Frugality In The Age Of Inflation

[Beaver Fever]

All the money I saved up by being frugal is just sitting in the bank losing 6.8% of it's value annually. What do I do? Don't tell me to buy stuff because I don't want anything.

[Nyssa]

There are basically only two options: invest in something
tangible (like land, real property, or other valuables) or
stocks (riskier) or convert it into another currency in a
place that's both stable and not suffering similar high
inflation (Swiss francs maybe?).

Otherwise, we frugal types who squirrel away more than we
spend are screwed.

The big guys don't worry because they've got multiple options
and loads of accountants and lawyers who have ways to avoid
many of the problems.

But us little guys, yep, we're screwed.

Nyssa, who has been trying to get repairs done to her house
but the supplies aren't available, but when they finally
appear the prices will be horrendous

[Beaver Fever]

A business associate recommended a financial advisor but I haven't called him yet.

I made a fuckload in a pricing arbitration scheme but after Delta hit and I started taking losses I got scared off and looking for something safer to put my money into.

[The Real Bev]

On 01/17/2022 01:53 PM, Beaver Fever wrote:

> I made a fuckload in a pricing arbitration scheme but after Delta hit and I started taking losses I got scared off and looking for something safer to put my money into.

Index funds.


--
Cheers, Bev
"Tip: Place your houseplants in front of the television during
the next presidential debate and watch how leafy they get."
-- Scott Adams

[Beaver Fever]

Oh hell yeah! I got some of those.

[Dennis]

On Mon, 17 Jan 2022 18:07:18 -0800, The Real Bev
<bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 01/17/2022 01:53 PM, Beaver Fever wrote:
>
>> I made a fuckload in a pricing arbitration scheme but after Delta hit and I started taking losses I got scared off and looking for something safer to put my money into.
>
>Index funds.

Um, have you looked at the index funds lately? When the markets that
are indexed go down, so do the funds...

Dennis (evil)
--
I'm behind the eight ball, ahead of the curve, riding the wave,
dodging the bullet and pushing the envelope. -George Carlin

[Beaver Fever]

What do you think I should do?

Should I hire a financial advisor?

[gggg gggg]

https://groups.google.com/g/misc.consumers.frugal-living/c/9pctEER1aHM

[Nyssa]

Be cautious if you do hire one. Many try to steer you
into lots of life insurance or high-fee funds since they
tend to pay the advisor better kickbacks^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^
finders fees.

I once looked into getting a Professional Financial
Advisor certification and was surprised at how much of
the curriculum was aimed at insurance. Risk management,
I could understand, but not all of the insurance products.

Nyssa, who has been her own financial advisor and while
not rich or well off has at least stayed debt-free

[Beaver Fever]

This good friend of mine says she uses one "who did great for my mom and is doing great for me" and it's a family business, apparently his mom first took on her mom. Actually she is probably the second most significant woman in my life other than my mother. None of this would have been possible without her.

I should study it more myself but my attention span is so fried. I am just so financially unsophisticated. In 2013 I made like $15,000. No job skills, no people skills and only hung on to the McJob because it was a poorly managed family business where often only warm bodies were needed. Just the basics, don't spend more than I make and got really lucky with housing but just figured I would slip under the waves at some point. Never really expected I would make any resembling an adult income. It was incremental too because I latched on to a pricing arbitrage scheme and it blew up massively.

But I know I need to do something with my money other than just let it sit in the bank. Unfortunately I never quite made enough to buy a home here (something I am also just so lacking in knowledge and experience to do anywhere).

I have a Fidelity account and have a few bond, index and mutual funds my dad recommended. But I melted half of those down last year in a cash crunch when business started blowing up again! Now I have it all back plus some and also abandoned the scheme last summer when it really started to unravel.

I want to make enough passive income to keep living the minimum wage lifestyle without toiling at a minimum wage job because I have no intention of ever going down that road again.

[Nyssa]

A dear friend of mine swore by the Vanguard funds. You might
try those.

I had a *very* bad experience with Fidelity years ago when
I worked for Unisys. They handled our 401Ks back then and
really truly messed up royally. It ended up not only losing
a large chunk of the principle in what was *supposed* to
be a low-risk bond fund they claimed was only treasuries,
munis, and highly rated bonds but switched it into
insurance contract junk bonds...with a VERY low yield,
but freezing the rest of the account until it all went
through the courts when the insurance contracts went bust.

I left Unisys not much later and cashed out with less
money and the added insult of paying a 10$ tax penalty
while a portion of my money remained tied up in litigation
for many years later (from which I received less than $4).

My money had been in four different funds, but the wipe
out in the one that a) had the lowest yield and b) was
supposed to be the lowest risk erased any gains in the
other three funds. Oh, and Fidelity was not upfront with
their switch overs in the bond fund, plus we weren't allowed
to rearrange our spread across the funds at will, only
quarterly or semi-annually IIRC.

So I don't touch Fidelity in any way, shape, or form now.
YMMV.

Good luck!

I see in your other post that you've got the plague now.
I hope it's a mild case. My neighbor just went through that
earlier this month and she said the worst symptoms she had
were a deep rumbling cough for two days. And she slept a lot.

Nyssa, who managed to avoid getting the plague from her
neighbor

[Dennis]

On Thu, 20 Jan 2022 16:52:08 -0800 (PST), Beaver Fever
<Beaver...@live.com> wrote:

>What do you think I should do?
>
>Should I hire a financial advisor?
>

Fidelity is hosting a webinar Th. 1/27 at 1PM PT. They will discuss
investing strategies for 2022. You probably can access it via your
Fidelity account.

[Beaver Fever]

Thank you, I shall watch that if I am still alive. Currently dying of Covid right now.

[Bob F]

I hope that is not true.