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Dauoa_Static t1_j5hqnpd wrote

This is a pretty good life pro tip, but I feel like the further I progress in my career, the more I justify spending money lol. "Oh, $10 for lunch? No problem, that's just 15 minutes of work". Then I look at my credit card statement and spent like $500 on food

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humvee911 OP t1_j5hstnu wrote

If I remember correctly the book touches on this subject as well by essentially encouraging people to be frugal and not let the "lifestyle creep" happen. The extra money should be saved for retirement, a much better prospect than an hour at a restaurant every day.

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CoolInvestigator t1_j5jfotu wrote

Struggling with loneliness I'd rather spend money eating at a restaurant even with strangers than alone. I am guilty of the lifestyle creep. I got ski lessons this year for the first time in my life. I can barely afford them but I justify it that I will be able to socialize doing something exciting.

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Tavron t1_j5jii25 wrote

While I think what OP posted is sound advice, it can also go too far.

You never know how life will pan out and saving all of your money at expense of living your life is bad too.

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bellYllub t1_j5luiey wrote

Yep, my husband and I both have medical issues that almost guarantee that we won’t make “old bones”.

We save for our future and are sensible with our money but we don’t do it at the expense of enjoying our lives right now.

We still buy the odd take-away meal and get it delivered. We treat ourselves to a new pair of boots when needed. We balance it so that we have plenty for emergencies and our future but also enjoy our lives right now!

A lot of people can’t do what we do. They have no savings, no pension etc and there are no guarantees we won’t end up that way. So we’re careful but we still enjoy life when we can.

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ramad84 t1_j5k2gt6 wrote

congratz on gettin out there - i relate to this post.

essentially youre paying for an experience - not a physical object. you will be more fullfilled by experiences than objects in the long run.

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texansfan t1_j5k9qct wrote

You absolutely have to find a balance between living a fun, healthy life and not overspending. Hope you enjoy the lessons!

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frenchpressfan t1_j5kbs9o wrote

Tangential thought from a different post from a few days ago: Get yourself a massage 2-3 times a month, if you can afford it. The physical touch will really help

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killerpretzel t1_j5lqqt6 wrote

Retirement age is 65 and median age of death is 72 for males, time is not guaranteed.

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BlackWindBears t1_j5lphh7 wrote

This is actually good though!

The point is to be conscious of what you're trading.

If trading X hours of your time is worth getting a ski lesson then you've made a "good" decision.

If imagining trading that much time for the ski lesson feels like a bad deal, then you've made a "bad" decision

It's not about minimizing spending, it's about making sure you trade the hours of your life for things you actually value as much as you do those hours.

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Exciting_Fee_370 t1_j5n7hc4 wrote

Right there with ya man. I spent $1200 on a ski pass this year and after doing doing that for the last 8 years, turns out I’m still poor. Been fun though.

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Applejuiceinthehall t1_j5idk8o wrote

After you are done, make sure to read "I will teach you to be rich." Vicky Robin is great, but usually it's not the coffee that's keeping you from being rich

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abitdaft1776 t1_j5j1s63 wrote

It’s the avocado toast, isn’t it

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MetallicGray t1_j5kg32z wrote

If only we’d skipped the Avocado toast all those years ago.. we could’ve been billionaires too.

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Chris_ssj2 t1_j5iuq94 wrote

What's a lifestyle creep?

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nonametrans t1_j5j0g6y wrote

That 70 series nvidia card that's keeping you going for ages is fine, but you upgrade to a 80 or 90 series card. Then you justify that purchase by upgrading your perfectly good 1440p monitor with a 4k one.

Or you've always been getting a Toyota Corolla for years. It's done you and your family good, average fuel costs, low maintenance costs. But then all of a sudden you wanna get an Audi A8 cuz you think your higher paycheck can support it.

The argument is, why get all these purchases and upgrades if you've been okay with what you had previously? Sure, buy some luxuries to treat yourself once in a while. But most people can't stop themselves. That Audi A8 then becomes a Mercedes S class. That average coffee machine becomes a $2500 barista machine...you eventually outspend your means and have little savings for retirement.

