Hey hey!
Time to feature a bunch of y’all who are killing it lately! Gotta show everyone that this stuff we talk about every day here is possible and that we’re not just blabbering on for nothing :)
So please to enjoy – a bunch of wins sent over to me across the year from readers of this site accomplishing things big and small, whether they’re in their early 20s or their early 60s.
Let these inspire you to keep going and know that it’s never too late!
Money is waiting for you! 💰💰
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The Cash Queen
I want to tell my recent story here because I don’t feel comfortable telling anyone I know.
I’ve been driving a ’95 Mustang for the last 19 years. For the last 10 years I’ve been saving up money for a replacement vehicle. The Mustang was becoming unsafe to drive, so I finally pulled the trigger.
I bought a 2016 Camry with only about 8K miles for under $18K. I was able to pay with cash!!! I’m so stupid excited to have worked all those years to accomplish this.
Ya, I know all about how I could have invested the money and took a loan, but I did not want to. I wanted a solid car and no payments.
It’s all because of the financial journey I started around the time I found Budgets are Sexy! Thank you J Money and all the other bloggers who have helped me stay focused on my goals!
– Ellie M.
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The Interlibrary Lover
J. Money!
Thank you for introducing me to the idea of spavings. I’ve been tracking just how much I have been spavings on books alone, and it’s $68!
I’ve discovered Interlibrary Loan and have used it so far this year to read: Simple Path to Wealth, Never Eat Alone, 4-Hour Work Week, and I’m waiting on Early Retirement Extreme. Prior to doubling down on this, I would have just jumped on Amazon and presto — book delivered two days later via Prime.
I wouldn’t have guessed it, but there is something a little magical about the delayed gratification of Interlibrary Loans. It’s as if you almost forget about it and then CHRISTMAS MORNING when I get the email that my book is waiting for me at my local branch.
Any extra money from spavings is getting plowed into my 3-month emergency fund. As of today, I’m 92% to having that fully funded. Awesome feeling! :-)
– Lauri L.
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The 50 y/o Comeback
I am coming at this from an older perspective as I am 63 – but for all of those older folks – it is never too late. I was 49 before I could really afford – or let’s be honest – paid enough attention to this whole financial thing – to get started.
I really started getting it together when I started actually tracking my every penny (yes I was and am still occasionally that nit-picky). It was amazing to find out how much I was “letting float away through my fingers”.
First thing I did was automate savings – it was really hard to do at first -but after a short while, you really do adapt. Premise is, if I don’t see it, I don’t spend it – lol
My net worth in 2004 when I started was $65,544.07 and it is now $780,485.26.
So – my 2 biggest contributions to this discussion are that
1) it is never too late (or too old) to start!
2) even a couple dollars saved is more than you had before– JoAnna
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The Financial Stubble Grower
I always thought I would have these loans forever you know, the American way…consume. But after many years on autopilot I thought, wait, let me look at things differently. It doesn’t have to be like this.
Found J$ on a Google search, read through his blog and became INSPIRED! Through him found Mr. Money Mustache and started growing a little stubble, and Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme. Now Jacob is a true savage beast. I won’t ever melt the last bit of my deodorant stick to put in my new deodorant stick so as not to waste it, but damn, who ever would of thought of that. However, I do find his musing on human behavior both fascinating and hilariously spot-on.
I never read Dave Ramsey, however thanks to J, MMM, and ERE I now go to the LIBRARY to borrow the books I’m interested in instead of BUYING the books at Amazon. I no longer buy a luxury vehicle to carry my ass 4 miles to work, cut cable, cut XM radio, cut lawn service, cut gym membership (good old iron at home, bicycle, jog through park), cut out buying a new iPhone every year (oh my God I was so stupid, buy $1,000.00 of your favorite Mutual Fund every year and invest $120.00 a month that you would pay for the service instead of buying that crap.)
