My husband and I find ourselves in the (very, very) fortunate position of having relatively secure jobs. With the world-wide economy being what it is, we feel an extra responsibility to share our fortune, but we’re both undecided on how to do it.
Given that we’re also saving for a rainy day, in case our situation changes and our jobs are no longer as secure, what would The Wise Members of The Dope advise us to do with the excess? Donate to worthy causes? Buy more stuff? I’d love to hear your opinions.
Safe less, buy domestic products/services. Like Fisha said, if you were ever thinking of having some type of constuction/refurnishing done, do it now; as an added bonus you might even get a good deal with so many companies having no jobs to do.
Heh, that’s (roof) actually an excellent suggestion. IANAWMoTD but my guess is continuing to be a regular consumer would be a great benefit since the failure to do so is in large part what’s causing the slow down and if you also do so in a way that provides you with some sort of future leverage should you become impacted too, like adding to your home’s worth/marketability, then it’s money well spent.
Home improvements, purchasing an energy efficient vehicle, patronizing local restaurants and small business owners; those strike me as potentially serving one or more beneficial purposes.
We’ve been in the same situation and have been using the extra money on home improvements. We just finished a remodel on our bathroom.
We got a good price, the guy seemed to take his time since he had a light workload, and he seemed happy to have the business.
If you ever wanted to hire out for home improvements now seems to be the time to do it.
We are in the same position as the OP, and we have just done some home remodeling. We eat in restaurants and will soon be shopping for a new car for my husband. There is some “survivor’s guilt” about it; we *eat in restaurants *while some people can’t even afford to keep their homes? But we do contribute to food banks and other charities, and we certainly (I hope) don’t act smug about being employed. I’m trying to help several friends find jobs.
I agree; maintain your home, hire tradespeople who need the work, dine out, save but don’t be a miser. Just be a confident but not profligate consumer.
That’s what we’ve been doing so far. I’m asking for ideas primarily because we’re just finishing up the work on the house (new roof put up last year ).
Thanks for the ideas, though! I understand the “survivor’s guilt” feeling - I’ve got some of it too.
Yes, we hire someone to do our yard work when we could do it ourselves. We have a gardener! I don’t tell people that because I sound like Mrs. Fucking Astor. But I don’t enjoy gardening and it aggravates my allergies, and the gardener LOVES it and can use the money. Who wins here? Everybody!
I was wondering how many posts it would take to go down this route. I was thinking “massage the economy’s balls” but yours wins.
Whatever the OP decides, be sure not to mention it to your friends. I was out last week and was talking about how my hot tub had just been delivered. While a few of my friends were thinking “cool, when can we come over?”, I got a few looks that made me regret bringing it up in the first place. None of these people are unemployed or anything but I definitely got the impression that they thought I was bragging.
Totally on board with the “survivor’s guilt” sentiment. Any recommendations for handling friends who aren’t doing as well?
We are in a similar situation. We just got back from vacation in Colorado. The local paper said that December numbers were down 20% from the year before. The mountain and town was very empty, no wait for tables at restaurants, etc.
We have decided to take our rainy day money and invest in real estate. We haven’t decided if we are going to upsize our current home or buy a rental property. We have to put all the numbers to paper and see what is going to work out best for us. We figure we can pay cash for a small house or a condo and rent it out and make our money back in 3-4 years.
We have been in our current house for 7 years. The “boom” was good to us and the value of the house has almost doubled in that time even taking in to account the recent downturn.
I said this in another thread but I’ll put it here as well because it relates…
The new stimulus package allows for you to write off the taxes you pay on the purchase of a new vehicle on your tax return next year. That will then give you more money to spend next year in the likelihood that you’re situation remains the same. Buying a car this year would be a great idea, particularly if you buy American, although that’s a whole new topic.
I’m 30 years old and I’ve always rented, but I have a stable job, just got a promotion even, and wit h the car tax thing I mentioned above as well as the 8k you can write off over the next 2 years for a first time homebuyer, I’ve already started looking for a place to buy and thought about what kind of car I want to be parking in front of it.
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