Life Advice

[littletom]

Live below your means. Make more money than you spend. Don't borrow money for stupid **** like toys and boats. Plan for the future don't live in the moment. Land bought today is almost always worth more in years. If you farm for a living once a year watch pbs farm crisis documentary, no matter how good times are it will ground you. If you have big goals you have to take risk within reason. Or you will always be standing there in the same place, thinking i could of done that.

On credit subject if you ever want to make serious moves in life, your going have it or go get it.

 

[D2Cat]

Dave Ramsey gives good advise, but he also presumes humans can not discipline themselves so he advises folks to eliminate the smallest debt first no matter the interest rate to generate momentum. No credit cards because they will eventually be one's demise. discipline is a quality that can be learned.

 

[DLD]

Lots of good advice here, but I will differ those who believe there’s nothing gained by going to college if you’re not getting a degree necessary for the career you end up with. i have a double major in ag education/animal science. I did teach ag for a few years after college, so you can say that I utilized my degree. Since then I’ve done nothing that actually required a degree, but I’ll guarantee that the things I learned and the connections that I made in college have a huge bearing on where I am today. I know college isn’t for everyone, so I guess the bottom line to my advice is this; There are lessons to be learned every day - take advantage of them. And get to know the people around you - not just the “important” ones, Always be honest, be fair and be kind. You’ll be rewarded in more ways than you can imagine.

 

[FarmerShell]

Lots of good advice here, but I will differ those who believe there’s nothing gained by going to college if you’re not getting a degree necessary for the career you end up with. i have a double major in ag education/animal science. I did teach ag for a few years after college, so you can say that I utilized my degree. Since then I’ve done nothing that actually required a degree, but I’ll guarantee that the things I learned and the connections that I made in college have a huge bearing on where I am today. I know college isn’t for everyone, so I guess the bottom line to my advice is this; There are lessons to be learned every day - take advantage of them. And get to know the people around you - not just the “important” ones, Always be honest, be fair and be kind. You’ll be rewarded in more ways than you can imagine.

Maybe true or maybe not. I'd have to agree and disagree. I have no desire to use a college degree it would be a waste of money for me. For somebody that has a reason to go to college yes could be useful. To just go rack up a big student loan or waste parents money no or to go party no. I see trades like unions were you can get a free college degree being a better option for some. I been to parties without having student loans. I definitely agree you would meet some good people.

 

[DLD]

I said college isn’t for everyone. Just wanted to point out that there’s far more to take away than the degree.

 

[Lucky]

Probably not a popular opinion but I would say instead of trying to save every dime you make and worrying about gas being 2 cents cheaper down the road or never borrowing money, work work work until you find an occupation that pays you enough to not have to worry about being able to pay the bills. First half of my adult life was spent working, trying to save, and stayIng out of debt like I was taught. Finally realized I was getting nowhere fast and took a big swing. I’ll never be rich and it was tough at times but I’m way better off for taking chances. I tell people all the time if they worried half as much about making money as they did about saving money they’d be rich.


My other advice would be it really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you do it and can get by on your own. At the end of the day you have to be proud of yourself and what your doing.

Fence gave some good advice on being in business, allot of people fail simply because they don’t do the things he talked about.

 

[BFE]

Buy ground with what? If you're under 30, you don't have assets for collateral. Lucky if you have a good job and you can afford a reliable vehicle to get there. If you are under 30 years old, you still have expenses: insurance, gas, maintenance, rent, utilities, food, etc. Out of what is left they try to set a little aside for the future. I don't see how the two ends meet in the end...

That's what banks are for. They will lend 100% of the money on land, they know it's not going anywhere. I never had a problem getting or paying back loans, just wish I'd of took out more of them for land when I was young.

 

[herofan]

Probably not a popular opinion but I would say instead of trying to save every dime you make and worrying about gas being 2 cents cheaper down the road or never borrowing money, work work work until you find an occupation that pays you enough to not have to worry about being able to pay the bills. First half of my adult life was spent working, trying to save, and stayIng out of debt like I was taught. Finally realized I was getting nowhere fast and took a big swing. I’ll never be rich and it was tough at times but I’m way better off for taking chances. I tell people all the time if they worried half as much about making money as they did about saving money they’d be rich.


My other advice would be it really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you do it and can get by on your own. At the end of the day you have to be proud of yourself and what your doing.

Fence gave some good advice on being in business, allot of people fail simply because they don’t do the things he talked about.

