Lifestyle

In February we shared the news about this couple with 13 kids on pace to retire early. Erica Johnston from The Washington Post interviewed and wrote in-depth about this family who is living debt free and still plans to retire early while sending 13 kids to college. Johnston described this family: ” Rob and Sam Fatzinger, lifelong residents of Bowie, Md., lead a single-income family in one of the country’s most expensive regions. Rob’s income never topped $50,000 until he was 40; he’s now 51 and earns just north of $100,000 as a software tester. They have 13 children. Which means they require things like a seven-bedroom house and a 15-passenger van. Four children have graduated from college, three are undergrads and six are on the runway. Yet they paid off their mortgage early four years ago. They have no debt — never have, besides mortgages. And Rob is on track to retire by 62. This family gets the gold medal for being frugal. This family is the Einstein of economical.” (washingtonpost.com)

In modern world, poor people are more likely to be obese than wealthy people. Thomas Corley of richhabits.net found that povery and obesity are linked together in his research. Here’s what he found:

• 66% of the poor were overweight by at least thirty pounds. 79% of the wealthy were not
• 25% of the wealthy visited fast food restaurants three times or more each week. 69% of the poor admitted to eating at fast food restaurants at least three times a week
• 57% of the wealthy counted calories vs. 5% of the poor
• 70% of the wealthy ate less than 300 junk food calories each day. 97% of the poor ate more than 300 junk food calories each day
• 76% of the wealthy exercised aerobically 30 minutes a day, four days a week. 73% of the poor did not regularly exercise aerobically
• 25% of the wealthy visited fast food restaurants three times or more each week. 69% of the poor admitted to eating at fast food restaurants at least three times a week
• 53% of the poor admitted to having some health issue. Only 18% of the wealthy had health issues

Corley explains: “Poor people have Poverty Habits. They don’t watch what they eat. They eat too much junk food, go to fast food restaurants too frequently and they don’t exercise regularly.” (richhabits.net)

Jackie Wattles writes on CNN Money: “Most high net worth Americans say they worked their way up from a lower class. That’s according to a report released by U.S. Trust on Monday, based on a survey that asked 684 adults in the U.S. with $3 million or more of ‘investible assets’ hundreds of questions.
About 77% of those surveyed said they grew up in the middle class or lower, including 19% who say they were poor. And they credit their success to three somewhat surprising factors: Hard work, ambition and family upbringing. Respondents even went so far as to say that these influences were much more important than ‘connections’ or ‘innate talent.’ The survey was also a shout-out to strict parents. About 80% of respondents said their parents were firm disciplinarians. They also named ‘academic achievement,’ ‘financial discipline’ and ‘work participation’ as the family values that were most emphasized in their homes.” (cnn.com)

Pope Francis condemned “bloodsuckers” who grow rich by exploiting others. Making “slaves” out of workers and setting unfair contracts was a mortal sin. During mass at the Vatican, he told a story about a girl who found a job working 11 hours a day for $729 a month. “This is starving the people with their work for my own profit! Living on the blood of the people. And this is a mortal sin,” he said at the service in his Santa Marta residence. (yahoo.com)

Brittany Wong of Huffington Post compiles some tips from relationship experts who share 7 biggest mistakes people in unhappy relationships make. It’s hard to buy happiness with money but you can increase your happiness for free by learning how to avoid these 7 behaviors in your own relationship:

1. They compare their behavior now to their behavior when they dated
2. They’re pros at passive aggression
3. They can’t agree on who’s right and who’s wrong
4. They put in phone time instead of face time
5. They allow their relationship to grow stale
6. They lose sight of their partnership
7. They don’t touch

(huffingtonpost.com)

The basic family budget for a two-parent, two-child family ranges from about $50,000 to more than $100,000 depending on where a family lives, according to data from the nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank the Economic Policy Institute. Across regions and family types, child care costs account for the greatest variability in family budgets. Among two-parent, two-child families, child care costs exceed rent in 500 out of 618 family budget areas. Even in the best of economic times, many parents in low-wage jobs will not earn enough through work to meet basic family needs. Here are the 10 most expensive places to raise a family with 2 adults and 2 children:

1. Washington, D.C. with an annual cost of $106,493
2. Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y. with an annual cost of $103,606
3. Westchester County, N.Y. with an annual cost of $99,592.
4. New York City with an annual cost of $98,722
5. Stamford-Norwalk, Conn. with an annual cost of $97,350
6. Honolulu with an annual cost of $94,092
7. Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, N.Y. with an annual cost of $92,837
8. Ithaca, N.Y. with an annual cost of $92,603
9. San Francisco with an annual cost of $91,785
10. Danbury, Conn. with an annual cost of $89,000

(marketwatch.com)