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Legendsk

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    Male
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    USA <mostly>
  • Interests
    Electronics (Career)
    Faceting or cutting gem stones
    Knitting

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  1. @Nomad Hikers I use the same methods to track my spending and I agree with most of your approach, so I surely can't call this a flaw, but there is a basic difference in philosophy between our approaches. I'll try to tell you as briefly as I can, about the eye opening event for me. Around 1980 I had a good job making $75,000 per year and my wife also had a good job earning $25,000 per year salary. We had 5 children, a mortgaged house, 2 cars with car payments, a little credit card debt and all the other usual expenses. Every month we ran out of money by the end of the month, had nothing in savings and always had problems when an unexpected bill like repairs would show up. I worked a part time job/business and banked all earnings from that and built up enough nest egg to perhaps open my own business. I got the family all together and told them that I would like to open my own business because in the long run it would provide more security for the family. The business would not be able to pay me any salary for an estimated 2 years. So for the next 2 years instead of around $70,000 of take-home income we would only have around $20,000. I had worked up a budget including payments, food, clothing, insurance, utilities, etc., etc. It appeared to me that it would be possible to make it, if everyone in the family economized. No more pizza delivered, no going to the movies, no unnecessary car trips, no designer clothes, our standard of living would have to drop drastically. We would have to live on pasta, hamburger helper etc., - did everyone in the family think they could do this, given the future rewards of the family owning a business? I got a resounding YES and all family members insisted they would cease all unnecessary spending without complaint and that we would do this. So I quit my job and started the business and didn't draw any salary from it. But nothing changed in our standard of living. NOTHING! We still had steak as often, the kids still went to movies and bought popcorn and sodas, new clothes nothing changed except $50,000 per year of take-home income disappeared. And there was no indication anywhere of where it went. There was no change at all in the way we lived, we could have been putting that $50,000 into savings or investments all along. It seemed crazy. I really learned from this that you don't have much real control over income. Work hard and earn as much as you can, but what people are willing to pay you for your services or product is up to them, not you. What you actually need to live is also pretty much out of your control. If you need expensive medicine to live and have no insurance, again, you don't really have any control over that. What you do have control over is how much you want. With effective advertising being pushed at you from all sides by very smart capable marketing people, it is very easy to fall into a trap of not being happy without this or that. That is their mission - to make you feel unhappy unless you have the stuff they are selling on the cable channel. If they are more skilled at making you unhappy than you are at relaxing, enjoying life and pursuing happiness, they win. I certainly am not advocating people live at such a miserly level that it makes them unhappy. I am trying to convince you that happiness has nothing to do with acquiring or owning things. Basing a budget on what you have been spending without examining deeply what really makes you happy and what is unimportant to you is, IMHO a mistake. I live full time in a 5th wheeler because I got tired of spending my time, energy and resources maintaining a big house full of stuff. Life is so much better without all that stuff that used to own me. My income is approximately $26,000 per year social security. I have no debt, everything I need, in fact everything I want and wind up saving around $6,000 to $8,000 per year from that income. I spend my time doing whatever I wish, in an attempt to make the world a better place. I can assure you that living in an RV will require less resources than living in a house and therefore money shouldn't be a problem. If you were happy living in the house you sold, you have discovered what makes you happy and living in an RV won't change that. It will, in fact, give you more free time to enjoy being happy.
  2. The ramp from overstock (per ADA requirements) is long enough to work for 1 step, 4 1/2 inches tall. Not really of any use in this application. The power lift suggested above is surely an elegant solution, although a little spendy. Portable, folding steps seem likely to be the most practical answer. It will be next to impossible to find a situation where there is room for a ramp long enough to be workable. Even with a couple of landings and switchbacks.
  3. I'm in the $10k-$20k bracket, but then I'm traveling alone now. I don't think the budget would double for a couple, but would certainly increase some. The $41k for a couple average mentioned, seems very reasonable to me, perhaps even a bit generous. The big variable to me is the difference between "need" and "want". If folks are happy and comfortable with what they need, a $10k budget per person is easy. Difficulty distinguishing between need and want can easily and quickly drive that up. Of course each case is different and special requirements have to be added to the basic budget. My sense is that this survey is looking for the average basic budget and then people considering full timing can just add their "wants" or special needs.
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