Not so easy these days when U barely make it from paycheck to paycheck. Condo prices went up like 50% in the last 10 years for the condo that I'm renting, and when I got offered to buy the condo recently the bank was laughing in face basically that I don't qualify for such a credit.
So now I pay more in rent than what I would pay back to the bank
So now I'm looking into other things to have some money for retirement (ETFs? ). A second job?
Well at least I get to work another 30 years (37 yo soon). That should be plenty of time.
In reference to starting age, I was 45 when I started earnestly trying to get out of debt:
I had $76,000 in credit card debt on 3 cards. I was single & making enough to keep up but not get ahead.
I got legal help to break my lease so that I could take a job that would have me out of the USA. I was out with no home, I sold my 10 of my 11 classic cars (Junker's that I was trying to get to something other than a rolling chassis status, parked the best on [72 Mustang, 351C) at a friends home.
I went for some training & took a job included room & board on ships year round & three weeks of vacation twice a year with flights to & from where ever I wanted to go, as long as it did not cost more than flying me home & back would). There was not much sense in coming home, as all that I now had was the one old car (& my parents lived in the area).
Over 17 years I came home 4 times. Once after a year & 3/4 to visit my parents, once after 5 more years & had gotten married (I brought her to meet my parents), once in 5 more years when my father died, & the last time, when I had quit this job after 17 years & 2 months.
During this time, over a period of 5 years I had gone from a credit score high 580's to 744 by paying on time (or sooner) on everything & paying more on the biggest credit card.
I still had $20K in credit card debt.
I went to 5 banks before one let me get a loan at a higher than normal interest rate on a condo on a 15year loan (my wife & mine first place). Why: they said that if your credit is very good but you have not much history of it being that way, you could buy the place, get another $25K credit card & furnish the place & then declare bankruptcy.
I put 20% down (as I had been saving, too). My wife (yep, she works) put an additional 15% in. The place needed a lot of work, which my wife had to do, as 3 weeks later, I was gone to sea for 11 months. When I got back, my wife & friends had made it wonderful & all I had to do was hook the washing machine & dryer up.
I was paying 100% of all the bills and still working on that credit card debt.
We then needed a car. Since my credit was now getting better traction, my wife was able to get a new 2007 Honda Fit with 15% down. (I paid nothing, she made the payments, etc. but used my credit as she had never had any of her own [I paid the insurance & the maintenance]). She paid it off in 9 months.
Remember, I am still going to sea for months at a time (although the ship was "home ported") only 130 miles away.
Now our credit had real traction. Un-beknown to me at the time my wife (I never once asked her for financial help or what she did with her money) then invested all her money that she was making with 2 others in building a giant 5 bedroom, 5 full bathroom home on a piece of property just outside of an Airforce airbase. They sold it to an Airforce major who was going to rent it to people in the Airforce that worked there.
One particular day I am home for a week 6 years into our mortgage, my wife asked me "How much do we still owe on our condo"? I figured it up (it was about $20K) & told her. She then asked "How much do you still owe on your credit cards"? I figured that up (it was about the same) & told her. She then said "So, if I give you $40K cash, you will go pay the mortgage & your credit cards off TOMORROW, RIGHT?
I said that "If you will do that YES, I will pay the mortgage & credit cards off tomorrow as soon as the banks & credit unions are open".
She went to the bedroom & 10 minutes later brought out $40K in cash & handed it to me.
I said where did this come from? That is when she reminded me that she had told me in passing about investing in a house that was being built by one of contracting friends & another contractor our friends. I said "yeah, I remember". She said "Well, we sold it. This is my share of the profit. Now you take it and make us debt free.
So I did.
And she bought a new 2012 Lexus ES350 (the 2013's were already out) with no money down (because she had made my credit so strong) & 0.73% interest, which she paid off in full in 24 months.
I handle the maint., insurances & these days, we buy the places we want.
We worked together as a team (even though that was unknown to me at the time).
She said: "I saw how hard you where working to get yourself out of debt and to make a good life for us, and you did not ask for anything but for me to be a normal good wife, you did not tell me what to do or try to put me in my place & you just did not stop on your debts. I couldn't help but join in, falling even more in love with you. So, without telling you, I just joined your project for us, making it our project, so that it would get finished sooner."
That's what initiative, focus (and teamwork) can get you.
I married at 48, now I am 66 & 1/4, debt free, owner of 4 homes in various places in the world, 3 vehicles that I am sure will not quit when I take one to go somewhere and as long as I can pay my taxes, get food & fuel, I have no real worries.
That is the freedom, being free from worry.
But from my pre-Y2K perspective, there was no way I could have foreseen the rise of cryptocurrencies or AI, or that GPUs could play a part in them. It's the same story with me and Apple: Folks around me were urging me to buy stock at what $13 per share? But while Steve Jobs was back, and the first iMac computers were a hit, the really big revenue engines (ITMS, App Store, mobile, wearables) were probably not even a gleam in Jobs's eyes then. The very notion that Apple in 2023 would have a market capitalization in the $3T range was all but unthinkable.
