Live in the truck save $ and become financially independent???

That's not a bad idea.

 

Hey I would love to find something to invest in but have no clue what....

 

My recommendations:

1) Yourself (learning, health/fitness, etc)
2) Real Estate (due to historic low interest rates)
3) stocks (conservative examples: SPY, BRK.b, MKL)

 

Your Dad was responsible for his own failure. He didn't do his own due diligence or he was a softy and should have stuck to his day job...it's a business like any other and is run by businessman not dabblers.

 

This is a good thread, with some good ideas.

When I was young, a ridiculously rich man put his arm around my shoulder and told me "you get two looks at every dollar - once coming in, and once going out." I think his point is very applicable to driving truck.

Most people who make 50k per year save almost nothing - just basic expenses and lifestyle eat through most of it. With trucking, the big benefit lies in having almost virtually no expenses. If you can make 50k and only spend 10k per year for food and entertainment, you can bank 40k. So, with a little bit of interest, you are easily a millionaire in 20 years.

Now, if you have a wife at home, a mortgage, two cars etc... well then you are just like everybody else making a 50 thousand a year job and have little to show for it. Sure it's a living, but not much more.

 

"Spend less than you make"

It's the foundation of financial success at any income level.

 

So true.

My father worked hard, but never once made into the six figures. He was, however, an avid saver and retired at 55 with not a financial care in the world.

Then there's me... I'm more careful now, but in the past I've stupidly lost more in a year than some make in lifetime. I'm doing fine, but I sure wish I hadn't been so cavalier with my earnings. Money came way to easy and I didn't respect it as I should have. I don't like sharing this kind of stuff, but hopefully it can help someone else who thinks they are too big for their britches. For those talking about real estate, it's easy to think you're Donald Trump if you make a successful deal.

 

I hear you, Bergy... and congrats to your dad and his saving ways. I too spent a LOT of money, with more than a little help from my wife and I'm suffering for it now.

Regarding your statement that "it's easy to think you're Donald Trump if you make a successful deal"...

... funny you should say that:

I had a friend who refused to invest in his company during the last decade, instead preferring to invest in real estate. He read Trump's book and got all fired up about selling a piece of property that some developers wanted in order to make a shopping mall. He finagled himself into becoming a partner in the deal by putting up his property... and ended up losing everything, including his business. Now's he's back to square one, but without a business to support him and on unemployment.

If it were me I'd invest in real estate now, something that could give me income. Farmland isn't a bad option if you can lease it out to a farmer and don't want to put in the work yourself. I know a guy that bought up land when it was cheap and has done just that, leasing it out to farmers.

 

I like that idea. Single family rentals never appealed to me because tenant phone calls. With your farmland idea, you have the revenue, without complaints about the a/c or backed up toilets. I've heard of lease deals being done where the landowner gets a percentage of the crop profits in return for lower lease rates.

I've bought and sold maybe a dozen properties in PHX when the market was going vertical, but conventional real estate is the "go to" for everybody, so there is lots of competition - and lots have more knowledge and deeper pockets than amateurs like myself. Farm land is intriguing...

 

You can do much better than 50k, with one week to go in Q2 2014 i estimate that im expecting 67k minus 10k for taxes so 57k net. 10k for cost of living is about right though so that leaves me with 47k. Heck im going to put away 47k this year, is possible that if i had a wife and kids at home that i could get her to budget modestly and still put away say 25k? I think so, keep in mind that most ive known with children get back something like a 3k tax return per child. So that would give my wife and two kids 28k in after tax income to live on. A truth and life lesson that ive learned though out my early retirement efforts is this, some stop at nothing while others are stopped by everything. Having a wife and kids would not stop me it would just make it take longer. Though out the time that ive been doing this ive told friends and family of my plans some of them with kids some without some of them successful and some not. Other than those successful i get the same response from all. They say i would like to do that or i wish i could have done that or something similar to that but....Then the excuse follows and every person has their own and those with kids are quick to use them as an excuse. I look across those peoples lives, the decisions theyve made regarding their jobs, how they live their lives, their education, even how many of them spend their free time, tv, facebook, video games, with so many online college courses avail nowadays one would think it would be easy to better our financial horizons. I even look at how they spend money, on flashy things spending it as soon as they get it, going though a never ending cycle of get paid then spend, or pay credit card off then max it out again. They invest and save little to nothing and lack financial discipline . They will always tell you that they dont have enough money. I know people who have had their income double in the last 10years yet spend all they have and still swear to me that they couldnt live on less yet not that long ago they did just that. Even they say i wish i could i do that. Ive learned that becoming successful is easy really is and that every one wants to be but few want to do what it takes and even fewer want to admit it. I must have talked 30 people about my plans by now of that 5 are successful and encourage me and the rest all give me some excuse why life just wont let em but they wish they could, not one of them has the courtesy to just say "that isnt for me". The only excuse ill except from myself is if something were to happen to my health and i were to become physically incapable of driving and even then id just find another way lots of ways to build wealth in america.