Cool Guides

A cool Guide for Saving Money when you make double the median income.

I wish my needs were only 50%

I'm on the like 90/5/5 rule

That would be so cool if shit wasnt so fucking expensive

Yup, needs are approx 115% of my budget, but thanks for insinuating it is me that's being shit with maths.

(And in before the "live within your means" crowd... I was doing until my landlord doubled my rent and they started having to put anti-theft devices on packs of butter).

Minimalism is for the rich who can afford to not have something on hand, to get rid of things arbitrarily, to spend a bunch of money upfront for niche items that fill multiple roles, etc.

This is great if you are paid a livable wage.

Rule 1: dont fall for the fetishisation of the consumer world

Forgot medical bills and student loans... Suddenly it's the 99% 1% 0% rule

All of these suggestions are great. Any of these that can be accomplished on your budget should be, none are really prerequisites for the others.

How about

• never buy big ticket items new ... especially cars or vehicles

I'm almost 50 now and in my lifetime ... I've never owned a brand new car or truck. I've always bought used or near new. An old auto salesman once told me that for every person who buys a brand new vehicle, as soon as they drive off the new car lot, they've immediately lost about a $10,000 value to their vehicle. So I've always bought used. I bought a 2004 Volvo Station wagon about ten years ago when it was already ten years old! I take care of it and it still runs as a reliable vehicle that's given me very little trouble and still runs and looks great today. It's not perfect, it's got minor signs of rust and I've invested about $5,000 in repairs to it as this point but after buying it for $4,000, I've had a vehicle that didn't cost me much for ten years and it's still good. Meanwhile, my young 28 year old neighbour with a good paying job paid $70,000 for a brand new GMC truck (beautiful vehicle) that blew a transmission after the first year and has given him headaches ever since. He got repairs under warranty but he felt funny when I he parked next to me one day with a Toyota Echo he was given as a loaner. After completing his payments for the truck, it will probably cost him about $80,000 to $90,000 and he can resell it to someone or trade it in for $40,000 in four or five years.

For #2, a hard-coded 3 days doesn’t scale well. Use a divisor, like 10 or 100 and divide the purchase by it then wait that number of days.

$300 headphones? Three day wait at a divisor of 100, or 30 day wait with a divisor of 10. You could even key it to your hourly income and then it also scales with how much you make. At $7.25/hr that $300 purchase should wait 41 days. At $25/hr it’s 12 days; this also allows one to make incremental savings to pay for it outright.

Debt repayments before wants?