What was your BEST financial decision ever??

[ksluis62]

Definitely, buying my current house and staying in it. The equity after 14 years has let me start buying investment property (2nd one closing next week) which hopefully will contribute to my retirement some day.

[Ralph]

1. Getting a great education at a great price so I could get a good job with few loans to pay off.

2. Being frugal, like keeping cars forever, living in a modest house, and eating and entertaining myself fairly cheaply.

3. Not putting all my retirement money in the stock market.

[Daylily]

Not having children.

[Helena_Handbasket]

The best financial decision I ever made was to design a MS Excel workbook to track all of my financial stuff. This tool has really helped me to understand where all of the money is going, to set future financial goals, and to develop a plan to meet those goals.

[gamecock43]

In 2007 I was debating to buy a house. A friend said "why the uncertainty? Buying a house is the best investment you will ever make, just pick a house, buy it and watch your equity rise." ...I did not buy a house in '07- best decision I EVER made!

[amarowsky]

Learning the value of saving and investing from my grandparents. From them I became more aware of the value of financial information, which further led me to this site, reading excellent books by renowned business people, and continuing my degree at college.

Best financial decisions of the past year was probably to quit smoking and not buy a house in mid 08' when I planned, because I was just recently laid off and it mite be a few months up to a year before I can go back to work.

[MonkeyMama]

Where did you move from/to? I'm familiar with most of NorCal. In which area do you find the lower cost of living while still being in NorCal.

2001 - San Jose to Sacramento.

Housing prices were about 1/3 back then. Pay was about the same for my particular job at the time. I actually took a slight pay increase with the move (spectacular retirement benefits). We sold our condo for $300k and bought our dream home here (twice as big, +yard, +garage) for about $280k. Plus, just about everything is cheaper here.

Sacramento has always been the least expensive area of the state since we have lived here. Which I don't quite *get.* I think it is a very desirable area. There are not a lot of jobs though which I think is the main issue. Most people I know back home could not find jobs here. My spouse has job hunted on and off and never found a job.

I have a lot of friends who moved to the BOONIES but it is far more expensive because most of those people commute to the Bay Area or So Cal. As such the boonies are way more expensive. Our move was so profitable we considered moving more out into the boonies for a time, but anything closer to Tahoe (East) or the bay (south/west) is just more expensive. I find it bizarre that the cheapest area is a thriving metropolis. We live minutes from downtown. Just over an hour to the beach, Bay Area, or to the Sierras.

Anyway, San Jose was about the most expensive (excluding San Francisco itself) and Sacramento was the least expensive (area in the state), so it was quite a profitable move for us.

[MonkeyMama]

PS. Just looked up stats real quick. MEdian house price in Sac is $184k. Median house price in San Jose is $515k. Nov. 2008 figures. Still the most expensive and least expensive regions. Still about a 1/3 price ratio.

[PRICEPLUS]

Pulling my daughter's college fund out of the stock market and putting it into a conservative Vanguard Fund just before the market took a dive, I would have lost a great deal of the money for my daughter's college. You talk about serendipity! Whoa was that a good decision!

[Uneventoast]

Marrying my wife, she is an excellent saver

[Judi Dial]

Buying our current home the same way we bought the other two, that is with a fixed rate 30 yr VA loan. Over the past 15 years we've had people tell us that we were too conservative, not taking advantage of the lower interest rates, etc. But now, our property value is up (we share the hill we're on with a resort and it's back in business) and our loan on the property is < 1 yrs worth of DH's salary. We can afford the payments and after the cc's get paid off, might pay it off early. It has evened out our financial life through two Bush recessions, 3 layoffs, 1 small business, etc.

JD

[Judi Dial]

And oh yeah, re-financing that loan once and lowering our interest rate about 2%.

JD

[red92s]

Graduating with $0 in student loans and an engineering degree from a top-ranked school.

[Thriftina]

Keeping my car (1992 Toyota Corolla) while in my career until I couldn't drive it anymore.
When I couldn't drive my car anymore, I went to a repo lot and purchased a 2000 Honda Accord in 2005.
Paying off car note 7 months early.
Paying off one student loan early.

[TheTicket]

Going 75% cash back in early Jan. 2008 and still there, which is totally against my investing religion, but has turned out to be a blessing in disguise......