Grandma and saving money

[wander2039]

Great grandma was telling our 16 year old she's saves her money.

I couldn't resist.. Grandma.. And we all thank you for saving!

I've been making grandma laugh and shake her head for 44 years.

 

[Highlander 1459]

friends Dad is retired. still save's money. Dad owns 2 houses, and can buy anything he wants.
Friend tells me about taking his Dad car shopping...
Dad looks at a particular model, decides it is too expensive... friend takes Dad home.

3 days go by, Dad wants to go back to look at that one particular car that is too expensive..
dad agrees to buy it at the price he resisted 3 days before..

Salesman asks Dad how much he will put down..

Dad says " is it OK if I write a check for the full amount".

Friend tells me Salesman almost fainted, apparently saleperson had never sold a car to anyone who didn't finance.

That is how some old people roll and that is how they got there in the first place..
Better to be that way than old and broke.

 

[wander2039]

friends Dad is retired. still save's money. Dad owns 2 houses, and can buy anything he wants.
Friend tells me about taking his Dad car shopping...
Dad looks at a particular model, decides it is too expensive... friend takes Dad home.

3 days go by, Dad wants to go back to look at that one particular car that is too expensive..
dad agrees to buy it at the price he resisted 3 days before..

Salesman asks Dad how much he will put down..

Dad says " is it OK if I write a check for the full amount".

Friend tells me Salesman almost fainted, apparently saleperson had never sold a car to anyone who didn't finance.

That is how some old people roll and that is how they got there in the first place..
Better to be that way than old and broke.

After grandpa passed you could tell who was the spender and who wasn’t. They used to get new cars every couple years. I guess gma saved as much as gpa allowed. We tell her and my parents buy what you want.. all us kids are doing pretty good and rather have them spend it and have fun. But you nailed it.

 

[skyactiv]

friends Dad is retired. still save's money. Dad owns 2 houses, and can buy anything he wants.
Friend tells me about taking his Dad car shopping...
Dad looks at a particular model, decides it is too expensive... friend takes Dad home.

3 days go by, Dad wants to go back to look at that one particular car that is too expensive..
dad agrees to buy it at the price he resisted 3 days before..

Salesman asks Dad how much he will put down..

Dad says " is it OK if I write a check for the full amount".

Friend tells me Salesman almost fainted, apparently saleperson had never sold a car to anyone who didn't finance.

That is how some old people roll and that is how they got there in the first place..
Better to be that way than old and broke.

Does that astonish you?

 

[Wrenchturner44]

My Dad told me that the house he grew up at was paid for in whole by my Grandfather. There were no such things as mortgages, and to buy house then (late 1920's) you paid the purchase price in full.

 

[ecotourist]

My Dad told me that the house he grew up at was paid for in whole by my Grandfather. There were no such things as mortgages, and to buy house then (late 1920's) you paid the purchase price in full.

I still do. My wife writes the cheque. She likes doing that.

 

[Highlander 1459]

Does that astonish you?

Not really....

Older I got the more I figured out there were 2 groups of Americans.
I'm going to guess about 80% are what you would say give off the appearance of being successful
but reality is they are the smoke and mirrors crowd with a lot of debt and all the out outward signs of affluence.

the other 20% are like grandma.. people wont look twice at them but they have a million dollars in the bank.

 

[ecotourist]

My mother was "still putting away a little every month" in her 90s. She left 7 different wills some signed but undated. Some dated but not signed.

When she died, my brother and sister and I read through all of her wills and came up with a plan. The grandchildren got $10,000 (the most she had specified for anyone in any of the so called wills, and each one got the same amount) and we her children divided the rest evenly.

It wasn't a lot of money and it would have been better if she had spent it on herself.

She had invested a small amount in Colonial Oil and Gas in the 1960s and a few months before she died asked me if I could find out if her share certificate was still worth anything. The company had been amalgamated and bought out 3 or 4 times in the interval but I eventually got a couple of hundred dollars for it. I think Murphy Oil was the eventual owner of those old assets. She told me "it may not be worth anything but at least you can tell your friends your mother was invested in oil and gas."

