't is that the people that didn't get divorced just didn't get divorced. Had the same ups and downs, but some couples were committed and some weren't, and supposedly the ones that stayed committed ended up happier. Always good to be skeptical of research like that that supports a hot button position, but doesn't seem implausible and taken together, it would explain why cohabitating before marriage would be a decent predictor of divorce even if it doesn't cause it.

ETA: Apparently some people do/did think that had changed, but others think the premarital cohabitation decreases risk of divorce in the first year but increases risk of divorce in the long term.
https://ifstudies.org/blog/premarital-cohabitation-is-still-associated-with-greater-odds-of-divorce#:~:text=They%20find%20that%20living%20toge ther,holds%20across%20decades%20of%20data.

[Johnson85]

One good rule to follow if you can is to have a six month supply of cash to operate with if you become unemployed. However in the real world half of this country could not come up with $1,000 in ready cash.

I'm thinking this is not true. There was a fake statistic that is recirculated almost every year that equates choosing to pay with a method other than savings means they don't have any savings. Not that savings aren't generally abysmal, but it's not true that half this country can't cover a $1k expense.

[Johnson85]

The problem is that it isn't available when something usual happens. If I could do the last 25 years over again, I would have banked $10k in a regular savings account. The adage when I came out of school was "always have 2 months salary in the bank." Well fresh out of school in the mid-90s, my salary was only $2,500 a month. That wasn't nearly enough to have when my transmission blew, or the refrigerator died, or the compressor on the AC went out one August, and I didn't have enough monthly cash flow just to absorb the hit. Those smaller emergencies led to credit cards, and that credit card debt let to a tighter monthly cash flow - which made it harder to save and harder to handle the next thing - let alone when something real bad happened like a hurricane hit and shut my wife's business down for a month. 401ks are great long term, but life's realities require you to be more liquid than they allow you to be. Bank $10-15k before you start investing. That liquidity will save your ass a lot of interest in your lifetime.

If you fund a Roth IRA for 2 years you have more than a $10k emergency fund that is accessible without penalty. And the good thing is that it makes you think before you touch it. Lots of people would probably dip into their emergency fund to buy a nicer car when they are replacing it. HOpefully lots fewer would take contributions out of a roth to upgrade their car.

We don't carry any emergency funds. Not to say we don't ever have cash, but I don't have a problem running our cash down to almost nothing. At basically anytime, of the month, we will have a credit card that we can put an expenditure on and not have to pay for 50 days. We have a personal line of credit we can access if we have something that we can't figure out how to cash flow in 50 days. We have Roth IRAs if we need something beyond the LOC. We have 401ks from previous jobs that we can roll over and then do a roth conversion and access if we need something past that. Any emergency that exceeded our LOC (or made it unavailable) and wiped out our Roth contributions would almost certainly involve a loss of a job, so we'd then have at least one current 401k that we can access in short order by rolling to an IRA and doing roth conversions.

Certainly the math is different depending on what kind of income you make. But in general, if you are young and in a good career, I wouldn't slow down investing just to keep $10k in a cash account.

[Johnson85]

I assume that "38.6 years" is the time it takes to where the interest alone allows you to retire. If you set up an annuity obviously you can retire before that time That's 38.6 years using the 4% rule, but that also assumes a virtually non-existent income tax burden in retirement, which may or may not be the case depending on what state you live in and how much you have.


By the time you retire, your house is paid off and kids are out of college, so that's significantly less $$$ needed to live than when you were say 40. The house part is correct and a good point. If you are paying off a house, then that's additional investment beyond your 15% and does make the math look better. For other expenses, including kids, I just take the (possibly overly) conservative approach that I don't want my consumption to go down when I retire, and that I'll have some expenses that go down (kid costs, business expenses) and others that will go up (healthcare, services like lawn and home maintenance grocery deliveries, etc depending on how healthy we stay, and travel, although I guess that's increased consumption) and it will roughly balance out.