I agree. A high school student once said that if everybody knows they want all this stuff in life when they are young, why not try to get a job that makes it easier to get instead of working at Wal Mart and trying to have boats, campers, and a big house.

As for college, I could never press someone to attend if it just wasn’t for them, and they had no desire to have a career that requires a degree; however, I’ve seen people get a degree and not use it directly, but it helped them move into another higher up career.

I’ve known a few people to waste a college degree, but it was their fault.

 

[shaz]

I said college isn’t for everyone. Just wanted to point out that there’s far more to take away than the degree.

The only people I know who use stuff they learned in college everyday is me and my dad. I'm in engineering and he's a retired engineer. The kids and their spouses have college degrees in other stuff but never used any of it on the job.

That said - the person hiring probably has a college degree and values that in others regardless of what the job requires. This is mostly true for the "white collar" world.

 

[littletom]

My wife is a vet so she has to have her degree. I went to college it sent me in a direction and into jobs where i learned alot that helps me today. Through out that time i learned alot about who i am and what i wanted. For a straight up money stand point. I would be way ahead if i would not of spent a day there. Possibly be time ahead to blown off that last year of high school too. But at either of those times I would said you were crazy if you told me I was going to be a full time farmer. Just had no idea I would be here. All I wanted to do was leave. I doubt that many people know where they will be at forty and take a direct path to get there. But some do. My wife said she wanted be a vet at seven never even thought of anything else after that.

 

[rlrobinhood]

Live below your means. Make more money than you spend. Don't borrow money for stupid **** like toys and boats. Plan for the future don't live in the moment. Land bought today is almost always worth more in years. If you farm for a living once a year watch pbs farm crisis documentary, no matter how good times are it will ground you. If you have big goals you have to take risk within reason. Or you will always be standing there in the same place, thinking i could of done that.

On credit subject if you ever want to make serious moves in life, your going have it or go get it.

Where can you view the PBS "Farm Crisis" documentary? I'd love to watch it.

 

[rlrobinhood]

Lots of good advice here, but I will differ those who believe there’s nothing gained by going to college if you’re not getting a degree necessary for the career you end up with. i have a double major in ag education/animal science. I did teach ag for a few years after college, so you can say that I utilized my degree. Since then I’ve done nothing that actually required a degree, but I’ll guarantee that the things I learned and the connections that I made in college have a huge bearing on where I am today. I know college isn’t for everyone, so I guess the bottom line to my advice is this; There are lessons to be learned every day - take advantage of them. And get to know the people around you - not just the “important” ones, Always be honest, be fair and be kind. You’ll be rewarded in more ways than you can imagine.

Totally agree. I have a BS and a MS. Neither of which I use. Granite, I have a good job and believe that the degrees helped open the door. Beyond, that, I'm not sure.

Also, don't get hung up on college names. They don't matter. I do a lot of hiring. And I have never said, "Oh, this person went to _____ University. I've definitely got to hire them." If I was to do it again, I'd do community college for two years then go to a 4-year.

 

[DLD]

My wife went to a smaller, local university. I got an associates degree from a community college, and then a bachelors degree from a 4 year school. My oldest son did the same, and my daughter also has an associates from a community college and is currently a junior at Oklahoma State. Younger son is in vo-tech (trade school). There have been zero student loans involved in any of it. Work, save, get good grades and apply for every scholarship, grant or any sort of student aid (besides loans) you can - it is possible. Granted, none of us have post graduate degrees. I understand that loans may be necessary for vet school, medical school, law school, etc... Fortunately those degrees should get you into a career where paying off those loans is doable.

But all that said I absolutely agree that not everyone needs to go to college, nor should they if they don’t want to. But wherever you are, keep learning!

 

[Atimm693]

Buy ground with what? If you're under 30, you don't have assets for collateral. Lucky if you have a good job and you can afford a reliable vehicle to get there. If you are under 30 years old, you still have expenses: insurance, gas, maintenance, rent, utilities, food, etc. Out of what is left they try to set a little aside for the future. I don't see how the two ends meet in the end...

Unless this bubble pops us young guys won't be buying anything, with land approaching 10k an acre.

110 acre farm down the road sold last week for just under a million. It's got nice facilities, good pasture, but it would never pay for itself in a lifetime at that price. This is an area that has very low cost of living, and income.