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Chris_ssj2 t1_j5j1aw5 wrote

I see, so the basic idea being that if something that you own has kept you going and will continue to do so, there is no point in upgrading it, just like that saying, the cheaper your pleasures are, the richer you will be

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain :)

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RODAMI t1_j5jz43i wrote

Drive your car until it dies. Any maintenance is still cheaper than a new car payment.

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Chris_ssj2 t1_j5k0zre wrote

But the more we delay the maintenance, the more fuel it will keep on guzzling though...

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Dreshna t1_j5k8afy wrote

Yes and no. For most people that is the case. Sometimes the reliability is the more important thing. If you routinely have to make flights or drive through the areas that are inhospitable to life, a roadside breakdown can cost you more than a car.

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Prometheus188 t1_j5jbm36 wrote

Basically as your income increases, so do your expenses. As you get more salary; you also eat out at, buy a more expensive car, a bigger house, more expensive drinks, more expensive restaurants, etc...

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RODAMI t1_j5jz8du wrote

Yup. I got a 20% pay bump? Now I can buy a. At that costs 20% more and eat a restaurant that costs more. People are weird.

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FTeachMeYourWays t1_j5k1imx wrote

Is it? hold on, an hour lunch every day in an enjoyable manner seems to out weigh having a some spare capital once retired? Some people may save there whole life and never get to experience retiremen....

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BlackWindBears t1_j5lqkq2 wrote

Well that's the point of the book! You can never replace the hours you spend. If you'd rather trade an hour of work for an hour of "enjoyable lunch" as compared to one hour less of work for a less enjoyable lunch then you've made a good decision!

The issue is that folks think that their income is really something they just automatically spend, rather than something they traded away the hours of their lives for.

If you don't spend that money, you can either negotiate reduced hours, or bring forward retirement by that many hours (well, far more when including investment growth, but you have to factor in your risk of dying before you get to enjoy it), or use the accumulated savings to take a break from work of that many hours when between jobs.

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Locke_and_Lloyd t1_j5k9kpl wrote

Why would I want to accept the additional stress of a promotion if the extra money won't benefit me for 30 years? Some needs to be spent on lifestyle inflation now.

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enGaming_YT t1_j5jlgid wrote

I would rather suggest Rich dad Poor dad. 👐🏻

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ABena2t t1_j5hsi15 wrote

ok. but food isn't free. if you went to the store and made it yourself you would have spent some money. Sure, it's cheaper but it still may have cost you $300. And then how much time did you save not going to the store. not cooking. not cleaning. There's only so many hours in the day. It's expensive but your not $500 in the hole. It might have cost you $200 for the convenience and the time you saved.

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AnimaLepton t1_j5hzpm6 wrote

Your Money or Your Life also brings up the life and retirement investment aspect of it. It's the book that popularized the term financial independence, i.e. r/financialindependence, which is about having enough income from your investments to cover all of your expenses.

Like with everything else, personal finance is personal, and you want to strike a balance that makes sense for you. There's a bunch of dated stuff in there since the book was first published in '92 (even if it's been revised since then and has a 2018 release), but there's some solid advice there too. The advice can just get lost in the 'you can't afford a house because you spend money on avocado toast!' reproaches some people/news outlets take online.

You don't need to deprive yourself, just be deliberate in your spending. If you can reduce your expenses by $10 a week, that's ~$520 a year. Invest that for 10 years at 7% growth (after removing inflation), and that's a solid $7000 dollars. (Your expenses in retirement are also $500 less per year than they would be otherwise, but maybe that doesn't matter for your eating out decision). If you decide 'hey, that's still worth it to me,' then make that financial decision and spend the money guilt-free with the knowledge that it's a conscious choice rather than something that ran away from you.

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shekurika t1_j5j19fj wrote

thats why I think a better way to go about this is calculating your hourly wage with all fixed costs taken out; Take your wage, subtract all fixed costs (insurance, food, (necessary) subscriptions, rent, taxes) and calculate your income per hour worked on that.

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macarena_twerking t1_j5k02y1 wrote

That’s what I came here to say too. All of a sudden, that lunch cost half of your workday!

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Robert__O t1_j5k4l6k wrote

That is the flaw to this logic. It also doesn’t take into account cost of living..

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hanuuman t1_j5k8io3 wrote

The trick is you have to pretend the amount of money you make in 8 hr is equal to 24 hr. Now $30 an hour becomes $10.

