Thank you @Laks09. I did my Masters in New York. Imagine how hard it was to stay away from fast moving fashion. But I understood sooner to stay away from these fast moving market trend.When we retired we were 37 and 40. Our FI plans started when we were teens.Also we were lucky to start our jobs with combined monthly take home more than 12k+. When we did not have any debts, buying all dry groceries once or twice a year in bulk during sale/deals and buying only fresh produce and other stuffs on weekly basis which bring down our monthly grocery bill to 200$-350$ which is more than enough. We see things in different way like when we upgrade appliances to new we sell the old ones. The whole old microwave you can sell max for 50$ but instead we removed all parts and sold and the money we made which was equivalent to brand new microwave. Same thing with laptop we like we had paid more than 2000$ 5 years ago ,now when we wanted to sell the current market price was 500$ so instead we sold it part by part. So many small things usually people throw away, but instead I sell those. With all these frugal savings habits it was not hard for us to put 75% into savings.
Thank you @Hopikrishnan. Being raised by a single mother after my father passed away when I was 8 years old and later after few years my mother had to take VRS due to heath issues and chemotherapy. We had gone through financial hardships. I think leaving frugal, sticking to budget it came to us automatically. My mother used to tell us(me,sis,bro) if you are not going to get scholarships/government free seat then I am not going to send you guys to study further. I am greatful to her that we learnt so many things.
Finally one thing I can emulate! I am reasonably good at selling things. We have managed to do so safely even in Covid time. We do encounter repeat buyers who buy the product without too much checking and they obviously buy it to resell the parts. Some even cheerfully ask us if we have more of the same to sell. : ) I am going to try this sell part by part thing. A few items are reaching end of productivity for us.
This is not an easy thing to do for many. After CD's and DVD's came along, many had to toss their VCR's, and thankful that shops will take them back for free. Same with computers, as we upgrade.
Thank you @Flyhigher! I am proud of my dad and also of my mom for supporting him. My dad gave tuition for a while to bring in some money. I got to see our finances up close which also helped me get back to my feet and start saving after initial two years of spending spree in the USA.
Been wanting to ask since I read your last set of posts. But FFTI (feel free to ignore). Did you grow up in India, the U.S. or elsewhere? Those of us who come to the U.S. to study or work in our early 20's, I guess the initial years of scrimping and saving makes us prone to spending a bit crazily after 5-6 years of living in the U.S. A few things happened in the past few days. One thing lead to another and I did a quick 'how much is enough to retire' calculation in the 4 function phone calculator. : ) Some surprises there.. most mildly pleasant. Medical insurance remains the biggest question.
