this thread turned into a friendly reminder that the Texags B&I board is the most successful message board on the internet

And then there is me. As rich as I am smart

cjo03 said:

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this thread turned into a friendly reminder that the Texags B&I board is the most successful message board on the internet

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Duh.

I still petition Brandon on a weekly basis that we create a millionaire tag that you must prove with an independently confirmed balance sheet.

I've recently adjusted my request and upped the minimum requirement from $1M to 3M. Too many lolpoors in here now that hit the $1M mark.

YouBet said:

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cjo03 said:

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this thread turned into a friendly reminder that the Texags B&I board is the most successful message board on the internet

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Duh.

I still petition Brandon on a weekly basis that we create a millionaire tag that you must prove with an independently confirmed balance sheet.

I've recently adjusted my request and upped the minimum requirement from $1M to 3M. Too many lolpoors in here now that hit the $1M mark.

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A million or even 3 in assets isn't that hard to hit. It's the liquidity that makes a "millionaire" imo. $2-3M liquid assets and your starting to get somewhere

not hedge said:

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Couldn't you just falsify the numbers?

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That's why they would be independently confirmed. There is a process, not hedge.

You don't meet the requirements anyway, so let's not waste anymore of my time.

I'm about to hit 100k pretty soon though

not hedge said:

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I'm about to hit 100k pretty soon though

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I guess that is a milestone....a milestone that qualifies you to post here: https://texags.com/forums/12

YouBet said:

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gig em 02 said:

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ChoppinDs40 said:

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If both people work it's not hard at all for 2 professionals to be pulling in $300k plus in Texas's big cities. Locked in mortgage at prepandemic prices? That's a lot of discretionary spending available.

And when debt has been so cheap, why not use it? Obviously need to use it intelligently. My mortgage is 30yr at 2.5% - I'm not paying that down "sooner" to save on effective interest rate of 1.8%. But also put back ~65k/ year in 401k/HSA/other investments and have a decent emergency savings fund in cash.

Leverage away!

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When people say things like this I know they grew up rich and haven't spent much time around the middle class. $300k combined household income is less than 10% of the population. According to the link I posted below $227,000 puts you in the 95th percentile in Dallas.

Parents with large retirement accounts that are sending money to their kids before they die is probably less than 5% of the population. I'm jealous of people that see the world this way because it means they've never even recognized the existence of 95% of the country.

Look at the actual statistics on savings and income. If all these people are so financially savvy why are 72 month car loans standard? It's not a bunch of millionaire next doors driving those raptors you see everywhere.

Disney world has been operating at full capacity. Who is voting for Biden if that many people are that financially well off?

https://statisticalatlas.com/metro-area/Texas/Dallas/Household-Income

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Disagree. I grew up solidly middle class and not rich at all.

If both of you have degrees and get into corporate and stick with it, it's not that hard to be making that kind of money in your 30s and 40s. My first job out of college paid me about $25K and I got there. It's actually a pretty easy formula if you stick with it. Most people either don't stick with it for various reasons or they do stick with it and then just blow all the money they make.

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Or they didn't marry someone doing the same thing. I know many people including myself married to teachers. But also many whose wives are nurses, vet assistants, dental hygienists, and thousands of other careers that don't pay six figures. I would say it's drastically more common for HH income to be under $150k than over $300k.

I do agree that if someone gets into corporate America and just stays put, generally speaking they ride the train to larger salaries and bigger retirement. I've seen this with Microsoft, AT&T, SAP, GE etc. Some people just hate the politics or the environment or simply the "glass building people". There are many ways to make money and build wealth, and honestly a lot of definitions of what makes a person rich. Imo debt is ok if you are disciplined enough to manage your savings and investments, but many people aren't. It's safer to limit or eliminate debt.

ag94whoop said:

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YouBet said:

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gig em 02 said:

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ChoppinDs40 said:

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If both people work it's not hard at all for 2 professionals to be pulling in $300k plus in Texas's big cities. Locked in mortgage at prepandemic prices? That's a lot of discretionary spending available.

And when debt has been so cheap, why not use it? Obviously need to use it intelligently. My mortgage is 30yr at 2.5% - I'm not paying that down "sooner" to save on effective interest rate of 1.8%. But also put back ~65k/ year in 401k/HSA/other investments and have a decent emergency savings fund in cash.

