wish i knew their secret ...

[janinegirly]

Oh, I''ve seen plenty of those types--hopefuly less with this market (ie shaking out those living on credit).
Do these people have kids? If not, its pretty easy to give the impression of wealth--basically spend your total income on flashy items, lease cars, have a big mortgage and zero savings. Of course there could also be funds from sources you wouldn''t normally be aware of (inheritance, investments, bonuses,etc.)

 

[D&T]

Date: 6/17/2009 5:09:14 PM
Author: Linda W
Maybe they have an income that you don''t know about??? Like an inheritance of something?

ditto, my SIL lives in a very upscale place, and their home is probably one of the lowest priced home, however BIL makes some good money, yet their friends who has a job making 35% of what my BIL and SIL makes, lives in a nicer larger newer home than SIL and BIL and the the other guy still can afford to have his wife stay home with the kids. They have inherited family money.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 6/18/2009 2:07:02 AM
Author: VRBeauty

Date: 6/18/2009 1:50:05 AM
Author: Beacon
I have seen stories where this kind of living beyond the means happens and it turns out that the person is embezzling or they are selling secrets as spies. Maybe you have some spies living near you. Maybe they steal stuff from the PO and resell?


Seriously that is how they caught one guy - he spent much more than he earned on a government job and someone started getting nosy......DF, if you catch them maybe you get a reward!

Then you can treat us all to a round of drinks!

When did they buy their homes? I have a couple of friends who live in 1/2 mil homes for which they paid $30K and $60K.
they bought their 500K home within the last 8 yrs.

Are they DINKs? (Double income, no kids.) I understand kids can really zap the old savings, what with schooling and phone bills and all.
no DINKS,most have 2-3 kids

Are they frugal in other ways? There are people out there who think of diamonds and such as a luxury!
no diamonds,but they do go on vacations and buy a new car every few yrs.

Canny stock market investments?
just their 401k

Do they find a way to make you pick up the tab when you dine out with them?

we take turns picking up the tab if i dine out with them.

Anyhow, when you do figure out their secrets, please let us know!
when i find out their secret...i''ll write a book.

 

[Dancing Fire]

one of my friend showed me his mortgage papers,so i know he''s not lying. his mortgage amount is $340k,he takes home 3k,he said...with property tax,insurance,HOA fee,his pay check is barely enough to cover the monthly house expense.

btw; he has 2 little kids,his wife works as a part time waitress and they bought a new car last yr. how they do it ?.

 

[kindred]

Maybe the wife is making a lot of money waitressing.

 

[Haven]

My mother always said "Don't try to count other people's money."

I imagine that people often have sources of income that nobody else knows about, such as inherited wealth or property, annuities, that sort of thing.

My guess is their secret is either that they live far beyond their means, or they have some sort of income that you just don't know about. Either way, if they haven't shared that information with you, they probably think it's none of your business!

 

[lilylover]

Take my parents for example.

My dad works, my mom has been a stay at home mom for the past 25 years.

Their house was bought for 525 thousand dollars. The property taxes ALONE are 12,000 dollars a year. My dad makes a good amount of money, but nothing crazy. He makes 120k a year. Their secret is that they had investments in the stock market. They used the profit from that to pay for over half of the house in cash. They also only have 1 car payment. All the other cars were bought with cash. They no longer have these investments and live only on their main income, but it helps a lot having only 1 car payment and a smaller mortgage.

I realize that 120k is a lot more than 50k that the usps makes, but maybe they have/had investments that you aren''t aware of? No one would have known that my parents had all that cash from the stock market.

Most people are car poor or house poor. You figure you have 2 car payments, anywhere from 500-700 a month, that alone is a HUGE chunk of change.

 

[Indylady]

Date: 6/18/2009 3:00:40 AM
Author: honey22
Wow, there is a whole lot of assuming they are in debt up to their eyeballs going on here? It sounds like a case of the green eyed monster.


No matter how well you think you know someone, you don''t really know exactly what is going on with their finances. It''s a bit presumptious to assume that they are in debt.