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RiverRoll t1_j5jxsux wrote

Specially when at some point the time you need to spend on some tasks is more than the time you'd need to work to earn enough to get it done. It really encouraged me spending more. Why clean for an hour when I can work for an hour and pay two hours of cleaning.

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WhittlingDan t1_j5k4x8c wrote

Now if only you made just $10 an hour then maybe you wouldn't have this concern about your lack of concern? A great Prophet once said "mo money, mo problems." I think I can help you with this difficult burden you carry... Just place it in these here pockets of mine and yes yes let me help...

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julbull73 t1_j5kb7fa wrote

YEP!

As a starting earner high school to ~30. I didn't spend money on SHIT exactly because of this.

As a now seasoned cog....ahhh that new PC is only 2 days work....cue angry wife....

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feintplus1 t1_j5kh48a wrote

Easy, just don't progress and keep earning $10 an hour. That's what I do and never spend $500 on food!

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Penis_Bees t1_j5l9r6s wrote

I feel like that's a big portion of the reason it's often worth seeking additional income. You get leverage you can turn into convenience, entertainment, etc.

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SwagarTheHorrible t1_j5ltxsy wrote

Yeah, right. I could justify giving a whole day of work away because I’ll work tomorrow. It doesn’t work out too well.

A better way to save is to have your paychecks split so part automatically goes into a separate savings account. The rest is yours to fuck around with as you please. Just make sure to pay attention to major bills coming up.

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jerkITwithRIGHTYnewb t1_j5lvmtn wrote

Yeah your ability to spend more increases 1:1 with how much you make. I’m approaching 40 and I’ve been working in the oilfield for 15 years. I have no education but in my field experience is more important anyway, so I’ve worked my way up and make a pretty nice salary. Well what I’ve learned along the way is that your spending will naturally track with your income unless you make an effort to be aware of it and do something about it. My most recent misstep was about six months ago I traded in my pickup and bought a Mercedes with an $900 a month price tag. Sure I can afford it but I certainly didn’t need it. It’s $400 more a month than my pickup was and purely a vanity purchase. I’m not upset with myself, I love it but I’m aware that I didn’t need to spend that much on something that will one day go away without making my life any better in the long run. All I did was make retirement that much harder. And this translates into everything. Like you said it’s easy to spend $500 on food you could have spent half that. Same with entertainment. Same with silly travel upgrades like first class or the suite hotel room instead of the regular hotel room. Or the second vacation of the year. Or the new cell phone. Whatever it is. It’s very easy to spend $3k (or whatever) a month that you didn’t need to spend when your next paycheck is just a week away. Mercedes aside I caught myself in those habits years ago and curtailed them to the point that I am putting 15% of my salary into retirement and 5% into savings (just for vacations or whatever we might want to buy) I went from a 30 year to a 15 year mortgage, things like that. It’s just so easy to let it slip through your fingers especially as your salary starts to get what many people would call large. But the same thing applies to someone making $40k a year as it does to someone making $160k a year. It’s the biggest mistake younger folks make, it’s simply not realizing how much more you are spending on little things. It’s only $5! But it’s the aggregate that kills you.

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tsffrc t1_j5mcpqu wrote

I did this too. The way I combat this mindset is to 'pay' myself an hourly wage. I'm 49 and my hourly wage is $20/hr (my work wage is $75/h). Here's an example:

I drink straight up black coffee costs $0.15 to make at home or $1 at McDonald's (using the app and a daily deal; $2 without the deal), my favorite Starbucks order costs around $5. You can be damn sure that I think about the $5 coffee when I'm only making $20/hr, but when I figured it at my $75/h work rate, I would buy a round for the whole team at least once /week - I mean was only $40 -- I made that in my morning meeting.

It works the other way, too. Let's say there's a repair around the house -- a leaky pipe, say. I know how to fix it, but I have to get the tools out, watch a few YouTube videos to remind me, make a trip to the hardware store (then a second trip to buy all the sh*t I forgot), fix the thing, then clean up. My estimated total time is 7h or $140. If the plumber estimate is less than that, hire him. If it's not fix it yourself.

The whole mindset really works a trick!

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