I could go on forever here. But basically, these little daily savings which I thought would never add up to pay off any major debt or grow wealth, over time, actually do!
– Bryan
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The Mortgage Hacker
We just cut our 3.75% mortgage interest rate to 1.96%. NO, we did not rob a bank or refinance or pay a penny in extra fees to do it either!
Here are the details: A year ago we bought a house & now have that 30 year ball & chain around our necks paying 3.75% interest. We immediately signed up for bi-weekly payments automatically withdrawn from our checking account every other Friday (so 13 payments are made in 12 months–one extra payment per year). This reduces our mortgage to 26 years.
Our retired neighbor has a Masters degree in finance & just spent 3 hours with us making suggestions to pay off this debt faster. He showed us website FinancialMentor.com which calculated if we pay an extra $300 a month in principal, our mortgage will be paid off in 15 years 7 months.
The BIGGEST EYE OPENER: the equivalent interest rate is reduced from 3.75% to 1.96% !!!! We just made our first extra $300 principal payment & arranged to have the $300 extra payment automatically withdrawn from our checking account & applied to the principal each 1st of the month.
I highly recommend this website to people wanting to pay down their mortgage. It has a unique 4 column format so you can compare scenarios side by side with an amortization schedule too. It shows thousands of dollars saved in interest as well as cutting our mortgage length almost in half!
-Debbi
EDITOR’S NOTE: As a personal friend of Financial Mentor’s, I second Debbi’s recommendation here. Todd genuinely wants people to get their $$$ on track!
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The Stealthy Wealthy
I love my stealth ride. Despite a net worth of just north of $5M, I drive a 12-year-old Prius that shows every one of its 265K miles. I don’t wash it in the summer time for added effect. (Where I live it doesn’t rain between May and November.). And while I live in a high-crime city, I have had exactly zero car break-ins.
We also live in our 1,100 sq. ft basement and we rent out our main floor unit to a family because we would get more income from that unit. We were inspired by real estate investor, Scott Mcgillivray from HGTV, so we followed what he used to do.
Our family, friends, and coworkers question why would we do such a thing. They always tell us that we should be living in the main floor unit. But honestly, we don’t care what they say or think because living in the basement apartment doesn’t change the quality of our life, especially when we’re rarely home (it’s reno’d and cozy too, so we don’t feel deprived).
We just tell everyone “meh.. times are tough.. we’re poor a$$ bums” hah.
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The 5 Year Net Worth Tracker
J. Money,
Just wanted to drop you a note to say that this New Year will mark 5 full years of tracking our net worth in a spreadsheet that I was inspired by you to create. My husband is an excel whiz and I barely know how to use it, but I am proud to say that it was ME 5 years ago that created and designed our spreadsheet modeled after your net worth updates.
Last year we celebrated our net worth becoming positive and this year we will be celebrating finally paying off around 75k of student loans. Watching our financial picture improve and grow incrementally has been so fun and I truly could not live without this spreadsheet. I don’t know how people who don’t track this stuff sleep at night!
– Catelin S.
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The Hustler!
Hello,
Your blog and Rockstar Finance have been very helpful in changing my life around. In the last four years, I have:
- Paid off Jeep and sold it.
- Got a free car with better gas mileage.
- Got on a family plan for cell phone decreasing bill by $50/month.
- Paid off $10,000 in student loan debt.
- Started Roth IRA and am contributing monthly.
- Started 529 and am contributing monthly.
- Got life insurance
- Completed tax preparation certificate and Associates in Accounting.
- Quit my day job and work for myself.
So thank you and keep up the good work.
– Breanna
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The Proud Renters
We are also *gasp* renters! We sold our home of 18 years at the height of the market this past summer and became renters. Yay to no home maintenance costs!
We sold the house, my husband retired, I went down to PT at the hospital, and we rent from my mother in law (we pay her fair market for the area, no breaks in rent). Oh and both our cars are 6 years old – ancient for the area we live in.
