do you have friends that must have better and bigger diamonds...

[Dancing Fire]

yea,you guys are probably right i shouldn't of loan him the money ,but when known somebody for 30+ yrs its hard to say "no" i guess the way i see it,is we all go through tough times in life.i hope my wife don't find out about this loan or else i would never hear the end of it,even though is my money.

 

[fire&ice]

----------------
On 9/1/2004 4:17:30 PM vtigger86 wrote:

yea,you guys are probably right i shouldn't of loan him the money ,but when known somebody for 30+ yrs its hard to say 'no' i guess the way i see it,is we all go through tough times in life.i hope my wife don't find out about this loan or else i would never hear the end of it,even though is my money.----------------

We all go through tough times. And, I would loan money to a friend who had something unexpected come along that they simply can not handle (like a catastrophic illness or injury). But, (and, again trust me) by bailing them out of an overspending situation will do no good. They will never learn & once a white knight steps in, they will never get help. They will always expect some sort of bail out - even in the form of 2 personal bankrupcies. If I recall correctly, after two pb's, no more life lines exist.

 

[hoorray]

----------------
We all go through tough times. And, I would loan money to a friend who had something unexpected come along that they simply can not handle (like a catastrophic illness or injury). But, (and, again trust me) by bailing them out of an overspending situation will do no good. They will never learn & once a white knight steps in, they will never get help. They will always expect some sort of bail out - even in the form of 2 personal bankrupcies. If I recall correctly, after two pb's, no more life lines exist.
----------------

I agree. An overspender will generally overspend as long as they can survive it. Someone hitting unexpected hard times without being an overspender is another thing.

Good for you Jennifer on "underspending". I like that term and concept. We shifted gears a while back and focused on saving and investing. We still spend plenty, but not like we used to. The benefit to us now and for the future is huge. I look back at some of the useless things we spent $$ on, and really regret not having just put it aside instead. I think many people don't realize how much of a life difference being able to retire comfortably and, preferably early, makes. It allows you the opportunity to do and eperience things that you can't do when you have other full time responsibilities.

 

[websailor]

----------------
On 8/31/2004 9:27:30 PM vtigger86 wrote:





than others in their circle? bigger and more expensive home? and fancier cars? i never understood what go's through their mind.
----------------

We're the "poor kids" in the neighborhood - everyone else can out-spend us in a second. For example, one neighbor retired, wanted to move right away, so they under-priced their home by several hundred thousand $ so it would sell fast (it did!). That was "nothing" to them....

But almost everyone here are humble, down to earth folks...you don't see any competition., or trying to out do each other. That's one aspect of living here that is so neat - the people are great to live with.

If you met the folks around here, you'd never know that they had money. You'd hear about bocce-ball tournements, grand kids, their new puppy, etc...

 

[Dancing Fire]

you said: We're the 'poor kids' in the neighborhood

Websailor
tears comming down my cheeks as i read this post

with the jewelry collection that cflutist has your neighbor must be Larry Ellison since you live in the S.F. bay area.

 

[Kamuelamom]

----------------
On 8/31/2004 10:18:58 PM Jennifer5973 wrote:

When we were younger and engaged, then married, always struggling, working so hard, we said 'When will be successful???' and we both agreed that when we could go out for sushi any time we wanted, we'd be succcessful...We both love sushi but it's very expensive and for many years we went only for special occasions, and even then counted the pennies and watched the bill...well, just the other night, a Tuesday--nothing special, we went and had some sushi and at the exact same moment we looked up at each other and smiled...We can have sushi any time.

----------------

Jennifer, this sushi story is very heartwarming. It reminds me very much of my husband and I in our humble beginnings. Heck we are still in our humble middles.

But we have a comfortable life because we choose to live simply and not by anyone's standards but our own. I applaud

you for reaching this point in life and managing to keep both feet on the ground at the same time.

Eat sushi & be happy!! I'd do the same except we don't have any sushi bars around here where I live.

 

[websailor]

Vtigger86,

Close....

A couple of ex-mayors, a radio personality, the County trash company owner (who lives in a 12,000 sq ft house), a local business man (I could name the busineeses but you'd have to scroll down a page or two cause he has so many)...

Before my time, cflutist's neighbor across the street used to land his helicopter on their back driveway...

Our next door neighbor (a guy) wears a 3 ct pinkie ring.... and loves to garden and is sometimes seen shoveling horse manure for the garden...

-----------
A little story - there were two big (trunks were ~ 2.5 ft diameter, about 40 ft tall) ash trees right along the property line that cflutist wanted taken out. She also snidely challenged me regarding my ability to get a chainsaw running that hadn't been started in 5 years.

For an engineer, that's a challenge that can't be turned down! Shortly afterwards, I'm out there bringing the trees down piece by piece... having a blast. All the neighbors start coming around, some helping (one lady neighbor even brought her chain saw over).

It turns out they were amazed to see one of the homeowners doing heavy manual labor...first time they'd seen that up here.

The $thousands I saved doing it myself probably just went into the cflutist diamond fund...

(just kidding about this last sentence)





Should we be starting a new topic - Show Me Your Neighbors?

 

[Kamuelamom]

Hey I know I've only been popping in here and there, but someone fill me in. Are Websailor and cflutist neighbors? Do I get that right or am I completely missing it?

Chances are the latter is accurate.

Help me out guys, I've been soooooo out of it here.

