What's the best bit of advice you've ever received?

Steve

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The other thread is interesting. Wondering what bit or bits of advice you've received? Did you take the advice or not (and wish you had)?

One right off the bat comes to mind. In the early 90s, I had just separated from the military, moving from San Antonio back to Seattle. Everything I owned was packed into a UHaul trailer, and my dad and I were driving through Colorado. Out of nowhere, he says, "Hey, have you thought about getting renter's insurance?"

Me: "Renter's insurance? What's that?"
Him: "About $10 a month."

So, when I got into my apartment, I picked up renter's insurance, which I kept up in spite of being dirt *** poor. A few years later, some dummy got drunk and decided to start cooking himself dinner just before he passed out. Set his apartment on fire, along with about 50 other units, mine included. I found out that of the 50 units, less than 10% had renters insurance. We were pretty much made whole, but most of the folks in that fire lost everything.
 

MetalBoar

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A fellow student (who owned a very successful business) at my Hapkido school told me that if I couldn't afford to buy the building I wanted to operate my gym out of I couldn't afford to start a business and that if I could afford to do so I should. I could have bought the building but it would have been very tight. I chose not to and what a pain that turned out to be! It seemed like every other year I had to switch locations for one reason or another and I wouldn't have had to do any of it if I'd just bought the place I'd been looking at. My mortgage on the building would have ended up costing me a fraction of what rent did too. Plus, even if the business had tanked, if I'd been able to make the payments on the building, I could have sold it for a ridiculous profit if I had done so before the pandemic. @Steve : you know what Seattle prices have done in the last 12 years. I'd be up at least a cool million, probably more.

Oh well! Live and learn.
 

dvcochran

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When I was about 16 I was told to "suck it up buttercup". Changed my life. Best advise I ever heard.
 

jobo

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, the best i think, was that the world is generaly much to busy to give you due consideration and as such it tends to take you at you own estimate of self worth

this can work out for you two ways, one) in any competition, sportingor otherwise its not difficult to get people to drasticaly understimate you or drastical over estimate your abilities, depending which you think is best

two) its not that difficult, to convince people your attractive or the correct person for the job, by just giving off the vib that you think you are

a lot of this is how you dress and conscious control of posture and body language
 
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CB Jones

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Never call a fighter a bum unless you are willing to get in the ring and prove him to be one.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite.

It's a line from a book that's stuck with me. A good remind for empathy and that you don't know what other people are going through. Also super useful from a tactical standpoint to be polite to everyone, no matter the hierarchy between you; you never know when a good relationship will come in handy.
 

jobo

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Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite.

It's a line from a book that's stuck with me. A good remind for empathy and that you don't know what other people are going through. Also super useful from a tactical standpoint to be polite to everyone, no matter the hierarchy between you; you never know when a good relationship will come in handy.
i kbow the mods and rockers thibg didnt happen in the states, ut did here twice once in the 60s and again in the early 80s.

one night one of my rocker mates turn up at the house with a mod, he knew from his school days, asked him in, gave him beer and pizza, and was generally nice to him, a coupkmle of hours later they left, though no more about it

roll on a year and im in a corner out a side a pub, ive got three of them circling me and its looking blea.

then over the road strides this giant, the lads assume he joinibg in with them, i know different, three punches three on the floor, dont mess with my mate he said, he gave ne pizza, then off he went again, that was 40 years ago and ive not seen him since , best investment in pizza ive ever made
 

Buka

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When I was nineteen I told my father I planned on doing pretty much full time Martial Arts for the rest of my life. I'm sure he was thrilled. But he said, "Well, if that's what you want to do, work your ash off every day and don't let anyone or anything stop you."
 

Chrisinmd

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I got the advice to save money when your young for retirement / to buy house. I havent had a big income but I have always saved at least 10 to 15 percent of my income. Now at 43 i am in a lot better shape then a lot of people savings wise. Could have easily blown that money in my 20's on stupid stuff.

So always save a small portion of your paycheck at least. It adds up. You dont want to be one of those people who cant come up with a couple hundred bucks in a emergency
 

dvcochran

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I got the advice to save money when your young for retirement / to buy house. I havent had a big income but I have always saved at least 10 to 15 percent of my income. Now at 43 i am in a lot better shape then a lot of people savings wise. Could have easily blown that money in my 20's on stupid stuff.

So always save a small portion of your paycheck at least. It adds up. You dont want to be one of those people who cant come up with a couple hundred bucks in a emergency
Smart. Very smart. May I ask how you are saving? Traditional savings, 401, IRA, etc...?
 
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Steve

Steve

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I got the advice to save money when your young for retirement / to buy house. I havent had a big income but I have always saved at least 10 to 15 percent of my income. Now at 43 i am in a lot better shape then a lot of people savings wise. Could have easily blown that money in my 20's on stupid stuff.

So always save a small portion of your paycheck at least. It adds up. You dont want to be one of those people who cant come up with a couple hundred bucks in a emergency
Yes. Great advice. And over time, those early dollars really make a difference given 20 or more years to accrue interest.
 

Chrisinmd

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Smart. Very smart. May I ask how you are saving? Traditional savings, 401, IRA, etc...?

If you have a 401k contribute at least up the percent the company matches. If they match 6 percent you put in at least 6 percent. Thats free money. Then I have a simple saving account at a bank and a investment account at a brokerage firm to invest in mutual funds. Any money you need in the short term put in the savings account. Long term brokerage account.
 

dvcochran

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If you have a 401k contribute at least up the percent the company matches. If they match 6 percent you put in at least 6 percent. Thats free money. Then I have a simple saving account at a bank and a investment account at a brokerage firm to invest in mutual funds. Any money you need in the short term put in the savings account. Long term brokerage account.
I constantly study the financial landscape. I think futures are going to be a solid investment in the high risk category. We invest across the standard 4 level platform. I get a kick out of playing around in the high risk areas.
It is the closest thing I ever do to straight out casino gambling.
 

dvcochran

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Another one of my favorites I was once told is "if you do not breathe, you die".
Nose on you face advise but we all know it gets hard to follow sometimes.
 

Chrisinmd

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I constantly study the financial landscape. I think futures are going to be a solid investment in the high risk category. We invest across the standard 4 level platform. I get a kick out of playing around in the high risk areas.
It is the closest thing I ever do to straight out casino gambling.

Futures are very high risk. You are basically playing in a casino playing the futures market. How have you done at it so far? Hopefully you are only investing in the futures with money you can afford to lose. Wish you luck
 

dvcochran

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Futures are very high risk. You are basically playing in a casino playing the futures market. How have you done at it so far? Hopefully you are only investing in the futures with money you can afford to lose. Wish you luck
I set a fixed amount for high risk investing each year.
Futures grew steadily throughout last year. I had a 28% return in the 4th quarter. Averaged just under 20% on all investments last year.
 

Chrisinmd

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I got 21.48 percent last year so we got about the same return. Good year. Hopefully we can keep it going this year
 

dvcochran

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I got 21.48 percent last year so we got about the same return. Good year. Hopefully we can keep it going this year
I plan to roll with futures again this year. We are not spring chickens so we will move things around slightly. I will never risk over 10% of total investments in futures.
 

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