So what it looks like on the outside is we lost our house, husband got fired, mother in law is giving us free place to stay and I can barely get enough hours at work to buy food! HAHAHAHAHA. Little do they know we’ve been in the double comma club for a few years now and the nest egg keeps growing.
To be honest sometimes it bothers me what people think but I’m getting better at it.
– Kim
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The Reinventer :)
I am at $600 in cash and want to make it to $1,000. It will be the first time in my young life of 50yrs old to have saved this amount of money.
As I begin to reinvent myself, I look at accomplishments like these as significant milestones towards reaching my new self. I want to be a role model to my 3 daughters and prove to them that it is never too late to succeed.
Background: divorce after 20yr marriage, left a job of 29yrs, living paycheck to paycheck. My journey began in 2017 when my husband left me and a truckload of debt. I have scraped and read hundreds of financial blogs, books, financial peace university and began the journey of changing the relationship I had with money.
I grew up poor and knew only to live paycheck to paycheck and always say I can’t afford things. I now view money as a tool to get the things that I love in life and enjoy this with my 3 girls.
Who would have thought that $100 would be symbolic of having comfort in controlling money to achieve peace in life. Ironic.
– Leonor
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BOOM. So many good lessons in all of these.
And I bet every one of you reading this have had some good wins lately too, yeah? Even if they’re nothing too hardcore? The beauty with this stuff is that every last accomplishment moves the needle further no matter how big or small, and more importantly *gives you the confidence* to keep going. The hardest part sometimes with this stuff.
If you’d like to share some of your own recent wins with us, please do so below, otherwise keep on pushing forward and we’ll hear from you when you hit the biggie – Financial Freedom! No way you can keep that one to yourselves ;)
For more inspiration, check out any of the below articles we’ve featured here:
- #Money Motivation
- Proof you can live off 50% of your income
- Proof you can get rid of all your debt
- Proof you can become a millionaire
XOXO
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I love this! This is just what I needed to get me FIRE’d up, after a year of few setbacks. Thanks SO MUCH! These people, and you, ROCK! Lx
So glad to hear it! I want an email from you later so I can feature YOU here next! ;)
That’s awesome J$!
Sometimes, you just need a few people to show you it’s possible and then you can get inspired :).
Wow! SO honored and surprised that you posted my email. Thank you. Like Lauri, I get my books from the library now instead of Amazon and I feel the same way when I get that email saying one is ready for pick up. A free package of knowledge is ready for pick up…yes!!! Also like Lauri, I’ve been waiting for Jacob’s book for a long time :-) Old me: get up, check facebook, yahoo, celebrity news, blah, blah, blah. New me: social media deleted; get up, check J$, MMM, ERE, update finances, read one book a month, keep moving forward to FI.
It’s a beautiful life ;)
These stories were AWESOME, and all were inspiring in their own ways!
Each of these stories prove that this whole money game can be played/won at any point in your life, as long as you’re willing to put in the work.
As a recent money win for my wife and I, we are about 10 days away from FINALLY hitting the $100k net worth mark! This was our 1st major money milestone that we have been planning/saving for, and we are waiting anxiously for that number to finally hit!
YES!!!! And also the *hardest* milestone to hit too!
https://budgetsaresexy.com/2016/10/the-first-100-thousand-is-the-hardest/
Next up – $500,000 :)
WOW I too am honored & surprised you shared my email from earlier this year. Besides the extra $300 a month going towards our mortgage principal I’ve been adding all our “Cash Back” earned from our credit card purchases. Our mortgage balance is decreasing quickly! Thanx so much for sharing other people’s experiences. All are so inspiring & proof it’s never too late to improve your financial circumstances. I love reading all of these success stories.
Hey Debbi,
We’re doing the same thing with the mortgage principal. Isn’t it great seeing that mortgage “tree” get chopped down each month. Eventually it will just be a pile of toothpicks. And a guaranteed return on that extra principal to boot. Woohoo.