Lastly I agree in about SS, BUT there's no way in hell the Gov't will ever say "Hey largest group of voters in the country, I know we promised you SS your whole life, and you paid into it, but F you you're going to starve to death". They'd never do it because of the old people vote, they'd never do it because our kids (who'd suddenly be responsible for keeping mom and dads' electricity on) would riot, and they'd never do it because there's NOTHING the Gov't loves more than to have us dependent on them. They'd print $$$ or raise SS taxes before they gave us nothing. So yeah, there will definitely be something we can count on in addition to our own savings I'm not worried about Social Security going away, but if we ever do something sensible and say "we're going to make sure seniors don't end up below the poverty line, but we're going to stop taxing young poor workers to give money to relatively rich retirees", I don't want to be tempted to say "17 those young people; I was screwed by people older than me and now I want to immorally screw over people younger than me". Even if they don't cut my social security at all, that will almost certainly mean my kids are getting screwed even harder than we did, so I will want that social security money available to give to them to help soften the blow.

[Cooterpoot]

To the class of 2021:

Get out of your parent's house and start a career. Stop sucking up the communist/socialist bullshit because you want shit handed to you. Go make a difference.
But until you're 25, just smoke weed and bang as much as possible. You only live once! Don't fall into the lie that your entire life is about money.

[RocketDawg]

Another bit of advice, once you get a job.....max out your 401k and then start an investment account and set yourself up on automatic deposits.

Take your financial plans as serious as your drive to advance in your career.

Another thing, do not rush out to buy a house and spend above your means on getting married and such. Stay within your means.

Also, you do not know everything. Ask tons of questions.

Excellent advice. People in their early 20s generally don't think much about retirement, but the earlier you start the better off you'll be when you actually do retire. And it'll happen before you know it.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Your goal should be for her not to have to work.

Well that is bull. Equal rights. Me and my wife's goal is for one of us to make it big and the other can take it easy. We haven't decided which one it is yet based off of some 1950s societal logic.

[Extendedcab]

Well that is bull. Equal rights. Me and my wife's goal is for one of us to make it big and the other can take it easy. We haven't decided which one it is yet based off of some 1950s societal logic.

It depends on your worldview!

[Rex54]

Well that is bull. Equal rights. Me and my wife's goal is for one of us to make it big and the other can take it easy. We haven't decided which one it is yet based off of some 1950s societal logic.

The failure of men in real time. "Honey go work so I can take it easy" - no wonder society is off the rails.

[BeardoMSU]

It depends on your worldview!

How dare womernz seek an education and job opportunities outside of the home.**

And there is nothing wrong with a woman choosing to be a mom and stay at home. There is also nothing wrong with choosing a career instead. And there is nothing wrong with choosing to merge the two. Choice and opportunity isn't a "worldview" problem, lol.

[BeardoMSU]

The failure of men in real time. "Honey go work so I can take it easy" - no wonder society is off the rails.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/ohboy.gif

[Extendedcab]

How dare womernz seek an education and job opportunities outside of the home.**

And there is nothing wrong with a woman choosing to be a mom and stay at home. There is also nothing wrong with choosing a career instead. And there is nothing wrong with choosing to merge the two. Choice and opportunity isn't a "worldview" problem, lol.

Actually it is. In the past, men have "mostly" been the bread winners (in the old days work was to too manual and hard for the average woman) for obvious reasons. Today and for the past several years women can chose to pursue most any career they want. Now, there are options for women that were not available before (speaking generally here).

There are different worldviews depending on your beliefs.

1) Women should stay home and only men (for the most part anyway) should work <-- cuts down on work related extra material affairs - not my view but it does have merits
2) Women have a choice either to work or stay home <-- my worldview - I was fortunate enough where my wife did not have to work - her choice though
3) Women since they have equal rights are expected to work <-- not my view

Number 1 is the traditional view and it does have merits, as work related affairs are minimized and children are given family values - mother able to raise children and not the system/others.

