Pretty good!! You’ll be retired by the time the 45 y/o goals hit! ;)

That’s very good!

Happiness comes when you found your enough and you are perfectly peaceful with it. And it doesn’t mean “the end of the world”. Life is interesting by itself and there a lot of interesting things to discover. You always learn something new every day :)

I’m pretty happy with my enough :)

I’m more about listening and reading, than talking. Exactly as my nickname implies. But, maybe, I’ll drop a couple of lines in the future. We’ll see :)

Anyway, no matter what, I wish you and your family good health and grand success. You have it all already, by the way, but enough is never enough, eh? :)

Hahahhaa…

I hope you continue to not be silent here – you’re slowly becoming my new favorite person :)

Yeah, life is never boring here. It is always something “new” every day and, often, it isn’t pleasant at all. But, we have a very positive mindset and our life is too short to waste it on negative thoughts. So, no way :)

“Buying homes with cash is no joke!”.

Truth. Sometimes, it looks like a gangsters’ deal. Everyone is suspicious. Everyone is tense. Everyone is ready to fight. And the poor dear notary guy, who is scared to death for being forced to seal a deal between a hammer and an anvil. Such an adrenaline rush to all participants…

But, life goes on and that’s good. No complains :)

AHHH So fascinating!!! I have to save this for when we do our next “around the world” post!

https://eliteedgemoney.com/personal-finance-around-the-world/

Thank you for sharing all of this – it is so interesting to read :) And also scary in parts, ugh… We have it SO EASY here in the States, and yet so many people still complain and feel they are owed more/etc/etc.. We’d have the biggest shock of our lives going through what hundreds of other countries have gone through over the centuries… And who knows what’s lurking for us too in the future with how politics and such are shaping up.

But on a more positive note – way to be so financially ahead there and even with your son too :) Buying homes with cash is no joke! Haha… (And now I want to see all your jewelry too that’s worth so much, haha…)

Thanks for no being silent anymore!

Hello, J Money and everyone.

I always read your blog with a great interest, because, yeah, the budget is sexy and it is pretty interesting to see how your (USA) financial system works.

I find your financial system more logical, stable and predictable, than ours. I was born in USSR, now live in Ukraine and our financial system, let’s face a truth, is a $hit.

When USSR broke down, our people lost ALL their savings and stability. When the initial shock subsided, people started to save money from zero point again.

No one trusted banks, because they existed for a couple of years only, and then they suddenly disappeared in the night taking peoples’ savings with them.

So, people saved their money in cash at their homes and protected them (big and angry dogs, thick metal doors, high security locks, etc.).

Most savings were in a national money, because it was pretty hard to buy American $.

At those halcyon times (1996) $1 costed around 2 grivnas (Ukranian money).
In 2008, $1 costed 8 grivnas (financial crisis).
In 2014, $1 costed 33 grivnas (financial crisis and war with Russia).
Today, $1 costs 27 grivnas.
Loss after loss…

By the time we are 40, my husband and I both have an Uni degree and PhD, good jobs (I’m a medical doctor and he is a history scientist) and NO debts. We live in a big city and have a son.

We bought our own apartment when we were 35 (paid off in cash). This year we bought an apartment (paid off in cash) for our son (he is 13 now).

Also, we save money (10% of general income) for our son’s future Uni education. We want him to start his adult life having his own home, proper education and no debts. It is up to him how to live his own life further, but we did everything we could to help him to stay on his own two feet.

Although we’ll get a guaranteed pension in the future, we save money for our retirement also (20% of a general income). Who knows how our country is going to surprise us.

We live 20 mins ride from our works, so we never had a car. We use the public transport and, sometimes, taxi (emergent cases).

Our lifestyle is pretty minimalistic, but we have everything we need.

We always contemplate and discuss every purchase and we have a principle – “we are not so wealthy to buy cheap things”. We buy 1 thing that has a high quality and a long lifespan, instead of 2-3 cheap things of the same kind. At the end of the day, 2-3 cheap things cost more in general, than 1 high quality thing.

If we both lose our jobs, we have a safety pad for 1 year of normal life or 2 years of “cheap” life. Plus, we always can sell my jewelry to have an additional 1-2 years of relatively good life.

We don’t have such an estate plan as you guys have, but if we die suddenly, our son would inherit everything (according to our laws).

That’s how life goes on the other side of the globe. Thank you for attention :)

Way to go Toya – love this!!! Helluva turnaround over there! Amazing the potential we all have when we apply ourselves, eh? Thanks for taking the time to share :)