Need to make sure she will keep depositing her paychecks in the joint bank account. (she has a very good job)
Hey, who's the dork that didn't give OHMS a 5 Star rating on this thread? Who ever it is, you're just a jealous low life scum of a gutter rat.
I've always been a salaried employee, never owned a business. I'm an engineer, sometimes an electrical engineer and sometimes a financial engineer. I've sort of switched back and forth. Sometimes I received stock options. Mostly they were worthless but a couple of times I made some real money on them. I avoided buying homes on Bainbridge Island, Mercer Island, Manhattan Beach, Beverly Hills etc like all of my friends have. I stayed away from the ferraris, new porsches, lambos and bentleys (yeah one friend just bought a bentley and is a bit of a tool lol). Got a pilots license but never bought a plane. A few of my friends have 210s, Glasairs, Lancairs etc. Some have helicopters! I live in a great home but its in the desert on a butte surrounded by a fairly grim looking mexican village and was worth well under a million at the peak of real estate prices, maybe 600k now. I managed to buy cheap and stayed above water which allowed me to refinance repeatedly as rates dropped. I drive Fords. Yeah I have a couple of porsches but they are ancient garage queens. Almost all of my travel has been business or a side-trip while on business. I've paid for a few short ski trips but my dad payed for all of the expensive helicopter ski trips. I drive past the Bristol Farms to shop at Trader Joe's or Albertsons like normal people. I made some money trading mean reversion of unlikely yet highly correlated securities/commodities. Just math no real trading skill involved. The trick was finding the correlated pairs that weren't already figured out by others. The time-frame was embarrasingly long. But I didn't trade for the hedge funds, I was a "quant developer", a glorified programmer. A good salary but not in the big money. Love beautiful women but got rid of the gold-diggers brutally fast. I saved from after-tax money because I don't trust 401-k schemas. I never believed I would get social security, it will be broke or they will keep raising the age, something like that. I don't own any thousand dollar suits. I just tried to keep my lifestyle slightly below my means and tried to hang onto some money. As I got older I needed more savings to feel secure so I kept upping the target. Got lucky selling a couple of homes right at the peak. Thats about it. No real pearls of wisdom.
Thanks 377 for the detailed reply. Though I'd say there are a few pearls in there... It would be interesting to know more about your mean reversion strategies. I'm basically a trend following type guy, but I always wanted to add some mean reversion strategies for a little more diversification. I wouldn't want to pry either, and I guess after working so hard for your edge you're not really looking to reveal trade secrets just yet. Perhaps one day?! I like your writing style too - I think maybe there is a book in you... Darkhorse was/is another with a really great writing style. I'm more of a bullet point type of guy - mostly terse statements with a sense of humour like Hitler... You know, I don't laugh much, and I laugh at the wrong things..
There were many pearls of wisdom in your summary! Congratulations and blessings to a humble man. May you have joy in your journey. All the best, moose