I just bought an xbox, and it feels like i "blew" all my money. I'm currently going to buy another system and some expensive accessories to go with it. With over 90k in savings. I can surely afford it right? Why do i feel like I'm going to go broke?
Am i on track with financial literacy? I'm almost 30, planning to retire from the military. Don't have nor want a family. I don't have a car. I have no expenses.
Am i good to just chill the hell out send it and buy these game consoles and buy my bros drinks?
Barely 10 years in, about 100k in savings. Why can’t i pull the trigger on some game systems?
byu/Secret-County-9273 inMilitaryFinance
Posted by Secret-County-9273
8 Comments
I work so I can live. Am I careful and make sure I’m responsible? Yes. But I’m not a slave to it. I don’t feel guilty about indulging every once in awhile.
So I was at 3 mil when we inherited another 5 mil. That 3 came from being dinks and saving/investing about 65% take home before kids. I’m still in due to an ADSO that’s going to take me to almost 30 (23 now). We sacrificed a lot of splurges to get there. We didn’t travel much, and when we did, we were way too money conscious.
Watching parents pass in painful ways has brought out priorities – you should live life. You should value experiences. Those experiences can be video games (I play with my twins), drinking at the bar with the boys, travel (can’t promote this enough), or concerts/entertainment. You can’t take it with you. But you also don’t want to spend yourself to a hobo or vagabond existence.
At the same time, 100k is not a lot depending on your goals. You might meet the post financial advisor to discuss your current situation, goals, and investment plan. I’m wanting to be FIRE at 50 with a ~350k income that includes pension, but never touches the principal. I need X mil invested with a % return to do that. But if your goal is to retire at 20-26 years of service with no family, you don’t need a lot and the pension can cover much of a very simple single lifestyle.
BL is that you should consider long term goals combined with a level of desired satisfaction. I’ve been far too money focused and it’s not helpful to say the least. Life’s about more than money, and you can balance it. I’m about to change that perspective as July will literally have us traveling completely around the world in 4 weeks of leave – something 8 year old twins find amazing.
Dry some sort-term goals and then reward yourself when complete.
Paid off a cedi card? Go to dinner
Paid off a vehicle? Take a small vacation
Maximized TSP? get a massage
I would argue that you have too much in savings, particularly if you’re AD, unless you’re confusing savings and TSP.
You’re not giving a full picture. Where does your TSP stand? How much are you contributing? If all you’re saying is you plan to retire from the military and you have 90K in savings…am I good? Then the answer would be no.
If all your money is in a savings account, you’re not going to be happy when you hit retirement.
Your savings account is probably accruing less than 0.05% interest. So in 20 years, your $100,000 would be a sad $101,000.
But at the same time, inflation over 20 years would make the purchasing power of that $101,000 closer to the purchasing power of maybe $60,000 today.
So…your money is losing value in savings.
But if you put it a fund that follows the S&P, which has an average return of 10%, that $100,000 would be $672,000 in 20 years….so you’re missing out on $571,000.
It’s good to save money for a rainy day and for retirement. Also quality of life like buying your own residence when you retire or ETS, and also get a car which you will likely need.
However, enjoy life a little bit now.
Its a bit of a psychological thing sounds like. If you have enough money that totally losing your job tomorrow isn’t going to put you on the streets, you should breathe a little bit easier. If you have enough money to survive with no job for 6+ months then you should be fairly relaxed about it, I think. I have a similar issue – enough money to not really worry that much if my income sources go away for quite a while, but pulling the trigger on a $50+ purchase is always felt.
Others have pointed this out but it absolutely needs to be said – if that money is literally in a savings account then you are severely messing up and you need to be contributing the maximum amount of that into an IRA and crank your TSP contributions through the roof for the next few years. Not only are you sitting on it when you really don’t need to, but you’re actively having it so it isn’t working for you. 100k at 30? You’re stealing millions from your 65 year old self – literally millions of dollars. Again, this is just assuming that its all in a savings account and you aren’t just claiming all of your assets are ‘savings’, otherwise carry on.
But I’m being completely serious; if I had that much money in savings at your age I would change my TSP contribution to 100% and live off of the savings for the next year or two – if you only do that for two years (and 100k in savings in the military is nothing – you either get housing on top of it or don’t have housing as an expense so that income will absolutely last you) then you’re going to have just over 40k in a roth at ~30. Let that accrue for 30 years until you retire and at 7% return it’ll be a quarter of a million dollars. This is money you are not using right now so not doing so is seriously shooting yourself in the foot.
Stems from a goal that’s not clearly defined. If you’re on track to meet your goal, then you’re good.