Haha… Great analogy.
Hi Bryan,
It’s also nice seeing the interest we pay decrease each month. Even with a low interest rate, it’s an eye opener when seeing how much we pay in one year (since we bought our house less than 2 years ago, the interest is high). We have our own little “mortgage burning deed” every time our balance falls $1000. using our backyard firepit. It’s fun & something to look forward to. It’s just a piece of paper I write on “paid off $1000 mortgage principal, new balance…etc”…I know, I know, corny but it keeps our spirits up. Keep up the good work transforming your tree into a pile of toothpicks! I’m right behind you!
Awesome! I love it.
More power to you Debbi. Keep at it until that mortgage is paid off. I paid a 30 year fixed mortgage in exactly 8 years. I basically kept throwing money at it until it was gone. For a little extra push, I sold all the items around the house that I didn’t have a need for and those alone added up to 7K and I paid an extra 7K on the next payment which made a good difference. Best of luck to you. You can do this.
WOW Sandy, that’s amazing paying off a 30 year mortgage in 8 years! Congrats! I plan on selling some stuff in Oct/Nov (hopefully Xmas shoppers will open up their wallets) & hope to do what you did! Thanx for sharing your accomplishment. So inspiring!
I love how much mail you get from your readers – I’m sure there are some “not so fun” emails but these have to make it all worth it
yes, I get many not-so-nice notes for sure ;)
here’s my latest favorite:
“I learned nothing from that article except the writer is a bragging cunt who is rich and should talk less before the rest of us kill and eat him”
YIKES why doesn’t he tell us what he really thinks?
Oh my God. He belongs in social media garbage. In the words of Ellen: “Be kind to one another”. In my own words: You’re not welcome here bruh.
Haha… all a part of the game when you open yourself up to the world :)
These are really truly inspiring stories. It showed us that no matter the age or the financial situation that you are in, if you’ve made up your mind to achieve your financial goals, you can do it.
For the last ten years, I didn’t truly go on any vacation on an annual basis. I was just concentrating on growing my net worth and passive income. I am now proud to say that I am able to afford any modest annual vacation and have it fully paid for before I book it. It’s a great feeling to finally enjoy your money and still grow them.
BOOM! Sitting pretty now!
Inspiring stories overall! It’s great to know a the theories behind personal finance, but these real life stories are truly what people will relate to the most!
Bahaha my story of discovery is basically like “Financial Stubble Grower” – I wonder if most people stumbled in through Google, looked around and never left :)
Haha! Right on! Best Google search ever :-)
Same here. I stumbled purely by chance on this blog when I did a Google search. I believe I typed in “pay off mortgage or use that money to invest” and that’s how I found this blog. Great find!
My best story for this year was when our AC crapped out on us. I’m not frugal enough to live without AC, I’m miserable when it’s hot and humid. So we replaced our AC and decided to replace the 30 year old furnace at the same time, total was $9500. Sales guy says, “we offer 7 year loan at 5.9% interest (I’m silently choking at the thought that people pay that)… or we offer 1 year interest free financing, but you need to pay it off in full after 1 year or you start accruing interest”. My wife and I chat openly in front of the guy about how we have the cash, but will do the 1 year interest free since I can make interest on the money in the mean time. The sales guy basically says “wow… I’m surprised. 99% of people do the 7 year financing.” Well, we’re not 99% of people! Proud moment about the power of saving and having an emergency fund. The great thing is, with the interest free loan, I’m not actually tapping the emergency fund, I’m just saving an additional $9,500 over the course of the year.
That works!! I wonder if you would have gotten a discount by offering cash money up front too? I know some places knock off the total when you do that, like hospitals and other medical places, but not sure about appliance stuff… Either way, very proud moment indeed :)
Darn… wish I would have though of that at the time.
