On other financial sites, you’ll find folks bragging about the hot stocks they own and the prescient market calls they made. But here at HumbleDollar, we favor a different sort of boasting.
Instead of trumpeting their market savvy, HumbleDollar writers and commenters are often looking to signal their financial prudence. How do they do that? Here are eight of my favorite HumbleDollar boasts:
- How quickly folks paid off their mortgage.
- How many consecutive years they’ve maxed out their 401(k).
- How they paid cash for their latest car.
- How foolish they were in their 20s—and how they’ve been ardent indexers ever since.
- How infrequently they look at their portfolio or make investment trades.
- How they’ve never paid a penny in credit-card interest—but collected heaps of card rewards.
- How many miles are on their car’s odometer.
- How many years they’ve lived in the same home.
Did you just log in? If you don't see the commenting form, please refresh the page.
Non-humble brag. We just built our dream home on 60 acres with a view of our own private lake with the cash from the sale of our last house. Mortgage free at 54/49. We didn’t do this with a high income. I’m a corporate middle manager and my wife cleans people’s houses. We did this with hard work, good money management, and a dream.
Paid off our house at 35,Maxed my 401 the last 10years I worked,paid cash for our cars currently 2001 and 20012 models, was very foolish in my 20s and never indexed. Look at my portfolio more then neccessary but rarely trade.Never paid credit card interest after I turned 25. We have lived in the same house for 41 years. Can’t get it all right but can’t complain
This is great, Jonathan and I was LOL at all the comments. You all are my people. Chris
Having subscribed to HumbleDollar.
And then there are the habits I hesitate to admit, even on HumbleDollar: On many mornings, my routine is to grab my bagel from the toaster, place it on a paper towel from the nearby dispenser and head with it and my coffee to my chair to read HD. My wife buys the paper towel rolls that are perforated into a half-sheet. During the pandemic paper shortage, I started tearing the half-sheet again, to make a quarter-sheet. I can’t break the habit.
Me too, though it’s only when I run out of Brawny Tear-a-Square.
I love this, Ed. 😂 Chris
Maybe add “Have HumbleDollar as the homepage or first bookmarkon their web browser”
5/8 unless I can triple count for my 3rd car pushing 300k miles 😉
My “youngest” vehicle is a 2012 Camry XLE.
We just spent $500. to put new tires on my husband’s 1990 4-Runner. We replaced 14 year old tires and it feels like we have a new vehicle. Now my husband is wondering if he will feel like a new man if he replaces his 10 year old hiking boots!
oh, that one’s just a pup! At one point the average age of our 3 vehicles was 17. I literally drove my 24-year-old Volvo into the grave(yard): the local Air Quality Management Board paid me $1,000 to drive it to the junkyard for dismantling. (hey this humble brag thing is fun!–bragging, one-upping and feeling good about it)
This October will make 60 years in the same home for me.
I resemble those remarks.
Perhaps add:
How they constantly take advantage of best cable/utility/phone/insurance deals.
An addition to the list for me – how many books on the benefit of index investing I have read.
Interesting that I miss the mark on many of these points; divorce caused a detour. Took until I was 60 to become mortgage free. Couldn’t even save enough to max the employer match for a couple years. Took a car loan in 2009; making payments was so painful I paid it off 3 years early. And for some unknown reason I just counted 11 houses, not including the one I grew up in. Lucky for me I changed course mid-life and turned out okay, thanks in no small way to finding a likeminded partner in Chris.
If your mortgage rate were below what an HYSA pays then it would be financially irresponsible to pay off your mortgage.
So the rates when we contracted to build were still around 3%, so yes, I would have gave serious consideration to borrowing. By the time we soft closed the rates were around 7%.
We were mortgage free at 60 like you, Dan Chris
Not sure I’ve HumbleDollar-boasted on all of these, but I’m good with 6 of 8.
I’d add “What I’ve fixed to avoid buying a new one”.
