What is your Ideal income?
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I want to feel good about spending a crazy amount on a paint job on my boat. Thats my next goal.
[quote=rightway]I want to feel good about spending a crazy amount on a paint job on my boat. Thats my next goal.
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Dude you are SERIOUSLY obsessed with that!!!
[quote=skeedaddy2]A successful man is one who can make more money than his wife can spend. [/quote]
Benjamin Graham defined a wealthy person as being someone who didn’t have to balance their checkbook. That’s my goal.
"Benjamin Graham defined a wealthy person as being someone who didn't have to balance their checkbook. That's my goal."
The beauty of it being that as long as you spend less than you take in, you are that guy.
Wealth defined by contentment.
Mr. A
My definition of wealthy is anybody who works because they want to as opposed to needing the income.
[quote=mranonymous2u]
“Benjamin Graham defined a wealthy person as being someone who didn’t have to balance their checkbook. That’s my goal.”
The beauty of it being that as long as you spend less than you take in, you are that guy.
Wealth defined by contentment.
Mr. A
[/quote]That about sums it up!
Yes I win! I don’t have to balance my check book. Own nothing and have nothing.
500,000 is an attractive number. 1,000,000 is a really nice number.
One smart way to live is below your means. I mean if you owe 100k a year in bills you have to make more then that. If you live within your means then you have a lot more disposable income. That is partial happiness.
Everyday I bump into people who are so far in the red they don’t know of life without debt. That must really suck and I will never be in that position. The last thing someone new in this industry wants to have is massive debt and no connections. Might motivate some, but its desperation more then motivation.
Also one has to realize that living in Ok vs. NYC or LA is far different. One can make 100k in OK and do quite well. In NYC, DC or LA I suspect you are average.
[quote=AirForce]Yes I win! I don’t have to balance my check book. Own nothing and have nothing.
500,000 is an attractive number. 1,000,000 is a really nice number.
One smart way to live is below your means. I mean if you owe 100k a year in bills you have to make more then that. If you live within your means then you have a lot more disposable income. That is partial happiness.
Everyday I bump into people who are so far in the red they don’t know of life without debt. That must really suck and I will never be in that position. The last thing someone new in this industry wants to have is massive debt and no connections. Might motivate some, but its desperation more then motivation.
Also one has to realize that living in Ok vs. NYC or LA is far different. One can make 100k in OK and do quite well. In NYC, DC or LA I suspect you are average.[/quote]
All so true…and so many of those folks in debt up to their eyeballs are so caught up in having the newest hottest consumer goods that they don’t even realize how badly they’re screwing themselves!
Most people just lack accountability. Successful business owners know they have to be lean and mean. To many people today want to blame everyone from Bush to the credit card company.
Credit is not the enemy, but misuse of credit is the enemy.
I wonder how many people have 100k clear from taxes. The number must be extremly low.
[quote=AirForce]Most people just lack accountability. Successful business owners know they have to be lean and mean. To many people today want to blame everyone from Bush to the credit card company.
Credit is not the enemy, but misuse of credit is the enemy.
I wonder how many people have 100k clear from taxes. The number must be extremly low.[/quote]
I wonder how many on this board paid 100k in taxes last year… Now THAT’s some serious cash flow…
One of my first jobs was as a draftsman trainee for a consulting engineering firm. My boss, a Profesional Engineer, handed me my first paycheck, all of $110 before taxes and said, "You'll make a lot more money in the future and all it will do is give you more money to spend. The more you make, the more you spend. " All, these years later as I've worked my way up to $500 a week, I find that his words ring true.
Serious cash flow? Enough to live without borrowing. Something this business can give us. Cash is king. Buy houses, furniture, cars etc using cash. If you own it noone can take it from you. That's security. And security is peace of mind. It also puts you into a "Take this job and shove it" position. Noone has power over you. Cash moves the power to your court. Wanna take a month off and ride your bicycle across the country or go sit on a beach in the south pacific? Who's going to tell you you can't?
I'm not totally there yet. still workin on it, but I gotta tell you, walking into a local Ford dealership and buying two Mustang Cobra convertibles and writing a check, nice! ( of couse we had to take a second and third mortgage, the kids went without new shoes, and it was peanut butter and jelly for a year or so, but hey, we rode in style). Seriously, having the cash flow to be able to do that without worrying about it is what I'm talking about.
Cash is king!
Enough cash flow to never need to balance my check book again.
Everyone has different needs at different times in their lives. As an ....ahem..... well seasoned financial advisor I don't "need" as much as someone who is just starting out. I own my home, my children are grown and have fantastic careers (yay!! don't need my help), I have all the toys (cars, boats, computers, HDTV, sound systems, jewelery) I want....well ok I would like to buy a 49 Buick Convertible. We live in an area that is pretty laid back. We don't need to put on airs to compete or gain prestige in the community. My husband is self employed with more work than he can possibly do.