Leverage away!

---

When people say things like this I know they grew up rich and haven't spent much time around the middle class. $300k combined household income is less than 10% of the population. According to the link I posted below $227,000 puts you in the 95th percentile in Dallas.

Parents with large retirement accounts that are sending money to their kids before they die is probably less than 5% of the population. I'm jealous of people that see the world this way because it means they've never even recognized the existence of 95% of the country.

Look at the actual statistics on savings and income. If all these people are so financially savvy why are 72 month car loans standard? It's not a bunch of millionaire next doors driving those raptors you see everywhere.

Disney world has been operating at full capacity. Who is voting for Biden if that many people are that financially well off?

https://statisticalatlas.com/metro-area/Texas/Dallas/Household-Income

---

Disagree. I grew up solidly middle class and not rich at all.

If both of you have degrees and get into corporate and stick with it, it's not that hard to be making that kind of money in your 30s and 40s. My first job out of college paid me about $25K and I got there. It's actually a pretty easy formula if you stick with it. Most people either don't stick with it for various reasons or they do stick with it and then just blow all the money they make.

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Or they didn't marry someone doing the same thing.. I know many people including myself married to teachers. But also many whose wives are nurses, vet assistants, dental hygienists, and thousands of other careers that don't pay six figures. I would say it's drastically more common for HH income to be under $150k than over $300k.

I do agree that if someone gets into corporate America and just stays put, generally speaking they ride the train to larger salaries and bigger retirement. I've seen this with Microsoft, AT&T, SAP, GE etc. Some people just hate the politics or the environment or simply the "glass building people". There are many ways to make money and build wealth, and honestly a lot of definitions of what makes a person rich. Imo debt is ok if you are disciplined enough to manage your savings and investments, but many people aren't. It's safer to limit or eliminate debt.

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I think this is an important point. I actually have very few friends, acquaintances, and coworkers where both spouses are high income earners ($150k+).

I have quite a few friends from college who are women and are the "main breadwinner" for the family.

Most of my coworkers/colleagues are men with wives who SAH. Same with neighbors. Or if the wife does work, she's a teacher or works part time.

I know several couples where one spouse (both husbands and wives) stepped back from their career specifically so the other could advance (which usually involved a major move/relocation where job opportunities were limited for the other spouse).

I think part of the reason for this is it's hard for two people in a couple to simultaneously have lucrative careers in corporate America for the very reason I listed above. At least in my industry, climbing the corporate ladder usually means at least one (maybe more) major relocation.

Heck, I'm an individual contributor, but to get here required me to reinvent my career (and move) twice.

The few couples I've known who did achieve this either had one spouse with a very flexible job (even before Covid) or they've elected to decline any moves/relocations, which has effectively put a ceiling on their earnings (but as engineers, this ceiling is still pretty high compared to most).

And I would say most of the highly educated women I know have stepped back from their careers at some point, at least temporarily (some long-term/permanently), after getting married and having kids.

YouBet said:

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cjo03 said:

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this thread turned into a friendly reminder that the Texags B&I board is the most successful message board on the internet

---

Duh.

I still petition Brandon on a weekly basis that we create a millionaire tag that you must prove with an independently confirmed balance sheet.

I've recently adjusted my request and upped the minimum requirement from $1M to 3M. Too many lolpoors in here now that hit the $1M mark.

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great idea, but please make sure the tag includes indicators for what % of the $M's was inherited and what % is home equity.

maybe include height, weight, and ratio of TA post count to net worth.

YouBet said:

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cjo03 said:

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this thread turned into a friendly reminder that the Texags B&I board is the most successful message board on the internet

---

Duh.

I still petition Brandon on a weekly basis that we create a millionaire tag that you must prove with an independently confirmed balance sheet.

I've recently adjusted my request and upped the minimum requirement from $1M to 3M. Too many lolpoors in here now that hit the $1M mark.

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I'm sure the TMF and the rest of A&M's foundations would love to get their hands on that list.