I would just be happy for them

True, it is presumptuous, but I also do also think that a lot of people
are actually in debt. I read a stat on MSN that says the average American has about $9,000 dollars in credit card debt. Yes, I do take stats from news articles with a grain of salt...but I do believe that its not at all uncommon for people do be in debt, even "wealthy" people that should be able to "afford" living without debt.

 

[Indylady]

Date: 6/17/2009 6:22:11 PM
Author: soocool
Our neighbors (she''s 43 he''s 52) pointed to their house and said that is their retirement fund. They still have 10 years left on the mortgage on their current home, one on their getaway home in the Poconos that was on the market for 10 years before they snatched it up (they go up there once every 6 weeks to clean and cut the grass), a car lease payment (she had to have the new Nissan Murano) while her other car sat in the driveway for almost 8 months before she sold it. She has 2 kids and each one pays his own way through school, but can only afford to take 2 classes at a time. He is self employed and they cannot afford medical insurance. Yet they go out to eat at least twice a week and take luxury vacations each year. Last year it was Hawaii for their 20th anniversary and they paid through the nose on that one!. This year they are going to Germany because he just sold his ''late'' father''s car plus other possessions and now has some extra money to spend.


About 7 years ago he sold his 2 classic cars so they could pay off their bills

Gahh I have a friend that takes loans out to pay her rent, because she wants to put herself through college without her parents help (which is perfectly honorable) but then eats out every meal and asks her parents for $400 Coach purses, to re-gloss her car, for tanning certificates. I''m not saying she shouldn''t have fun, but if you''re taking a loan out to pay your $400 rent, why the heck would you even want to have a $400 purse?

 

[beau13]

There are many ways to have a nice house and an expensive vehicle, etc..etc. I just learned (yesterday) that you can buy a brand new $50 k vehicle, and have NO extra monthly payment!! That''s right. A friend of mine, went out and bought a new car, but couldn''t afford another monthly payment (their previous vehicle was paid off, it was a 2002). The dealer told them to go to the bank and tack it onto their mortgage. I guess you can use your home equity to pay the vehicle, and this means your payments (mortgage) stays the same, you just pay it off over a longer period of time. I never knew you could do that (not that I personally would even consider it..my home will be paid off when I''m 45!) Looking forward to it..but this just proves it can be done. You can also consolidate all your credit cards, and loans, and again, wipe out huge monthly payments!

 

[Madam Bijoux]

"A little coke money never hurt anyone." (A quote from Manolo in ''Scarface'')

 

[musey]

Dfire, have you started a thread like this before? I am having the WEIRDEST moment of déjà vu here!

I have to ask, how do you know what their income/investments/etc. are? People can have very unexpected sources of income. I have an unemployed neighbor who drives a new Range Rover and must pay at least $1600/month in rent, and I just couldn''t imagine how she did it. Turns out she did some commercial and print work a few years back that she''s still getting INSANE residuals on, so she''s basically "retired" (temporarily, I''d imagine).

Who knows. Maybe your neighbors, or one of their recent ancestors, wrote/recorded some song that they''re still living off of, like Hugh Grant in About a Boy.

 

[Black Jade]

Date: 6/17/2009 4:59:37 PM
Author:Dancing Fire
i have friends that lives in 500K homes,drives expensive cars,goes on vacations,but base on their income there''s no way they can afford that kind of life style

sometime i wanna ask them ''what''s your secret''

do you have friends like that? do you ever wonder what''s their secret?

How long did they live in the house? If they bought it some time ago, it could have been way cheaper. Our house is worth $500K but we did not spend even half that miuch when we bought it some time ago, and you don''t know circumstances they bought (the couple that sold it had to unload it quickly, cheap, divorce situation).
How do you know they own the cars, some people lease. I personally think that that is dumb, but it can make you look like you can afford a great car for a lot less money.
You can get very fancy cheap vacations if you have the TIME to spend surfing the web to find last minute deals. I have a friend who goes to all these places, if you knew what she paid, you wouldn''t believe it.
Many, MANY people have parents, not wealthy ones, who are bankrolling part of their lifestyle. My parents both worked in municipal jobs and got great pensions and they were the generation that actually got Social Security. My mother now has both of the pensions (one as a widow) and Social Security, and she inherited something from parents in a foreign country and back in the 80''s she made great real estate deals. so although her job was schoolteacher, which doesn''t sound like much, she has an excellent income. She doesn''t want much for herself as she grew up frugally, so she bankrolls my brothers and sister a LOT. (she doesn''t bankroll me. DH and I are too proud and also don''t like the obligation that comes when you owe someone, even a parent). But I could see how someone could look at my sibling and wonder how they could afford all they have, not knowing that any time something extra comes up that they want, they use the Mom ATM. Talking to friends, there is a lot more of this going on than you would think. The people who benefit don''t talk about it, but my, do their siblings who aren''t on the gravy train complain about it.
so it could be a lot of things.
And you also don''t know they are skimping on.
anyway, it really is a waste of your time to worry about it. You''ll never know and you won''t get anywhere yourself if you spend too much wondering. If you''re sure that YOU are making the best use of your income then you have to be satisfied don''t you? You''ll just make yourself miserable otherwise.