The point is that my needs are much less than someone with little children and just starting out in the business. You can't put a number on what is the ideal income as it is different for each of us. So my net (not including my husband's business) which is usually about 90K is more than adequate for our lifestyle. For someone else, it probably is peanuts. I work only as hard as I want to and am perfectly happy with not being an elevently kabillion dollar producer.
[quote=babbling looney]
Enough cash flow to never need to balance my check book again.
Everyone has different needs at different times in their lives. As an ....ahem..... well seasoned financial advisor I don't "need" as much as someone who is just starting out. I own my home, my children are grown and have fantastic careers (yay!! don't need my help), I have all the toys (cars, boats, computers, HDTV, sound systems, jewelery) I want....well ok I would like to buy a 49 Buick Convertible. We live in an area that is pretty laid back. We don't need to put on airs to compete or gain prestige in the community. My husband is self employed with more work than he can possibly do.
The point is that my needs are much less than someone with little children and just starting out in the business. You can't put a number on what is the ideal income as it is different for each of us. So my net (not including my husband's business) which is usually about 90K is more than adequate for our lifestyle. For someone else, it probably is peanuts. I work only as hard as I want to and am perfectly happy with not being an elevently kabillion dollar producer.
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BL, as usual, well said and a very good point. Sounds like you have what we are all striving for.
Question: Wanna trade kids?
I love my four children, but I gotta tell you, I can't wait for the self sufficient part to start.
It is amazing as I read this post about income being our scorecard..(mine included) .. I just wanted to get you guys some statistics from the US GOVT on who is where with income...
SOURCE: US Census Bureau, 2006
Of those individuals who were older than 25 years of age, over 42% has incomes below $25,000 while the top 10% had incomes exceeding $75,000 a year. The distribution of income among individuals differes substantially from household incomes as 42% of all households has two income earners. As a result 15.8% of households has six figure incomes, even though only 5.63% of Americans had incomes exceeding $100,000. The following chart shows the income distribution among all 191,884,000 individuals aged 25 or higher as recorded by the United States Census Bureau. All numbers are given in 1000s.[7]
Income range Number of households (in thousands) Percent Cumulative percentages Under $2,500 8,635 4.50 less than $25k42.72% less than $50k
70.95% less than $100k
94.37% $2,500 to $4,999 4,696 2.45 $5,000 to $7,499 9,038 4.71 $7,500 to $9,999 8,929 4.65 $10,000 to $12,499 10,334 5.38 $12,500 to $14,999 8,347 4.35 $15,000 to $17,499 9,365 4.88 $17,500 to $19,999 7,129 3.71 $20,000 to $22,499 9,275 4.83 $22,500 to $24,999 6,255 3.26 $25,000 to $50,000 $25,000 to $27,499 8,245 4.30 $25k-$50k
28.23% $27,500 to $29,999 4,809 2.50 $30,000 to $32,499 8,884 4.63 $32,500 to $34,999 4,035 2.10 $35,000 to $37,499 7,133 3.72 $37,500 to $39,999 3,795 1.98 $40,000 to $42,499 6,977 3.64 $42,500 to $44,999 2,921 1.52 $45,000 to $47,499 4,572 2.38 $47,500 to $49,999 2,801 1.46 $50,000 to $75,000 $50,000 to $52,499 5,435 2.83 $50k-$75k
12.28% $50k-$100k
16.94% $52,500 to $54,999 1,952 1.01 $55,000 to $57,499 2,999 1.56 $57,500 to $59,999 1,500 0.78 $60,000 to $62,499 3,690 1.92 $62,500 to $64,999 1,368 0.71 $65,000 to $67,499 2,270 1.18 $67,500 to $69,999 1,168 0.61 $70,000 to $72,499 2,311 1.20 $72,500 to $74,999 928 0.48 $75,000 to $100,000 $75,000 to $77,499 1,871 0.97 $75k-$100k
4.66% $77,500 to $79,999 769 0.40 $80,000 to $82,499 1,653 0.86 $82,500 to $84,999 590 0.31 $85,000 to $87,499 1,022 0.53 $87,500 to $89,999 506 0.26 $90,000 to $92,499 1,042 0.54 $92,500 to $94,999 447 0.24 $95,000 to $97,499 679 0.35 $97,500 to $99,999 377 0.20 $100,000 or more 10,813 5.63
SOURCE: US Census Bureau, 2006[7]
It’s funny, I find that the prospects I run into that are financial wrecks with
debt out their ears are the same ones that only have $5,000 to invest,
and are wrangling over fees, commissions, whatever. “They can do it
themselves”. They are happy with their suck-a$$ Putnam or Janus mutual
funds that lost 75% 6 years ago and “are gonna make it back to even
before they sell”.