I think I scored 7 out of 8 on the JC Boast meter. (I trade/monitor daily and recoup the time by not wasting time with TV or social media.)
Early on, my wife wondered about a meeting of HumbleDollar writers. “Would they meet up at a fancy restaurant in spiffy dress, or would they show up in old–but clean-clothes and compete at finding the lowest-priced fare on a discount menu?”
That’s a good one. My wife recently commented on the age of the polo shirt I was wearing. I didn’t know I had gone out of style.
I have a 1985 t-shirt that I wear for painting, but it is not suitable to wear in public. I have a 1990 sailing-regatta long-sleeve t-shirt that I still wear for yard work. While these ages may seem extreme, I have stacks of old sailing and running event tees in serviceable condition.
Good point. I noticed my July 4th tee shirt had the year 2001 on it…. However, my blood donation shirts never go out of style, and I get a new free one at least once a year!
I can attest that it is the latter.
Very interesting question indeed. No spiffy dress for me, but no discount menu either😎
Looks like I’m guilty of six out of eight of those humble brags. No wonder HumbleDollar is my kind of place.
Very true. I wonder if these positive habits of HD readers cross different generations? I sure don’t see much of this in the under 50 population. I do hear a great deal of woe is me from that group though.
Isn’t this a “those pesky kids” type position?
As a Gen Xer in my 50s, I find it a bit hard looking at a Boomer generation who have made it largely through demographic good fortune of riding the highest growth years in a world which still had salary related pensions and extreme real estate inflation. Or at least I find it sometimes difficult to swallow their wisdom/advice without critique, yes they had to suck up high interest rates in the 70s/80s and had less luxurious and reliable vehicles or whatever but time has a habit of paying these back.
I would say look at the FIRE “kids” – although those most passionate are probably in their 30s and 40s. They definitely understand frugality and making every $ they can compound with the eye on the prize. With that prize being independence from the yoke of full time traditional employment rather than necessarily retirement.
Beyond that yes there are Millennials and soon Gen Zers who are going to make their money in very different and lumpier ways than Boomers and will perhaps depend on the genetic lottery of grandparental inheritances to get on property ladders. Although I despise frivolous spending on my own account I can see the “small indulgence” value of dropping $10 on Avocado on Toast when even compounding those discretionary spends is not going to give you a housing deposit that keeps pace with an inflationary market,
I certainly don’t know, but I believe it’s probably much the same each generation. Between my kids and my nieces and nephews (admittedly a very small sample), there’s 13 of them. They range from a couple of spendthrifts to the other end of the spectrum where more than half are mortgage free with significant investments. I believe it’s much more a reflection of their innate character than most any other thing. Some folks figure out how to enjoy life while living within their means, and some don’t.
I know of several late-30s/early-40s folks who embrace many of those traits and have saved enough ($1.5+million) in taxable accounts alone to retire early. Most of these friends have one above-average earner (tech industry, health care, or state government) but then the other partner is often teaching or not working. I appreciate your concern for people being unprepared for financial curveballs, I realize you are often concerned about the “average worker/investor” but many Gen Xers and Millenials are much more savvy, responsible and prepared than their parents!
Richard, I feel compelled to comment as a Generation X er and barely still in my 40’s. I love the site and have been reading these articles for several years and have never commented. While this site is heavy boomers (as my kids would say) with focus on retirement phase of life, it has a lot of great advice. Keep writing and passing on the great life lessons/experience’s which all enjoy. This mantra by Jonathan is my favorite and the true nature of the people who visit this website. For younger people, it does take some life experience to fully grasp this mindset which seems natural as the older you get, but most find their way to this sort of thinking after life has slapped them around a few times. Johnathan C,. you are awesome and keep going!
I think it takes time for a young person to get their sh*t together, but I don’t know that its a generational thing. Think about all those ill-prepared employees when your company offered buyouts.
Nice list Jonathan. One of my favorite HD boasts is how far the writers and commentators go to maintain a civil discourse.
Right on! I know I wouldn’t be here if that were not the case.