Isn't that the catch phrase from some SNL skit? (Obviously I'm not the most up to date in when it comes to the latest "in phrases").
Where was I? Oh yeah... this weekend I got my latest Money magazine. In it is a family that is given money guidance. Lemme tell ya, if you have read some of my previous posts on what I do to save money and think I'm crazy, well this family has got me beat. Its a family of 6, with the couple earning $92,000/year, and yet saving almost $47,000! They do things like: grind their own wheat and make bread, the husband (a surgical resident at the Mayo clinic in Minnesota) commutes to work on a scooter that gets 115 MPG (that puts my 40 MPG VW to shame), have two wood stoves, and buy virtually zero new. He's planning on converting a diesel car he bought to run on vegetable oil.
This family needs money help??? Actually they do give them some good advice. Anyway, after being amazed at how they save money, two things made me wonder just what was going on.
The yearly costs for "medical and dental expenses" is listed at $390. Read that again to make sure you got it right. That is for a year, and I think (though I might be wrong) that includes medical insurance costs! I'm in great shape, have a heavily subsidized insurance by my employer, and my coverage for me (and only me) costs almost $500 / year. I can only guess he gets free medical care where he works. If not... then I must have fallen into a time warp.
The second thing is that the guy doesn't invest his money, keeping it all in a bank account. Apparently he lost half of a mutual fund's value in the "crash". I'm assuming this means the 2000-2002 area. The only way you lost 50% was if you invested heavily (and recklessly if you ask me) in tech stocks, otherwise most funds lost at most 30% (which is still painful). (Oh, btw, I truly did invest zero in tech stocks back in the 90's. I had co-workers tell me what a great deal it was to invest in that junk, and I would just laugh and tell them to wait and see what a great "deal" investing in that would turn out to be. A few came back and told me that I sure was right about what was going to happen.)
All in all, an interesting read, especially if you are into learning how to be "super frugal".
I am not worthy
July 18th, 2006 at 03:00 am
July 18th, 2006 at 04:11 am 1153195897
Wow! I will have to check out that article! My goodness, we are a family of 5 and with medical and dental, well we're talking thousands per year!!
Sounds like an interesting family!
July 18th, 2006 at 01:46 pm 1153230374
July 18th, 2006 at 02:50 pm 1153234240
July 18th, 2006 at 04:17 pm 1153239437
July 25th, 2006 at 09:43 pm 1153863819
August 25th, 2006 at 09:43 am 1156498995
Other than what's taken out of The Hubster's paycheck for my coverage I have very low medical expenses. I am just plain old healthy. And, not everyone goes to the doctor for each scrape and throat tickle. Each to his own, but there are many MANY things that my husband will take himself for a doctor's visit for that I think is a waste of time and money. It keeps him happy. I cringe when we run up another co-pay bill for something that some aspirin and a weeks time will heal on its own.
Go figure.