Friday, March 25, 2016

Money matters.

I have a "family member" who I regularly see posting vacation pictures to social media. They're always going to famous theme parks and other places with their family. I'm not jealous one bit, but I do question their financial management.

As I understand it, the male half gets a draw from the family trust every 2 years in the mid 5-figure range. At no time have they ever owned a house. They have always rented. It's been this way since they've been together, around 15 years. They're always buying stuff they don't need, and whenever there's a holiday, they buy gifts for everyone.

My wife and I make about the same that they do, but we don't have kids to support. We're buying our house, and building up equity as we go. We live frugally, not spending a whole lot of money, trying to scrimp and save wherever we can, but it's tough.

I ran the numbers a while back. If they had saved the money that they've been spending on vacations, or at least put the money they get in the draw toward buying a house, they could have had a house bought and paid for a long time ago.