General Discussion

And it's not at all hard to find out. The Social Security Administration itself (I know, hard to believe it actually exists) is filled with useful information. You can probably find out every single thing you need to know about SS at that site. Yeah, weird, but true.

When I read (as I did a couple of days ago) in a letter to the editor stating "I'm 62 years old and my only income is this amount" and usually 'this amount' is noticeably under $2,000/month. I always want to ask those people, Why the fuck didn't you save at least a dollar a week over the years?

Decades ago I read an article about an ordinary working man who'd saved two or three multiples of his yearly income just by not (and are you ready for this? It's quite shocking spending all of his money each paycheck. What a novel idea! So ever since then I've spent less money each week/month/year than my actual earnings. Not hard, actually.

Let's start with car payments. Okay, so you need a loan to buy your first car. Just don't buy a brand new car, no down payment, six or more years of payments, and you are actually underwater with what you owe. DON'T BUY THAT CAR. Buy one you can afford, either pay cash outright, or a decent down payment and no more than three years of payments. And when the car is paid off, don't immediately go off and buy another brand new one. Nope, keep that car and bank the payments. After another couple of years you'll be able to buy a replacement car with the money you've saved. And so on.

I also pay cash for the vast majority of my day-to-day expenses. Yes, I may go to McDonald's or any other fast food place, but I always pay cash there, never a credit or debit card. For me, it works. And since I sold my house and have a hunk of cash from that which I'm hoping to spend entirely on myself, travel mostly, I'm feeling quite good about things.