How did you make room in your budget to fund Lego Investing/Collecting?

[redeemed763]

Simple enough question, many of us have thousands or tens of thousands in Legos by now, the money had to come from somewhere to do it. Personally, I have funded my tiny collection through Christmas/Birthday cash/cards as well as a bunch of different rewards programs such as Swagbucks, Bing and CC's, I do take a bit of my paycheck sometimes if I see a great deal but 80% of my purchases are made with other money. Have some of you been cutting back on vacations? What portions of your lifestyle did you shave off or trim back to get into the hobby? Are some of you working more? Selling? Just curious

[derickb81]

i go to plasma sometimes its about 200 a month

[Jackson]

Have no debt. Have six months of expenses in savings. Accumulate thousands of dollars in capital. Then invest.

[cflannagan]

Have no debt. Have six months of expenses in savings. Accumulate thousands of dollars in capital. Then invest.

+1 this.

Normally, no one should be investing heavily into anything unless s/he is debt-free, or the interest rate of the loans is exceptionally low (like under 5%, like my mortgage).

Have at least 6 months of emergency savings.

Invest into 401k, up to the matching maximum (6% in my case). This is a must, because it's essentially free money, an increase on your salary.

Over time, I've accumulated enough capital to be comfortable with spending hundreds of dollars on LEGO sets, just for fun & adventure of it.

[redeemed763]

Have no debt. Have six months of expenses in savings. Accumulate thousands of dollars in capital. Then invest.

Ok, that's financial not-so-common sense, hopefully everyone here is doing that (I saw a post recently from someone who was going to borrow 2k from a friend to invest in Lego, YIKES!). I am really curious what people have cut out of their lifestyles to start purchasing Lego, we all have $X coming in every month, it used to go somewhere, now it is all going to Lego, I'd like to know where all it used to go. Lego investing on a large scale isn't a matter of spending $50-100 a month on a set here and there, I am seeing many here spending hundreds and thousands every month.

Did you used to have other hobbies that you poured money into and now it is going to Lego? What were those hobbies?

[Legodog]

No debt, no car payment, no kids. My wife and I were just putting money in to our savings until LEGO investing came along. I bought my first set to invest in back in November. I just passed $20k in purchases so I guess that is about $5k/month. I really need to cut back since I want to start saving up for some good sales later in the year. It just seems like every day there is a new deal I just can't pass up. If anything we have cut back on travelling and vacations.

[redeemed763]

It is a very fun way to watch your money perform for you, we really haven't been willing to part with our savings contributions as that money is going to a house and well, we kinda need it. It is amazing to me that people so wealthy have a Lego investing hobby. Your collection is amazing Legodog, especially since you started just a couple months before me and you have 20x as many sets. Whenever I go to add another to mine, I can't help but secretly hope the whole thing flops and I am *sigh* stuck with all those Legos ;)

[Yellow]

i go to plasma sometimes its about 200 a month

lol

[Legodog]

I just like putting my money in to something I know about I guess. I know nothing about investing in stocks or anything like that. I know I could just go somewhere and they would manage it for me but I want to be involved. I love that it is a hobby that I can actually make money at (hopefully).

[cflannagan]

I just like putting my money in to something I know about I guess. I know nothing about investing in stocks or anything like that. I know I could just go somewhere and they would manage it for me but I want to be involved. I love that it is a hobby that I can actually make money at (hopefully).

Look into passively-managed index funds - also, look up the Boglehead philosophy and see if it clicks with you (like it did for me). It's what I've invested entirely into (across various accounts, 401k, taxable, etc). I have new money going into those funds and I never have to research on companies/stocks at all, because index funds basically performs the same as the market index it tracks. There are also bond index funds. Boring but smooth ride, because I'm extremely "diversified" via index funds.

Sorry didn't mean to devolve this discussion. Just wanted to mention it and resume the discussion.

Back to redeemed763 - I guess for someone on limited budget (if it is that), keep in mind, you're going to end up with more money and come out ahead mathematically if you pay down any high interest-bearing debts, thus more money to invest into things, but I would suggest focusing on smaller sets, minifigs, and polybags. I think there's good money in those.

[spener90]

I'm very hesitant to put money into stocks right now. It seems like everyone is expecting the market to go up and up and up, but there are always tops, just as there are always bottoms. I am currently sitting completely out of the market right now, and being a fan of lego I decided to pick up some sets that I want to keep, and because of the resale value down the road, I decided to by multiples of them (if it's a good deal). If it works, I will expand, if it doesn't, then it looks like I will have a few impressive builds to post pictures of in a couple of years.