Methodist churches are a great place to look

TXTransplant said:

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ag94whoop said:

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YouBet said:

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gig em 02 said:

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ChoppinDs40 said:

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If both people work it's not hard at all for 2 professionals to be pulling in $300k plus in Texas's big cities. Locked in mortgage at prepandemic prices? That's a lot of discretionary spending available.

And when debt has been so cheap, why not use it? Obviously need to use it intelligently. My mortgage is 30yr at 2.5% - I'm not paying that down "sooner" to save on effective interest rate of 1.8%. But also put back ~65k/ year in 401k/HSA/other investments and have a decent emergency savings fund in cash.

Leverage away!

---

When people say things like this I know they grew up rich and haven't spent much time around the middle class. $300k combined household income is less than 10% of the population. According to the link I posted below $227,000 puts you in the 95th percentile in Dallas.

Parents with large retirement accounts that are sending money to their kids before they die is probably less than 5% of the population. I'm jealous of people that see the world this way because it means they've never even recognized the existence of 95% of the country.

Look at the actual statistics on savings and income. If all these people are so financially savvy why are 72 month car loans standard? It's not a bunch of millionaire next doors driving those raptors you see everywhere.

Disney world has been operating at full capacity. Who is voting for Biden if that many people are that financially well off?

https://statisticalatlas.com/metro-area/Texas/Dallas/Household-Income

---

Disagree. I grew up solidly middle class and not rich at all.

If both of you have degrees and get into corporate and stick with it, it's not that hard to be making that kind of money in your 30s and 40s. My first job out of college paid me about $25K and I got there. It's actually a pretty easy formula if you stick with it. Most people either don't stick with it for various reasons or they do stick with it and then just blow all the money they make.

---

Or they didn't marry someone doing the same thing.. I know many people including myself married to teachers. But also many whose wives are nurses, vet assistants, dental hygienists, and thousands of other careers that don't pay six figures. I would say it's drastically more common for HH income to be under $150k than over $300k.

I do agree that if someone gets into corporate America and just stays put, generally speaking they ride the train to larger salaries and bigger retirement. I've seen this with Microsoft, AT&T, SAP, GE etc. Some people just hate the politics or the environment or simply the "glass building people". There are many ways to make money and build wealth, and honestly a lot of definitions of what makes a person rich. Imo debt is ok if you are disciplined enough to manage your savings and investments, but many people aren't. It's safer to limit or eliminate debt.

---

I think this is an important point. I actually have very few friends, acquaintances, and coworkers where both spouses are high income earners ($150k+).

I have quite a few friends from college who are women and are the "main breadwinner" for the family.

Most of my coworkers/colleagues are men with wives who SAH. Same with neighbors. Or if the wife does work, she's a teacher or works part time.

I know several couples where one spouse (both husbands and wives) stepped back from their career specifically so the other could advance (which usually involved a major move/relocation where job opportunities were limited for the other spouse).

I think part of the reason for this is it's hard for two people in a couple to simultaneously have lucrative careers in corporate America for the very reason I listed above. At least in my industry, climbing the corporate ladder usually means at least one (maybe more) major relocation.

Heck, I'm an individual contributor, but to get here required me to reinvent my career (and move) twice.

The few couples I've known who did achieve this either had one spouse with a very flexible job (even before Covid) or they've elected to decline any moves/relocations, which has effectively put a ceiling on their earnings (but as engineers, this ceiling is still pretty high compared to most).

And I would say most of the highly educated women I know have stepped back from their careers at some point, at least temporarily (some long-term/permanently), after getting married and having kids.

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My experience too. I have a lot of current male coworkers with equally highly educated stay at home wives. There are a bunch of people I know in the 400+ range and very few of them have spouses that work, probably like 15% or less. At a certain point the question they ask and answer is whether the lifestyle increase from the extra money is worth the mom's time away from the kids. Alternatively a lot of women actually enjoy working so do it for that reason and that's ok too.

People finance vacations at a staggering rate these days.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like if we can educate young people away from ever having credit cards and car payments that would be a nice jump start to correcting this issue? I'm grateful that our school district offers "Money Matters" classes for HS juniors and seniors where they learn lessons rooted in the Dave Ramsey school of money. Perfect for kids who are about to be bombarded with credit opportunities and swindlers of the highest order (college loans and credit card companies).