Number 2, my view, I am expected to be the bread winner but my wife can work or not (did early in our marriage - dental hygienist), her choice depending on her desires. Once we had children she chose to stay home and raise our children. Now some may see staying at home as not working but it is a job and a very important one. And sometimes, when our children were older, she felt guilty for not working outside the home but as I told her; yes I may bring home the bulk goods but she refines them to make a family and a home. What she does is important no mater if we recognize that fact or not.

Number 3 I think is the modern view. Women are expected to work and be the bread winner just as much as the man. Has drawbacks though - work related affairs are more prevalent, children raised by system/others and given their values instead of the mom/dad. However, to their defense, these days for a lot of couples, it takes both salaries to make a decent living and sometimes, if they don't have a good education, it takes multiple jobs by both man and woman.

If your worldview is that women should stay at home, then it does not matter if there is an opportunity, they will stay home. If you think women should work then it does not mater if there is an opportunity or not; they will get whatever "job" they have to!

[Matt3467]

My wife worked up until we had our first child. She's always been a hard and faithful worker. Our goal and prayer was that she would be able to stay home and raise the kids while I went to work. I have a full-time job and a PRN (as needed) job in case we need extra. We don't have to send our kids off to daycare and worry about what they'll be learning or hearing/seeing. We also plan to homeschool which is another reason we wanted one home.

Not against women working at all. Actually if we didn't have kids at home she'd still be working. It's a common misconception that women that stay home don't work but being a stay at home mom is a job. She's raising kids, feeding, diapers, cleaning, etc. It pays out in the long run I believe.

[Rex54]

My wife worked up until we had our first child. She's always been a hard and faithful worker. Our goal and prayer was that she would be able to stay home and raise the kids while I went to work. I have a full-time job and a PRN (as needed) job in case we need extra. We don't have to send our kids off to daycare and worry about what they'll be learning or hearing/seeing. We also plan to homeschool which is another reason we wanted one home.

Not against women working at all. Actually if we didn't have kids at home she'd still be working. It's a common misconception that women that stay home don't work but being a stay at home mom is a job. She's raising kids, feeding, diapers, cleaning, etc. It pays out in the long run I believe.

Slow clap

[Johnson85]

Actually it is. In the past, men have "mostly" been the bread winners (in the old days work was to too manual and hard for the average woman) for obvious reasons. Today and for the past several years women can chose to pursue most any career they want. Now, there are options for women that were not available before (speaking generally here).

There are different worldviews depending on your beliefs.

1) Women should stay home and only men (for the most part anyway) should work <-- cuts down on work related extra material affairs - not my view but it does have merits
2) Women have a choice either to work or stay home <-- my worldview - I was fortunate enough where my wife did not have to work - her choice though
3) Women since they have equal rights are expected to work <-- not my view

Number 1 is the traditional view and it does have merits, as work related affairs are minimized and children are given family values - mother able to raise children and not the system/others.

Number 2, my view, I am expected to be the bread winner but my wife can work or not (did early in our marriage - dental hygienist), her choice depending on her desires. Once we had children she chose to stay home and raise our children. Now some may see staying at home as not working but it is a job and a very important one. And sometimes, when our children were older, she felt guilty for not working outside the home but as I told her; yes I may bring home the bulk goods but she refines them to make a family and a home. What she does is important no mater if we recognize that fact or not.

Number 3 I think is the modern view. Women are expected to work and be the bread winner just as much as the man. Has drawbacks though - work related affairs are more prevalent, children raised by system/others and given their values instead of the mom/dad. However, to their defense, these days for a lot of couples, it takes both salaries to make a decent living and sometimes, if they don't have a good education, it takes multiple jobs by both man and woman.

If your worldview is that women should stay at home, then it does not matter if there is an opportunity, they will stay home. If you think women should work then it does not mater if there is an opportunity or not; they will get whatever "job" they have to!