Thanx for sharing this. We just did this with a smaller $2000 emergency purchase (cost to repair old fridge $1200–not worth it so bought a new one). We could pay cash for it but they offered 18 month interest free financing so we took it. We’re paying approx. $110 a month & will pay it before hand to avoid paying any interest. It also helps our credit score paying down a small debt like this. No need to dip into our emergency fund either.
I have to reply to Library Lover – our library in town now gives receipts instead of a card in the back of the book – and it tallies how much you’ve saved this year by checking out books instead of buying them. I’m up to $1,170 this year! :) Haha.
To the Reinventor – good for you!!! So happy you can breathe easier, knowing there’s some cushion there, and good job teaching your children. That’s what it’s all about.
As to myself, I’m starting to look at finances in a new way because of J$. I started reading the blog & getting the emails about 1.5 years ago, tracking the expenses and income, and it’s time for us to make some changes. I am the main finance officer of our family (my husband is a super-spender, he turned over bills to me first thing after we were married!) and our two boys are just starting to get into the job phase of life. When our oldest boy took his first paycheck to the bank this summer, we opened an IRA for him and he’s been faithfully putting in a little each week! So proud of him. He’s also saved up enough to buy the PS4 game system he wanted, and he’s considering whether to keep saving towards a car, or spend it on a motorized bicycle. :) My next goal – start putting savings away towards a vacation in a couple of years, we’d like to take a plane somewhere. (The place isn’t as important as teaching the kids how to travel by air, how to make reservations, what to do in an airport, etc., but we’re thinking maybe Alaska since my dad lived there many years ago & we’d never drive that far! We’re in Michigan, for goodness sake!)
Thanks for all you do, J$, to inspire and cheer for us who are trying to better our lives. I appreciate it!!!
Yayyyyy so glad to hear!!! Way to not only learn about all this stuff, but then APPLY IT!! The hardest part!
And I’m completely in love with that library $$$ tracking idea, wow… that is so good!!
Great stories. I enjoy these stories from regular people. You don’t have to be an expert to win at this game. You just have to put your mind to it. Great job inspiring people to change their financial lives.
After wasting my life spending every cent I got, I’m trying to rein it in, but wow it’s hard. I’m 53 with no hope of retiring in 10 years because I have very little to show for all of my work. I look forward to reading your posts every day and this one was a blessing and encouragement. Thank you for these examples of success and progress. I hope to be able to send you one of these one day.
I hope you can too!! You’re already on the first step by reading $$$ blogs and immersing yourself in this stuff! Keep going!! And testing things out until you find the stuff that works! :)
These are all amazing stories. Thank you everyone for sharing them. It all proves that it’s never too late to start and that much peace comes from working towards financial independence.
Most importantly, don’t worry about what people from the outside think if you’re “weird” because of finance things.
Like J said, here it’s actually *cool* to talk about money :)
Fantastic job J Money. Look how many lives you have impacted positively. I am going to use the Mortgage Hacker site!
Cool! I hope it helps!
After reading the story from the reader who has been updating her net worth for 5 years now, I checked how long I’ve been doing it as well. Lo and behold, it’s been 5 years for me as well. I started in May of 2013 thanks to you and this blog. In that time, I’ve gone from ~$7500 to currently at about $160K, and I increase my contributions every year.
Thank you, J! :D
You win the Most Improved award! Congrats!! ;)
Hey “Proud Renter”: love the “double comma club” description.
I always called it the “7 digit” net worth. I like your description better. It’s kinda stealthy – not so overt as the 7 digit net worth phrase.
These are all very inspiring stories! It proves to show that it’s never too late to start. If someone really wants to achieve something, they will definitely go and get ‘em!
Thanks for sharing these stories, J! And thank you for the mention as well!! I didn’t expect that coming! :)
I’m always saving stuff that makes me smile from y’all ;) It’s inspiring!
