re: What would you say the best financial decision you ever made was?

Quite simply, the best financial decision I ever made was putting a budget on paper and stickng to it (well, mostly stickng to it). A couple times I've run my credit cards up to around $40,000 before paying them off. Didn't pay much attention to them. With around $5-7K/month left over after all recurring monthly bills are paid, I treated it all as expendable income. But there are ALWAYS more miscellaneous expenses, emergency expenses, etc. than you expect or realize. Finally I said enough is enough and began seriously tracking my miscellaneous expenses and put a realistic budget on paper. It has made a huge difference in my spending habits.

Second best decision was refinancing my house even though I was at a pretty decent rate already. Had 22 years left on a 30 yr. mortgage, and I was able to refinance to a 15 year mortgage at practically the same note. Cutting 7 years off was huge for retirement savings.

quote:

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If houses were these money pits you rentards said they were

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When I got out of grad school, my step father told me to save any raises, and just live off of what you lived before.

I have mostly done that, and actually spend about the same now as I did in 2000. I have saved the rest, and technically could retire but would like a bit more cushion.

eta: I am 43

Not buying a house for myself!

Easily the best decision I've made

Moved to north Dallas and starting investing in my late twenties.
Biggest mistake: not buying a few rental properties when the prices were dirt cheap.

converting to a roth in 2010. have over $110k in it now without contributing to it in about 7 years.

Buying a house and paying it off early....maxing out on my 401k and putting all my extra cash into it....thankfully my parents taught me to live conservatively and not buy things I really don't need...

The best financial decision I ever made was a result of professional opinions posted right here on Money Talk.

I had been following the board for a couple years. But in 2007, posters JerseyTiger and Colonel Hapablap began frequently commenting about increases in home foreclosure rates. They began speculating about what it may mean for the economy.

They never said "get out of the stock market", but their seemingly credible commentary about how bad things were looking and likely consequences, prompted me to move my entire retirement fund to a more secure environment in October of 2007.

That move saved my retirement savings from HUGE losses. Many people that pay large sums of money for credible financial advice lost their asses. But because I listened to the free advice from some random stranger on the internet going by the handle Colonel Hapablap, I lost nothing.

Thank you Money Board.

Took the lowest offer job out of college, was nearly 60% of what my buddies were getting. Recognized the potential that it had, and stuck it our for 5 years, I now make nearly double of all my buddies and am well on my way to working towards an early retirement.