I'm not in a big hurry to buy anything right now, the value just isn't there, hopefully if it all comes crashing down I'll be able to get something for a price that is reasonable.

Credit cards are a useful tool, but it's really easy to spend a paycheck before you've even gotten it. I collect a couple thousand in rewards every year with them, and spend very little on interest.

I funnel everything through them, a credit card offers much better fraud protection than debit, you can collect the rewards, and it creates an easily accessed paper trail for taxes, if you have the discipline to keep from running up a huge balance.

 

[dvcochran]

What is the best advice you would give a younger generation? Looking back on life, things you may wish you did or things you did that was good.

If you do not know who Dave Ramsey is find out. Very sound, very simple principles. He has a few books but Financial Peace is the main one. It will take you through the whole program. And don’t let that scare you. It is not complex and really liberating.
In a nutshell, build an emergency fund, pay things off smallest to largest, then do NOT use credit cards and avoid debt. In the book it will explain this much better.
Dave is on the radio in most areas.

 

[dvcochran]

I like Kroger doesn't seem to have all that. All depends on which gas station you choose how popular they are as well and time of day. We used to have a gas station that still pumped your gas it went out of business a few years back.



Can you explain why you need a good credit score? I know it can affect your car insurance rates as well loans. If you don't borrow money, don't have bad credit, what's the point. Seems like another way the government tracks people along with credit cards. Why would I need a good credit score if I don't borrow money?

The places that only take credit card which alot of hotels are starting to do credit card only, parking garages, some restaurants, I'm like this.... I'm not even understanding how a place gets by without taking cash.

In my personal opinion if you spend cash, cash in hand, bills, you more than likely to spend less than swiping a credit or bank card. If I have a bill ($100) I'm not going to break it for $5 or 10 bucks. Now I'd swipe no problem. So I'm going to avoid spending that 1 bill for x amount cause I'm not willing to break it. Am I wrong? If I watch my money leaving my hands like dang thats alot of money versus swipe swipe swipe or money transfers. Just all looks like numbers. It's another government scam to get you to spend more and not realize it. I believe one day actually money will be gone it will all go to digital swiping.

Hey excellent advice ya'll! ❤

I can’t go that far but your frame of thought is very good and very, very refreshing. Depending on what a person does for work and how much they travel having a credit card can be unavoidable. Knowing when and Only when to use it is imperative.

 

[FarmerShell]

If you do not know who Dave Ramsey is find out. Very sound, very simple principles. He has a few books but Financial Peace is the main one. It will take you through the whole program. And don’t let that scare you. It is not complex and really liberating.
In a nutshell, build an emergency fund, pay things off smallest to largest, then do NOT use credit cards and avoid debt. In the book it will explain this much better.
Dave is on the radio in most areas.

I never read his books but I have read some of his stuff on pinterest. Great advice.

 

[FarmerShell]

I can’t go that far but your frame of thought is very good and very, very refreshing. Depending on what a person does for work and how much they travel having a credit card can be unavoidable. Knowing when and Only when to use it is imperative.

Whatever I'd sleep at the gas station if I had too if they only take cash. walk or hitch.. Here they had some scam people were some how doing something to the gas pump credit card machines to get people's credit card numbers. I'm not really sure how it exactly worked lots of people got fraud and their credit card numbers got out. It was copying their card than the person later came back to get the device or whatever they used to put on the credit card machine. It was on the news. I'm not even sure how they come up with this stuff to scam people.

I get what ya'll are saying credit cards could come in handy. I choose not to use them. Seems like more stress to me. You use a card than have to remember to pay a bill. Cash doesn't have to be remember to be paid either I have it or I don't. Bills stress me out I can't handle all that extra bills. We have electric, insurance, taxes, phone... thats to many never figured out a way out of them. Of course we have other expenses food, gas, necessities, propane, ect.

 

[sstterry]

I said college isn’t for everyone. Just wanted to point out that there’s far more to take away than the degree.

 

[Ky hills]

Dave Ramsey gives good advise, but he also presumes humans can not discipline themselves so he advises folks to eliminate the smallest debt first no matter the interest rate to generate momentum. No credit cards because they will eventually be one's demise. discipline is a quality that can be learned.

We listened to Dave Ramsey for a while, some good sound advice, but I break with some of his ideas. I believe in having at least one credit card, and keeping it paid of monthly. Having cards is almost a necessity these days, and we are frugal enough not to over extend. I do like his advice on having an emergency fund built up.