Money Oriented Aspies?

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Nothing else matters. Only money.

Almost 24.

You might say that at having at savings account at 25 is pointless. but if you were like me still living at home with your parents and earning money in employment and havent got anything good to throw money at. Then the only place to leave it is in the bank. Knowing that I have a few £ to spare certainly helps.

Hell, you should be saving for your retirement.

I see having a decent income as a way of attracting women. There is a ridiculous amount of competition over women.

And the good ones don't give a s**t
about money.

The better ones have at least some concept of management (money). Though I know that is not what you were getting at.

I have a few items I want to buy, but geologists are making good money nowadays, so I should not have trouble afforidng those things.

Tim

I'd rather someone who doesn't even understand money,
than someone who overvalues it. Yeah, you need to eat,
but I'm unimpressed with the stuff.

That's why I just hoard it.

Well while it is good to save money and not squander it, there is of course no gain without risk. Of course it is unwise to place all ones money on the stockmarket which is why people diversify. This is the process of spreading investments in different areas such as cash accounts, term deposits, stockmarket, retirement funds and so on.



I have to question the logic here. What is the point in merely saving money, obssessively I might add? In the long term such behaviour is simply akin to accumulating the largest possible stockpile of pebbles while having no intent to ever use them for any purpose.

The reason people invest money over the long term is to increase their wealth so that they may comfortably spend larger amounts over time, well a common reason anyway. I mean houses are expensive, so is healthcare. Increasing personal wealth can ensure that you never have a problem meeting your and/or your families basic needs.

If you want to grow your money over time, rather than simply hoarding it then you need to invest in assets. You should realise also that inflation erodes the value of your savings by a certain average percentage each year. In Australia inflation currently sits at around ~2.5% per year. Now of course this is an average figure and certain goods and services rise in price over time faster than others. Tertiary Education is a great example of this.

So back to the point, investing in assets and not liabilities (non-interest bearing investments) is how you grow your wealth. This is why many millionares often do not drive the latest sports cars. The rate of depreciation (decline in value) for new cars is massive. Just driving a car off the production line and selling it to someone in the street as "second hand" will net you a loss of at least 10% of the purchase price.

There is also a saying that goes "pay yourself first" which is incredible advice, especially for compulsive spenders (not you I know). What it means is that you should aim to save AT LEAST 10% of your earnings in some sort of interest bearing account if only to compensate for inflation, though ideally to take advantage of the compound interest effect. Also, if you are saving 10% of everything you make before it even makes it into your everyday cash account then you are not very likely to miss it.

Generally if you have a diversified portfolio (some higher risk investments mixed with medium and also no risk cash investments) then you can expect a return of ~10% over the longterm.

Even if you deposited $5000 and left it completely alone without adding to it, you could stand to double your money every 7 years @ ~10%.

The other thing I would mention also is that if you get clued up on the stockmarket and pay attention to world trends then there is no reason why it can't work well for you. Also if you are the one directly investing your money in companies then you also have control over which you ones you support. Therefore in contrast to managed funds you can avoid investing in large oil companies or de-forestation types and that gives you some power over the social responsibility exerted on the planet, at least to some degree and if you care that is.

I would recommend in the mean time that while you build up your assets and study up about the way things work, that you open an ING Direct account. It is incredibly easy to setup and gives you much higher returns than the piddly diddles the banks give you (Worse yet, hoarding it under the mattress). It also has the advantage of being completely risk free and allows you to keep your money liquid (easy to change from one form to the other e.g. A lounge suite may have some monetary value, however you would need to wait until you could sell it to get the cash for it that it may be worth.)

Understanding money is important and unfortunately many intelligent people neglect to realise this. Wealth is a form of insurance even if you don't care to spend it on luxury items.

By the way maccer I am sort of saying this to you and for anyone else's benefit reading this, I apologise if I have impinged on anything you already know. I am not trying to patronise you.

I recommend essential reading/listening for anyone interested:

Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki

The richest man in Babylon - George S. Clason