 

[Steel]

Date: 6/18/2009 6:23:47 PM
Author: Haven
My mother always said ''Don''t try to count other people''s money.''

I imagine that people often have sources of income that nobody else knows about, such as inherited wealth or property, annuities, that sort of thing.

My guess is their secret is either that they live far beyond their means, or they have some sort of income that you just don''t know about. Either way, if they haven''t shared that information with you, they probably think it''s none of your business!

+1

 

[beechezz]

Is it possible they dabble in some activity that may not be on the up and up "wink, wink"?

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 6/19/2009 9:16:04 AM
Author: beau13
There are many ways to have a nice house and an expensive vehicle, etc..etc. I just learned (yesterday) that you can buy a brand new $50 k vehicle, and have NO extra monthly payment!! That''s right. A friend of mine, went out and bought a new car, but couldn''t afford another monthly payment (their previous vehicle was paid off, it was a 2002). The dealer told them to go to the bank and tack it onto their mortgage. I guess you can use your home equity to pay the vehicle, and this means your payments (mortgage) stays the same, you just pay it off over a longer period of time. I never knew you could do that (not that I personally would even consider it..my home will be paid off when I''m 45!) Looking forward to it..but this just proves it can be done. You can also consolidate all your credit cards, and loans, and again, wipe out huge monthly payments!

that''s just lying to yourself,you just owe thee other creditor,that''s all. plus, these people wouldn''t take very long to max out their CC again.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 6/19/2009 2:11:23 PM
Author: beechezz
Is it possible they dabble in some activity that may not be on the up and up ''wink, wink''?

nahhh...don''t think so.i''ve known most of my friends for over 25 yrs.

 

[elrohwen]

Yes! I have a friend at work and his wife stays home with the kid, so he's the breadwinner. I know he can't make more than FI and I combined, because he's only 5-7 years older than me. So how can he afford his huge townhouse (at least twice as big as ours, that we're renting), an Acura station wagon, an M3, and a third car? Trips across the country? Even if you say he had a big downpayment on his townhouse, I find it hard to believe his mortgage is less than our very reasonable rent. And we have cheap cars and can still only afford to have one at a time that we're making payments on. Yet at the end of the day, I feel like FI and I are only at lower middle class despite being very cheap (and having great jobs), and this guy is living it up. Plus he's got a kid to spend money on! I could so not afford a kid right now.

But like you said, no one knows if he's maxing his credit cards out, or if he cuts back in areas that I don't (though I don't know what those areas would be). And I know he plays the stock market, so maybe he's reallyl good at that and makes tons of cash? If so, maybe I can give him some of my money to invest

 

[monarch64]

I''ve GOT IT!!!!-- Maybe your friends lived at home until they were almost 30 and were able to just save, save, save because they didn''t have to pay any bills or rent for so long, and that is how they were able to accumulate enough money to buy such nice houses/cars!!!

 

[princesss]

MONNIE!

I just spit out my soda. Oh my God. That was hilarious.

 

[Dreamgirl]

I don''t have friends like that but I always wonder what''s their secret. All I can ever think of is inheritance?

 

[monarch64]

Date: 6/19/2009 6:13:27 PM
Author: princesss
MONNIE!

I just spit out my soda. Oh my God. That was hilarious.

Who, me? *whistles/stares at ceiling*

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

OMG! BAD GIRL!