 

[Kira]

2 groups of Americans.
I'm going to guess about 80% are what you would say give off the appearance of being successful
but reality is they are the smoke and mirrors crowd with a lot of debt and all the out outward signs of affluence.

Very much this^^
I firmly believe many of us have ALWAYS suffered perennial tummy aches over the precarious nature of their finances and the broadness of their exposure.
I feel this is where a lot of escapism comes from and I don't have to mention the boozing and drug use.

In brief, many, many people are unhappy most, if not all, of the time.

I can make you happy....this product can make you happy...this neighborhood makes you a better person....and if you don't fit in, we'll disregard you.
It's actually too bad since we have so much here.

Oh, and lots and lots of people being just plain stupid doesn't help anything.

 

[mccandish]

 

[Oillover]

My Dad told me that the house he grew up at was paid for in whole by my Grandfather. There were no such things as mortgages, and to buy house then (late 1920's) you paid the purchase price in full.

+1
My parents bought their current house (purchased in early 00's) with cash as well.

 

[John105]

friends Dad is retired. still save's money. Dad owns 2 houses, and can buy anything he wants.
Friend tells me about taking his Dad car shopping...
Dad looks at a particular model, decides it is too expensive... friend takes Dad home.

3 days go by, Dad wants to go back to look at that one particular car that is too expensive..
dad agrees to buy it at the price he resisted 3 days before..

Salesman asks Dad how much he will put down..

Dad says " is it OK if I write a check for the full amount".

Friend tells me Salesman almost fainted, apparently saleperson had never sold a car to anyone who didn't finance.

That is how some old people roll and that is how they got there in the first place..
Better to be that way than old and broke.

I was surprised the GMC dealer accepted a personal check the Saturday before Labor Day 2011. Point being I don’t think anything really gets processed until Tuesday. I said I have to hurry to the bank. Why? So I can get a cashiers check. Why? We accept personal checks.

On the 4 cars that I’ve bought from new car dealers 1998-2016, that was the only one who didn’t require a certified or cashiers check.

My next door neighbor is a widower and told us just last month she hasn’t touched any of the money her husband left her. Husband told me they inherited 2x to the tune of $600k 20 years ago.

That generation ie my parents know how to preserve wealth. Preserve being key.

I am convinced many maybe 15 years younger than my parents, my gen, and ones after me, are planning on having $0 when passing, and even owing. I can’t prove what I say but how else is it even possible to maintain the lifestyles given their jobs?

 

[Oillover]

They need to do a more current version of this commercial
I'm sure it wouldn't appeal to many, but it would certainly be funny!

 

[walterjay]

My elderly mother bought a new car and paid cash. The middle aged salesman said he had never seen a cash sale before. I was shocked he never had.

 

[ecotourist]

I think what is going on is that people who were adults in the 1930s knew what hard times were. Most did whatever was necessary to scrape by. They took odd jobs for a few cents an hour, they ate head cheese all winter because they couldn't afford better meat, they saved string, they made over old clothes. People who were in debt lost everything. That generation never forgot and knew that if/when hard times came back they had to be ready - no debt and money in the bank.

They were the parents and grandparents of my generation (early boomers). Many of us were heavily influenced by them. We pay cash. We have savings.

Later generations don't have that influence and think they can afford anything "as long as they can make the payments". And of course they'll be wiped out if hard times ever come back.

 

[oilcandave]

My parents were 40..brought up during depression.. when I was born in 1960 so I learned how to live with little money. My dad would make from scratch something we needed instead of buying. He gas welded a coffee table, stereo rack and many other needed items. Built new house on the outside of the old one so he didnt need a building permit. In the 50's he brought home a gas dryer from the scrap yard and put on new gas controls and gave it a fresh paint job. Had a 6" oilite greaseable bearing that the drum spun on. After parents passed and we moved in the house in 1995 the dryer was still there and working great. Wife could not seem to understand how to work it and burnt some clothes..had to replace 3 gas dryers so far. Right at this moment a 1947 GE Vortilex fan is in operation blowing air on me..