Just want to take a minute to encourage Leonor on her reinvention. Wonderful job! I hope by the time you’ve seen this post you’ve got your $1,000 and then some.
In 2013, I was sick of debt. I was worth less than zero. I cut my spending and did all I could to crawl out. Once out in late 2013, I began saving and investing in dividend growth stocks. 5 years later, I made it to $385,000 with my house paid off and no debt at all. I’m not living as frugally as before, but still squirrel away enough to see steady growth. This blog and the old Dividend Mantra changed my attitude about money.
So glad to hear it, man! Especially on that paid off house – wow!
The old Dividend Mantra site was super good… You know Jason has a new blog though, right? Where he’s still dishing the knowledge?
http://www.mrfreeat33.com/
It’s not all on dividend stuff but still super interesting/helpful.
My win for the list is that after eight of student loan debt, my husband and I will be down to $73k after this Friday’s payment…from a combined $330k. By the end of September NEXT year, I’ll be done with them. AND I CAN’T WAIT!!!! :D
YAY!!!! Gonna feel so good!!! Will you email me once you’ve accomplished it?
Of COURSE I will! I’m not gonna lie…I might cry when I hit the button to pay it off!
The beginning of a new life ;)
Hello J,
Wow!! This is an amazing read. A friend recommended this site to me and this is the first article I’m reading and simply blown away.
The captions had me chuckling (Budget hacker, stealthy wealthy).
Is it possible to get a link to the recommendation that worked for the 5-year network tracker? I would greatly appreciate this.
Thank you.
It’s the first one on the list here :)
https://budgetsaresexy.com/free-budget-templates-sites/
Looks like they heavily modified it though, so I’d be curious to see what it looks like now myself!
All these stories shows that making plan to pay off something can be done with determination, motivation and discipline. In the beginning it seem daunting but once you keep paying it down on a consistent basis you will see that amount dwindle down and next thing you know, that amount will soon go to zero.
Off topic. Am I the only one that gets a little nervous when the S&P closes at a record high? “Be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful.” WB.
I know the feeling, Bryan. And we just set a record for the longest bull market in history. So what’s to follow????? That’s the big question.
No where to go but down, but then back up, then a little down, then more up again until the slope of the curve is a net positive 7% over the long haul. I just wish they wouldn’t report the news every single day getting these speculators all tuned up. Or…maybe I should just stop reading it and stay here where it’s safe and let VTSAX percolate for the next 20 years :-)
I keep telling myself not to check it too but still turn on NBR every week night which announces the DOW results, LOL
The only time I didn’t do this was during the depths of the recession when I literally did NOT open our statements. I had piles of unopened statements for a few years back then. Eventually they ended up in the shredder, having never been opened! All we can do is ride it out & let it accumulate thru the years.
Good idea :) I only check my stuff once a month to do our net worth reports, but I accidentally catch the updates on NPR too all the time, haha… I do often fantasize about cashing out and then getting right back in before it all goes up again, but then I remember that’s all it would be – a fantasy! – as ain’t nobody can time the markets! And I’m personally the worst at it, haha… So I’m in the “head down, keep pouring it in” camp for sure.
Same here with “head down, keep pouring it in”. We max out our Vanguard Roth IRA’s via automatic monthly withdrawal from our checking account. We don’t even think about it. Just that we know the $$ will eventually accumulate positively for retirement down the road. And you’re right–no one can time the market so we don’t even consider it but it is fun to fantasize about it!!
Well, even better is that you’ll be BUYING THEM CHEAPER when the market crashes too – so it’s not all bad during those times! Very very smart to do.
I think they call that “Dollar Cost Averaging”?
Yep.
Great post! Definitely inspiring to keep me motivated!
Glad you liked, Naomi!
Truly inspirational stories. It is never too late to change your financial situation, just need to focus and be determined. Thank you so much for a great article
Inspiration creates motivation, And good motivation can create just about anything. Some truly inspirational stories here, well done on a great article.