Best ways to save money $

BrianMSmith

Good credit, you can get mortgages and auto loans for 3% interest, which is like free money because inflation is at least 3%. On a mortgage, your effective payment goes down by the inflation rate - assuming your income at least keeps up with inflation - over 10 years your effective payment is much lower than it started at. Keep your cash invested in equities instead of paying cash for a car or a mortgage - house prices typically grow at about the inflation rate, stocks do better.

scottIN

That all sounds great - but you're not factoring in risk. And the market may average 11% or so, but look at 2008 when it was down 40%.

And I've been on both sides of it in real estate. Use to be a big believer in Kiyosaki & OPM.

Banks, brokers & others that make their money by lending us money have convinced us all that OPM is smart. But if you look at real numbers, it rarely works - or works for very long. They never talk about real world numbers - just what happens in a perfect scenario. I've done a lot of stupid stuff in my life, thinking I was sophisticated. Finally realized that the truly wealthy people don't do 'sophisticated' investing. Pay cash, keep it simple and use your income to build wealth. Again, going back to my buddy Tim, his estimated net worth was $200 million when he was on Super Rich. Know what it really was when everything was liquidated? -$50 million. He was poorer than you & me!