 

[cflutist]

----------------
On 9/8/2004 2:33:57 AM Kamuelamom wrote:

Hey I know I've only been popping in here and there, but someone fill me in. Are Websailor and cflutist neighbors? Do I get that right or am I completely missing it?

Chances are the latter is accurate.

Help me out guys, I've been soooooo out of it here.

----------------

That's a good one. We're actually married and just celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

"do you have friends that must have better and bigger diamonds..."





Yes, but only one. Unfortunately she is my best friend and I married her. She has an insatiable desire (for diamonds that is) /idealbb/images/smilies/angryfire.gif

 

[cflutist]

----------------
On 9/8/2004 2:52:37 AM Garry H (Cut Nut) wrote:


'do you have friends that must have better and bigger diamonds...'



Yes, but only one. Unfortunately she is my best friend and I married her. She has an insatiable desire (for diamonds that is) /idealbb/images/smilies/angryfire.gif
----------------

That's sweet Garry

 

[Dancing Fire]

----------------
On 9/8/2004 2:33:57 AM Kamuelamom wrote:

Hey I know I've only been popping in here and there, but someone fill me in. Are Websailor and cflutist neighbors? Do I get that right or am I completely missing it?

Chances are the latter is accurate.

Help me out guys, I've been soooooo out of it here.

----------------

Kamuelamom
Nah,they are just husband & wife,websailor got lucky and married a very rich cflutist..LOL

 

[Dancing Fire]

websailor
i can't even afford the toilet out in your neigborhood ,let alone a house.

 

[cflutist]

----------------
On 9/8/2004 4:02:02 AM vtigger86 wrote:

websailor
i can't even afford the toilet out in your neigborhood ,let alone a house.

----------------

Vtigger86, at least your house is paid for

That's my goal now, is to pay off my house (notice I said my house as websailor owns oceanfront property south of Mendocino) in 5 years.

Actually, we could not afford our house if we had to buy it today either. We were just lucky that cflutist and her ex bought in 1992 and cflutist bought him out in 1993 when he ran off with that other married b*tch.

Back to the topic, seriously, websailor and I are the "poor kids" of the neighbohood. We are surrounded by business owners, while we both work for large corporations and everyone knows you can't get rich working for someone else. We live beneath our means which means we don't buy something unless we have the cash to pay for it (that includes cars and diamond tennis bracelets). Heck, I didn't get a cellphone until last year because I was too cheap to pay for one and we have the cheapie $16 limited cable service. Websailor drives a 1996 Toyota truck and I kept my car for 16 years before I replaced it.

What websailor was trying to say is that our neighbors are very secure in themselves and don't have a need to "keep up with the Jones". And we sure don't try because they would all leave us in the dust.

And the neighbor next door with the pinkie ring ... he owns 2 different businesses, 15 pieces of property (including commercial) ... but he'll shovel manure and throw squash over the fence for us. He's got a full time gardener (we all have a least an acre on a ridgetop) yet he is not afraid to get dirty. Neither is websailor, he'll do more manual labor than anyone else up here and I love him for that.

Kamuelamom:
My stepdad was from Hawaii and is 1/4 Hawaiian. His daughter went to Kamehameha (sp) schools.

 

[websailor]

----------------
On 9/8/2004 4:02:02 AM vtigger86 wrote:

websailor
i can't even afford the toilet out in your neigborhood ,let alone a house.

----------------

 

[Dancing Fire]

cflutist
I rather have my mortgage back then paying for my daughter's college tuition,she's not even attending a big name college just U.C. Santa Cruz.

speaking of housing:few yrs ago i would never thought $500k+ homes out here in the sacto area would be so common.thanks to the buyers, from the bay area who just purchase every home in sight because it's still so cheap compared to the bay area.

 

[Kamuelamom]

----------------
On 9/8/2004 2:50:58 AM cflutist wrote:

----------------
On 9/8/2004 2:33:57 AM Kamuelamom wrote:

Hey I know I've only been popping in here and there, but someone fill me in. Are Websailor and cflutist neighbors? Do I get that right or am I completely missing it?

Chances are the latter is accurate.

Help me out guys, I've been soooooo out of it here.

----------------

That's a good one. We're actually married and just celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.----------------

Teehee, toldja I was real out of it. Congrats on your recent anniversary. I like folks who can virtually get anything they want, yet choose to live beneath their means because they are practical minded. I find it especially humbling that websailor and your wealthy neighbor can even get their hands dirty.

I know some wealthy folks who just think that their sh!t doesn't stink, ya know?

Hate to be the one to tell them but theirs stinks, just like the rest of ours.

 

[websailor]

We just got back from a vacation - websailor style - camping at New Brighton Beach State Park.




Next vaction is cflutist style - cruising in the Caribbean.




We average the costs out -- $ + $$$ / 2 = $$ -- okay, that's in our budget....and maybe some left over for cflutist's diamonds

 

[quaeritur]

Tee hee... we just got back from camping in the Colorado mountains. I think camping is all we'll be doing after wiping out the savings on the last couple of little diamond purchases

..

Seriously though, I find that getting back to basics is so refreshing. Nothing like spending the night under the stars to remember what's truly important

.

 

[Patty]

----------------
On 9/14/2004 2:45:49 AM quaeritur wrote:

Nothing like spending the night under the stars to remember what's truly important

.

----------------

Right! But then, don't those twinkling stars remind you of something? Don't they make you wish that you could have something pretty and twinkly to look at every day?