Quote:
Originally Posted by blueski
I think you really have it figured out. Not having options gets you closer to feeling like a slave.
My only thing to add is that people should make it a goal to develop secondary skills that reduce their monthly expenses. Cooking, simple home maintenance & cleaning, food gardening, riding a bike to work instead of commuting by car and other habits.
For example we cook all our bread, granola bars and cookies from scratch. If you get organized it really doesn't take much time out of your week. We built a 20k retaining wall last year by ourselves for 4k, we re-did all our footer drains and surface drainage around our house for 10k instead of 50k this past summer. I'm currently re-doing my entire basement so that my teleposts will be able to move up and down again. I'm going to paint my old van by hand with a roller brush this Christmas vacation for less than $200.00 bucks and it will look great: http://www.cartalk.com/blogs/craig-f...eum-and-roller. The last three years I lived in Calgary I was so fed up with the commute/transit and downtown parking that I built my own e-bike and rode that in every day.
I didn't start this way, but over the years I've gotten competent enough that I'm not afraid to take on these kinds of diy projects. I also know what things should cost when I don't want to go the DIY route. |
Great points.
Another thing that hasn't been touched on - most guys on CP seem to be in their prime. You have to make hay while the sun is shining. You don't know what the future will hold. You don't know how long you'll be able to work. If you're able bodied (bad economy notwithstanding; if you've recently been laid off cut yourself some slack as things will get better and you're not shooting yourself in the foot to go into survival mode and forgo savings for now) you need to save your money. You don't need every option in a car. You don't need a BMW with 30% more cost upfront and 50% more in operating costs versus other cars. Try to limit your wants.
I want my life - in general - to trend upward from worse to better. I hate those guys that are driving around in a rusted out Hyundai talking about the sweet Chevelle or Corvette or whatever they had when they were 29. Don't peak too early. Build your foundation and then build up.
And above all,
earn what you consume. If you're saving for Hawaii, but adding debt through a mortgage/renos/car loans, then you're not really saving. Or worse, if you're going into debt for a vacation you are absolutely and objectively doing it wrong. You're not entitled to anything and the world owes you nothing. If you're smart and lucky enough to be able to afford life's luxuries, that's great. If you can't afford them, then sorry, you don't get them and no amount of debt will catch you up to the Joneses.