POV #1: the best use of money is to spend it.
POV #2: the best use of money is to make more money.
I have long leaned toward POV #2. However, being the richest guy in the graveyard doesn't have much appeal.
POV #1: the best use of money is to spend it.
POV #2: the best use of money is to make more money.
I have long leaned toward POV #2. However, being the richest guy in the graveyard doesn't have much appeal.
We are frugal so we can spend more. We earned about the same as others but will spend about 4 times our earnings.
#3 Minimize the impact that other people exert over what you do and when you do it. This is the one I chose.
Learned it all as an adult by reading finance blogs and books.
My family growing up was the same as everyone else's that lived in our neighbourhood, so I didn't feel like we were poor or anything, but we certainly weren't rich. Dad was an alcoholic who earned good money but pissed it up against the wall before he got home on payday. As an adult I realised that renting for life and worrying about money like my parents had done wasn't the only way to live, so once I decided that I wanted to buy my own home I read as much as I could about how to save and manage money. When I tried to talk to my husband about saving up to buy a house and stop wasting money on drugs, alcohol and junk food he disagreed most strenuously and our marriage broke down as a result.
I moved out with two very young children into a rented flat behind the shop where I worked and started saving like a mad woman. A year later I had a better job and the deposit and a loan approved to buy my first home, as a single mother of two.
Marriage got back on track after that and although my husband and I had different values and goals, I never wavered from wanting financial independence. As my marriage went on the rails once, I realised it could do so again so I was driven to economise and save where ever possible.
Happily the marriage is still on track 41 years later and we have a good retirement fund, own our home, 3 cars and caravan and have enough cash in term deposits to live on for 2 years if we have to. We both retired at age 57 and are living the dream. I still prepare a budget every year and track expenditure closely because it helps me sleep at night.
I learned how to be frugal and we live comfortably now, whilst still spending less than most of our friends. It is a habit that I'll continue to practice till I die.
One reason I have been frugal is so that later in life (such as these days in ER) I can use that extra money to buy my way out of potential cost-saving inconveniences. I won't usually go to two different supermarkets to save a few extra dollars on food, for example. It's too much of a PITA (even before COVID-19) to deal with that. The other day, I was going to get a desk lamp at Wal-Mart for like $3 but when I got there, the wait time just to enter the store was at least 30 minutes. I said to myself, "No friggin way!" and went back home to buy a similar lamp on line on Amazon for $20, minus the small gift card I had.
I don't understand this...
Is it due to good investments?
I’m no longer frugal. Retired long time, older.
You had bootstraps. Luxury!
Parents divorced -
1) we ate but it usually was modest fare - franks and beans
2) didn't always have money for the oil burner
3) always in fear of the next shoe to drop
I wanted to be able to live financially fear free.. I learned it was better then I had hoped.
I’ve thought a lot about this over the years and I am frugal to reduce stress. When the jalopy needs tires I just buy them -there is no fretting over finding the money. Bam done. My early years were overwhelmed by stress and the sense I wasn’t in control.
Back then there was no one to teach me about money as no one I knew had any.