The problem isn't credit cards. I make nearly every purchase using one (and have for the better part of my adult life) and have never so much as made a late payment, much less carried a balance.

The lesson should be don't buy anything (that's not a house or a car) that you don't have cash in the bank to purchase outright. The method of payment is irrelevant.

Maroon Elephant said:

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like if we can educate young people away from ever having credit cards and car payments that would be a nice jump start to correcting this issue?

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Just yesterday, my 7 year old was asking why mommy and daddy keep talking about what we spent money on the last few days. I took the opportunity to explain that we are keeping track of our expenses to put in our budget app, and continued on how cash is different than a credit card, and that we have to make sure we have enough money from our paychecks to pay the card, other wise we get in trouble! I told him it's easy to forget what you've used a credit card on if you don't keep track right of it away.

I feel like already at that age, they have a decent understanding of what a credit card is, and that it's not something you can just use for whatever you want whenever you want, and how they saved up for their Nintendo switch is no different than us saving up for a vacation or whatever, but we are using the card because thre are benefits over cash. It's even more apparent to them now, since mom quit her job as a HS counselor and our income has been reduced, so they've heard it plenty enough times at this point, combined with how we are buying groceries that are on sale, and not going out to eat, etc.

Never to young to learn this stuff.

Edit;

I agree with above poster - keeping a card away from your kid is not the best answer. The best answer is to change the mentality. Track what you spend, and know how much you have to spend.

No reason to not let a 22 year old recent grad benefit from the rewards that credit cards offer.
Our kids have heard us explain plenty of times that we stay in hotels and fly for free because of points from a credit card, and how cash doesn't offer that benefit.

Ghost of Bizbee said:

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Ag92NGranbury said:

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smart money has been stashing cash and keeping the powder dry... we are on the precipice of buyer's bonanza and it will be glorious

stocks, land, real estate, boats...etc

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Can you elaborate?

Genuinely interested in your opinion.
I keep telling myself this and see nothin but rising home values, inflation, and demand still not being satiated for real estate

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this isn't rocket science... it's economics

things are still being inflated due to left over inflation... once inflation is out of the bag, it is hard to put back in

there is way too much debt still in the system... as the fed increases the interest rate, it will affect ALL purchasing

some items will be directly affected... cars/houses/land

for instance...for every 1% increase in interest rates, there is a reduction in affordability by 50k in houses. for car payment buyers, the same thing occurs

semi-directly it will affect credit cards and how much people can spend... increasing interest rates will make those monthly's balloon.

too many things have been leveraged including the business side (see hedgies) so with even moderate increases in interest rates, it will strain the system and at some point cause a collapse

the collapse happens as gov money runs out, wage/price inflation spiral ends, companies start weeding out employees, reduce of aggregate demand as everyone starts to play the conservation game... self fulfilling prophecy takes over and boom! we have an economic contraction and the fed without many arrows in the quiver

it is my opinion that it is when and not if... i haven't really sold out of markets, but have been slowly building up cash pile the last couple of years to take advantage of the opportunities when they come...both business and personal

good luck and don't take this for investing advice... i did NOT sleep at a holiday inn last night

TREX01 said:

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People finance vacations at a staggering rate these days.

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And weddings. A lady I used to work with was still paying off her "wedding credit card" (that is actually what she called it) 7 years later. I wanted to vomit. This wasn't a single mom left with kids or something as she was low 6 figure earner and her husband had a decent job as well.

double aught said:

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TXTransplant said:

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The problem isn't credit cards. I make nearly every purchase using one (and have for the better part of my adult life) and have never so much as made a late payment, much less carried a balance.

The lesson should be don't buy anything (that's not a house or a car) that you don't have cash in the bank to purchase outright. The method of payment is irrelevant.

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Well, credit cards are the problem in a way because people aren't responsible with them.

Like you, I pay for almost everything with mine and have never payed late. But if I used cash for everything I almost certainly would buy less stuff. Most people who say otherwise are kidding themselves.

And lol at the guy who says "it's not hard at all" for a couple to make 400k and then throws out multiple qualifiers.

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it's so easy for a couple to make $400,000

that 96% of the population can't do it.

it's that easy!!