During my entire Army career, we lived on base housing for free. Officer's Row was really nice. We paid ourselves a mortgage, $1,000 a month for 25 years. We paid ourselves $300 a month each for car payments to ourselves. The trick was, get a good used car with the old car and cash and drive the wheels off it. Take care of it, drive it for 15 years, get another, keep paying yourselves.
Not everyone has this unique opportunity to finally, at 49 own a home with no mortgage. During these years of savings, we used coupons, and while in different countries, we travelled. Going from Germany to France is a lot cheaper than going from the US to France. See what I mean?
We took advantage of our blessings. We traveled the world and managed to live well, and along the way, we saved about $200 a month for our daughter's college. She won a scholarship, the Navy picked up the tab for the rest, but we made investments from 1986 on.
We took a chance in 1986. She was four years old. There was this company called Microsoft, and that's when we started investing.
We worked hard for our money; we made our money work for us as well.
During both our careers, we were both volunteer firefighters and EMTs in our communities. We rang bells outside stores for the Salvation Army for free, we volunteered to drive elderly folks to the polls on voting days, and for six years between 2007 - 2013, I flew Angel Flights; flying organs and tissue to hospitals for transplants.
I had to give up actively flying in 2014. I prided myself on flaring and setting down on a runway within 3 feet of its beginning. One day I flared and set down over 8 feet. My depth perception was failing.
Now I teach ground school, volunteer for Meals on Wheels, hubby and I are active in the DAV, we still drive the elderly and handicapped to the polls, and we do a monthly food drive for poor families in our town. We donate blood (Ow!!), and still work at least 32 hours a week.
I do not believe there's any truth to the notion that penny pinchers miss out on life and aren't assets and volunteers in their community. This is a misconception harbored by people who may not be well-informed and who may not understand there are ways of life that allow us to invest, be comfortable, have no payments except taxes and utilities, and serve our communities in a viable fashion.
We believe as we have been blessed, so we bless others by giving of our time, even while working still. We penny-pinchers sometimes aren't so bad. Make sense?