I think this is a bad world view. People are not wired to sit around and do nothing. If you are raising young kids, you are being challenged. But as they get older, they are not full time jobs and if you are not filling your time with something else, from my experience that doesn't work well. Doesn't have to be paid work, but there is a reason wine mom is a stereotype. Just not working because your husband makes good money when you don't have kids to raise seems like a recipe for dysfunction.

[Fred Garvin]

C34 rule for my children:

No marriage before age 25. Your level of maturity is much better than at 21-22. If they love you at 22 and want you in their life forever- they will still be there at 25

That's very un-Mississippi #ringbyspring

Seriously, that's great advice. I got married at 27 and I'm so glad I let myself growup a little.

[Rex54]

I think this is a bad world view. People are not wired to sit around and do nothing. If you are raising young kids, you are being challenged. But as they get older, they are not full time jobs and if you are not filling your time with something else, from my experience that doesn't work well. Doesn't have to be paid work, but there is a reason wine mom is a stereotype. Just not working because your husband makes good money when you don't have kids to raise seems like a recipe for dysfunction.

I don't think anyone is advocating anyone sit around and do nothing. Church organizations, community functions, helping out at schools, etc. I know they've so individualized, libertarianized, and commodified all thinking but we once had this thing called a society that existed outside of chasing a dollar being a cog in the capitalist cubicle machine.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Before you worry about starting a retirement investment plan though, you need to build up an emergency cash reserve of several months of expenses. You don't want relatively minor problems to turn into catastrophes which cause you to go into debt.

Set up multiple accounts. First get a money market account to establish your safety net. Money you can get too really quick if something goes wrong with your car, HVAC system, whatever. Then I would have another account who's sole purpose is to be in the market and earn a return. Calculate how much you need for 4 solid months of current living expenses and make sure the money market account (or low risk account) has that amount of money there, just waiting for you to use it. ONce you get to 4 month maybe even 6 months, then dump every bit of money you have into the stock account to build it up. And do not stop when the economy goes to shit. If you can and your job is secure, dump even more money in. That is where the windfall comes from.

Like last March for instance. I dumped a bunch of cash into my investment account on March 7th. It was fun watching it earn 75% by the end of year.

[TaleofTwoDogs]

To the class of 2021:

Get out of your parent's house and start a career. Stop sucking up the communist/socialist bullshit because you want shit handed to you. Go make a difference.
But until you're 25, just smoke weed and bang as much as possible. You only live once! Don't fall into the lie that your entire life is about money.

And don't forget the condoms!

[TaleofTwoDogs]

Some sage financial advise in this thread, but seems to be geared toward getting a job, work with maximum savings and retiring early. That's well and good but highly problematic because of that thing called life. Things don't always go according to script (lost job, divorce, death, etc). My piece of advice (which I learned too late) is always be on the lookout for opportunity and take the risk outside your comfort zone but remember the caveat that if it is too good to be true it probably is.

[RougeDawg]

I?m gonna throw a wrinkle into this conversation.

Invest in tangible assets that the value of a $ will least likely effect.

With the way the government is currently printing/electronically creating money, any money saved today or in the past is worth less.

Here?s an example. What?s the difference in the government taxing your $100 by 25% or them simply creating another $33 digital dollars? Your $100 is now 75% of the money available. So money printing is essentially a tax on everyone. The money you worked for is now worth 75% of what it was. Double the amount of money available by printing and you now have 50% of the value you worked for. And on and on.

Modern Monetary Theory is no longer a theory and people better wake the hell up before everything they have, no longer has a tangible value.

If you want to be safe and be able to survive when the $ is no longer worth anything use this simple investment advice.

Invest in lead, silver and gold in that order and proportion. You?ll need more lead than the others to acquire more of the last two.

disclaimer: This advice is free of charge and I am not a financial advisor. Please consult your financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

[BeardoMSU]

I am not a financial advisor. Please consult your financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

Way to bury the lede, lol.