Rita Lally

Comments:

• Jonathan, I am a fairly new reader of your wonderful newsletter and I was so sad to read about your health problems, others have said it much more eloquently than I ever could but I just wanted to say thank you and wishing you and your family peace and strength over the coming months. Very best wishes.

  Post: Raise Your Voice

  Link to comment from June 29, 2024

• I can’t claim to be as frugal as this but my husband and I both had well paid jobs and we did look after our money so we were able to retire at a relatively young age. We travelled a fair amount in Europe in younger years but it has lost its allure now by comparison with our comfy home, these days we spend a lot on children and grandchildren and have been proud to help our two children through education and into the property ladder. I know lots of retired people live to travel but for us real contentment has been found in our many hobbies and spending lots of time with family and friends. My advice to my younger relatives is save and pay into a pension, you will bless the day you did so.

  Post: Where It Goes

  Link to comment from April 13, 2024

• Many years ago working in business, us managers were measured individually on cash flow as much as we were measured on profit margin, revenue growth etc so I learnt the value of this. Doing your own spread sheet with your income and expenditure items (we automate most of the main items) including the exact date the money leaves your account gives you an excellent handle on your finance and over years that counts.

  Post: Horse Then Cart

  Link to comment from February 14, 2024

• Thanks for telling us about this Scott and glad you found Dave Ramsey and its great you are now in a good position. I stumbled across DR some months ago and have found it a fascinating insight into an aspect of American life (I live in the UK) but I have been horrified at the levels of debt and particularly struck by the amount of student debt that so many Americans carry. Watching DR brought back to me how well my parents and especially my Mother taught me and my siblings (a large Irish family) how to manage our money and of course what DR is teaching is what so many of our foreparents practiced, chief amongst them being the avoidance of debt and the importance of hard work and education. My mothers lessons served me well and luckily my husband and I were very similar and agreed on how our finances were used so we are in the fortunate position to have retired early and live very comfortably. One of DR's lessons is also about being generous and again that resonated with me, my parents combined frugality with generosity. I would love to see DR's lessons being taught more widely as its shameful that we are not equipping young people with the financial wisdom of the ages. I am now giving young people in my circle, The Richest Man in Babylon, a great little book.

  Post: Finding Hope

  Link to comment from September 13, 2023

• My observation on this subject is to celebrate the joy of the mundane. My husband and I retired early (50s) and split our time between the UK where we live and Ireland in the Summer. We don't do anything exciting but we have found that after extremely demanding and busy careers, we still adore our chosen slow pace of retirement. To be able to not set the alarm for 6 am, to linger over breakfast, indulge in our love of gardening and in my husband's case, fishing; go for long walks, spend time with friends and family and help (considerable hands on help!) with the arrival of grandchildren has given us such immense contentment and joy and most especially the bond we have developed with our beloved grandchildren. There are many ways to be retired, I think the way to contentment and joy is to do what you enjoy and not what what others expect of you.

  Post: Ask Before Quitting

  Link to comment from June 18, 2023

• Wow what a truly inspirational story, I salute you and your family. You should write a book. It reminded me of my step grandmother who I didn't really know as she died when I was a young girl but her story was often told in the family. She was brought up in an orphanage in Ireland in the 1930s I think and times were very hard, I gather she and her brother were not kindly treated. She went to America (penniless) as soon as she could as a teenager and got a job working in some kind of factory I think, for Proctor and Gamble. She was an intelligent hard working woman and although she didn't earn a lot, she was fugal and not only saved her money but she bought shares in P&G with every single pay packet for decades. She died in the 1980s an extremely rich woman and her story of rags to riches, through her own endeavours and resilience of spirit, has always stayed with me. This type of personality (you have also clearly got it) has not been studied sufficiently and it should be, as it has so much to teach people.

  Post: An American Story

  Link to comment from March 11, 2023

• Thank you for this interesting article. For me and my hubby (early retired in late 50s) we are at a stage where we need to help our adult children buy homes (the south of England is an expensive place) and whilst we have a very healthy income, thats proving a dilemma. One has legitimate and more needs now and is getting more help and the other has less need so is not getting the same, so this is unfair and has to be addressed at some point. I would love to see a subject on this thorny issue and what others do. thanks again.

  Post: The Other Enough

  Link to comment from March 11, 2023

• Interesting how different people are. Ill health forced me to retire young from my very demanding and well paid career and luckily, by saving and investing over the years, my hubby and I are financially comfortable. I thought I would hate retirement, instead I have loved every minute of it as I now have the most, for me, precious commodity which is time. I can not only better manage my health condition, I can also do lots of things that interest me inc tai chi which has always fascinated me and I have had the time to get to know and look (not full time!) after our new grandchild. If retirement doesn’t suit you there appears to be plenty of jobs available but for me, wild horses wouldn’t drag me back to the corporate world.

  Post: My Retirement Shock

  Link to comment from March 8, 2023

• Yes our upbringing influences us so much and I really appreciate my frugal thrifty upbringing. My mothers voice still echoes in my head about ‘bargains’, a bargain is not a bargain unless you need it.

  Post: Frugal or Miserly?

  Link to comment from March 8, 2023

• There is a definite difference between frugality and meanness. Being frugal, often born of necessity, is simply making every penny go as far as possible and not getting sucked into soulless consumerism; meanness is not just about money it’s a state of mind and imo, to be nipped in the bud.

  Post: Frugal or Miserly?

  Link to comment from March 8, 2023