 

[Chris142]

friends Dad is retired. still save's money. Dad owns 2 houses, and can buy anything he wants.
Friend tells me about taking his Dad car shopping...
Dad looks at a particular model, decides it is too expensive... friend takes Dad home.

3 days go by, Dad wants to go back to look at that one particular car that is too expensive..
dad agrees to buy it at the price he resisted 3 days before..

Salesman asks Dad how much he will put down..

Dad says " is it OK if I write a check for the full amount".

Friend tells me Salesman almost fainted, apparently saleperson had never sold a car to anyone who didn't finance.

That is how some old people roll and that is how they got there in the first place..
Better to be that way than old and broke.

Dealers dont want you to pay cash. They make money by financing. I bought 2 quads at 2 different dealers in 2001 and 2005...Neither would accept my cash. Both made me finance which I immediatly paid off.

 

[gman2304]

My son was the new car manager for our local Lexus dealer for 10 years. He told me years ago that people would be shocked at the number of people that write checks for a new Lexus….and just as shocked at the number of people that have sat in front of him for financing and he’s thinking….dang….you shouldn’t be buying this car….!

 

[Highlander 1459]

My parents were 40..brought up during depression.. when I was born in 1960 so I learned how to live with little money. My dad would make from scratch something we needed instead of buying. He gas welded a coffee table, stereo rack and many other needed items. Built new house on the outside of the old one so he didnt need a building permit. In the 50's he brought home a gas dryer from the scrap yard and put on new gas controls and gave it a fresh paint job. Had a 6" oilite greaseable bearing that the drum spun on. After parents passed and we moved in the house in 1995 the dryer was still there and working great. Wife could not seem to understand how to work it and burnt some clothes..had to replace 3 gas dryers so far. Right at this moment a 1947 GE Vortilex fan is in operation blowing air on me..

sounds like me relative to my parents.. I'm born the same year as you so our parents come right out of the same hard knocks school. yeah, my Dad built his own house and used to repair all sorts of stuff, before he would think of buying something new. I remember after both of them died, when cleaning out the house not only did they have the freezer in the basement that was as old as me, but they had my Grandparents freezer down there that was older than me...

I never heard it from my mother how hard she had it, she was born in the mid 30's.... but her dad died when she was about 15
and she lived with her mother in someone relatives bedroom for a couple year's..

my dad told me that when he was small, his mom gave hima dime, and he bought a comic book... and that his mom beat him with a hairbrush for wasting his money.. people aren't like that anymore.

 

[John105]

sounds like me relative to my parents.. I'm born the same year as you so our parents come right out of the same hard knocks school. yeah, my Dad built his own house and used to repair all sorts of stuff, before he would think of buying something new. I remember after both of them died, when cleaning out the house not only did they have the freezer in the basement that was as old as me, but they had my Grandparents freezer down there that was older than me...

I never heard it from my mother how hard she had it, she was born in the mid 30's.... but her dad died when she was about 15
and she lived with her mother in someone relatives bedroom for a couple year's..

my dad told me that when he was small, his mom gave hima dime, and he bought a comic book... and that his mom beat him with a hairbrush for wasting his money.. people aren't like that anymore.

It escapes me when my grandmother was born but my guess is 1920 +\- 5 years. When she was 60 or so, she owned the building she lived in, in Brooklyn, NY. She also worked as a sales clerk at Alexander’s.

First of all, how many people today, own the apt building they live in? I wanna say it had 16-20 units. Today it would be section 8 but point is most buildings are owned by some LLC from another country. But from that generation a person often had the goal of one day owning not just a unit but the building they live in.

I’d go to her place and she’d give me $20, equivalent of $150 today. I’d always refuse and she’d get mad. I dunno why I refused.

Just last week a wife’s friend gave my 10 yo $20. Shouldn’t that be adjusted for inflation to at least $80-$100?

My point is really that people worked hard without question in the older generations. They really didn’t spend their gains on luxuries. Today, that’s frowned upon and making it with less work is to be admired. You can’t take it with you they say, and even Magnum PI says you should reverse mortgage your way to a superb lifestyle.

I never aspired to owning a building nor land. My loss.