Are you financially comfortable?

Jagraf

To feel calm having no debt and more money in than out, to be comfortable means not relying on other people for my income, having no mortgage or loans.

Having a comfortable lifestyle is very different. People can have lots of stuff, but it's not theirs til they fully own it.

I always find it odd how high income earners get higher limits, bigger mortgages etc when it can be a really big fall (learnt the hard way).

chucknorris

Jagraf wrote: »

To feel calm having no debt and more money in than out, to be comfortable means not relying on other people for my income, having no mortgage or loans.

Having a comfortable lifestyle is very different. People can have lots of stuff, but it's not theirs til they fully own it.

I always find it odd how high income earners get higher limits, bigger mortgages etc when it can be a really big fall (learnt the hard way).

We do have mortgages (but 4 of our 9 properties are not mortgaged, and they are the 4 most valuable properties), and the overall loan to value of the mortgages is only about 13%. We also have other assets that are over double the value of the mortgages, but it isn't value to pay them off, because our average net mortgage rate is only 0.6%, whereas our average net dividend income is over 2.6%.

Jagraf

chucknorris wrote: »

We do have mortgages (but 4 of our 9 properties are not mortgaged, and they are the 4 most valuable properties), and the overall loan to value of the mortgages is only about 13%. We also have other assets that are over double the value of the mortgages, but it isn't value to pay them off, because our average net mortgage rate is only 0.6%, whereas our average net dividend income is over 2.6%.

Ok so if you had to pay all of your creditors you could do without sinking - that sounds comfortable to me.

I was thinking more about those who take massive risks by putting themselves in the hands of someone else - car loans, 6 x salary, credit cards etc. That to me wouldnt be comfortable.

Ps - my last post wasn't aimed at you it was in general. Good luck with your retirement x

chucknorris

Jagraf wrote: »

Ok so if you had to pay all of your creditors you could do without sinking - that sounds comfortable to me.

I was thinking more about those who take massive risks by putting themselves in the hands of someone else - car loans, 6 x salary, credit cards etc. That to me wouldnt be comfortable.

Ps - my last post wasn't aimed at you it was in general. Good luck with your retirement x

I knew what you meant, a few of my friends are high earners, but they seem to spend (at least most of) it on things like business class flights, car loans for very expensive cars. I've always been 'value' oriented, I am very unlikely to fly business class, and up to now I have always bought a car for cash, aged around 1 year old, and kept it until it became unreliable.

Mr_Toad

Yes I'm comfortable.

I retired three years ago at 55. I owned my own house outright, both my cars and my boat. I had no loans and no credit card debt, I have always paid it off in full every month.

I was in a very good job as a software engineer/Database programmer that paid well enough that every third month there was the same amount left in the current account as my incoming salary.

This meant that I could transfer a whole months income to savings every three months in addition to my regular savings and investments. I also had an excellent final salary pension.

However, my main reason for early retirement was that six years ago I was diagnosed with a neurological disease. There is no cure and it is progressive, especially if diagnosed later in life. I had a year off work while they got it under control, it can be managed with medication. They tell me I could live to be a hundred but I could also have a 'crisis' and it's good night Vienna.

So when work made me an offer I couldn't refuse, two years salary and my pension, I decided to take it and enjoy myself while everything is under control. What's the point in earning a lot of money if you never get to spend it and enjoy it.

I'm loving retirement and don't miss the job at all, I thought I would. I've just returned from two weeks away on the boat and life is good.

Slinky

This makes for some interesting reading

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36466186

[Deleted User]

FYI - beware 'conformation bias' in this thread.

You're far more likely to see only those people 'who are comfortable' posting, and therefore could infer that MSE is full of comfortable well-off people. Just like Facebook posts; please use common sense when interpreting.

tomtontom

ringo_24601 wrote: »

FYI - beware 'conformation bias' in this thread.

You're far more likely to see only those people 'who are comfortable' posting, and therefore could infer that MSE is full of comfortable well-off people. Just like Facebook posts; please use common sense when interpreting.

That is surely true of any thread? Debt threads attract those in debt, relationship worries those in bad relationships, and so on. I don't believe anyone would be foolish enough to assume something about the MSE readership based on one thread.

[Deleted User]

tomtontom wrote: »

That is surely true of any thread? Debt threads attract those in debt, relationship worries those in bad relationships, and so on. I don't believe anyone would be foolish enough to assume something about the MSE readership based on one thread.

Yeh, pretty true for most of the entire internet really. This is really just a bragging thread.

ognum

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Yeh, pretty true for most of the entire internet really. This is really just a bragging thread.

This poster writes this on all these types of thread and he is entitled to his opinion.

I like others are interested in how people form there thoughts and how they change over different ages.