[stephen_rockefeller]

lol

I loled also....

[Legodog]

i go to plasma sometimes its about 200 a month

Whatever works I guess :)

[nolanfan34]

My wife and I have always had one joint account, and then each have a separate personal account that a small "allowance" goes into. We can do whatever we want with that money. Pretty good system frankly if anyone is newly married or about to get married. So for me, I had been buying a set here or there with that money after my son was born. Now I am selling my unopened sports card pack collection off to fund my recent purchases. I am going to keep some, but they are just not appreciating the way I think certain Lego sets can. Comes down to a pretty simple, question, would I rather have that 1984 Donruss box, or a Diagon Alley? I'll take the DA for now. :-)

[TheOrcKing]

Let's see.... Don't eat much, never get take out or go to a restaurant, don't have kids, pince every penny, and find even the smallest deal or discount I can. Basically, I'm Scrooge.

[steveviscious89]

The majority of my sets were bought over an eight year period and then a good amount of my larger ones were gifts. So it wasn't really a huge hit all at once.

[Anakinisvader]

Over 10 years of buy 1 sell 1. Use money to buy 2 sell 2 and so on......

[Rich B]

Let's see....

Don't eat much, never get take out or go to a restaurant, don't have kids, pince every penny, and find even the smallest deal or discount I can.

Basically, I'm Scrooge.

Skipping meals to save $$$ for LEGO, now that's dedication ;)

[davelin]

I'm very hesitant to put money into stocks right now. It seems like everyone is expecting the market to go up and up and up, but there are always tops, just as there are always bottoms. I am currently sitting completely out of the market right now, and being a fan of lego I decided to pick up some sets that I want to keep, and because of the resale value down the road, I decided to by multiples of them (if it's a good deal). If it works, I will expand, if it doesn't, then it looks like I will have a few impressive builds to post pictures of in a couple of years.

If you arent investing in the market to get an employer 401k match from work, you are passing on free money.

[TheOrcKing]

Skipping meals to save $$$ for LEGO, now that's dedication

Damn right!

THIS....IS....LEGO!!!!

[cflannagan]

If you arent investing in the market to get an employer 401k match from work, you are passing on free money.

Agreed. It's a sin to pass on free money (401k matching)

spener90, trying to "time" the markets is a proven losing strategy. I simply set my asset allocation (determine % that goes into a passively managed stock market index find, and % that goes into goes into passively managed bond market index fund - for me it's really as simple as that). Rebalance once annually, to bring it back to target % (the older I am, the more in bonds I should be).

I don't worry about the ups and downs of markets at all. The whole point of doing this is to invest money, forget about it, and sleep at night. I don't take anything out during bear markets, because I'm going to lose out big if one day the markets suddenly decides to recover most of the losses in a few days.

The same people who advocate investing into passively managed index funds might opt to "buy more during bear markets" strategy to bring down the average cost of fund shares, but to me that's a form of market timing, I just don't do it, I just keep buying shares every month in same amount of dollars as I always do, regardless of the market direction.

[terrymc4677]

i have started to pimp out my wife to fund my lego investing. sure, it isn't ideal, but it sure beats donating plasma.

[TheOrcKing]

i have started to pimp out my wife to fund my lego investing. sure, it isn't ideal, but it sure beats donating plasma.

Hey, a real brickpimp!

HA HA HA!

[hxckid88]

Ive just always simply been smart with my money. Frugle. I also am not into the party bar life so as the average person probally spends 100.00 plus a month in booze, i do not. My life reallly is gym, work, hanging out at the house watching wwe and playing on the internetzz. I don;t make a million bucks but because of my lifestyle and not having a fancy for a rolax watch I live comfortable. This alowes me with a lot of disposable income.

[scottjs]

No debt (except mortgage), no car payments, we don't eat out much, we don't smoke or drink. Although we do have a 2.5 month old, which I mean is who all the Lego is for. I "have" to build sets to make sure pieces are there haha. Actually I have more sets saved (resale and for my son when he's older) then I do built. Granted the economy didn't take a huge hit where I live (my RRSP's sure did though) but really the money that a lot of people spend on the things I've listed above I just spend on Lego currently. I can't imagine living pay check to pay check but I was raised to think like that so I'm lucky that way.