4 ms·

I think the article is missing a certain point. I work 40 hours a week as an english teacher, my wife works full time. Thats the only way we can save money, im

I think the article is missing a certain point. I work 40 hours a week as an english teacher, my wife works full time. Thats the only way we can save money, im soending over 80% of my free time coding to try and get sales so we can buy a house . I dont know if im missing the point of the article, i may be.

sokoloff 11y ago
> Thats the only way we can save money Please take this in the constructive manner in which it is intended: Do you drive 2 cars newer than 2009? Paying a loan payment on both (or worse, leasing)? Do you eat out at restaurants more than once a month [for very special occasions]? Do you regularly buy Starbucks or the equivalent? Do you pay $100 to your cable company and $120 to your cell phone company every month? If you're anything like the average American, you are leaking a large amount of consumption that's on autopilot. Expensive, nearly new cars, in multiples, upgraded frequently, each with a loan or lease payment and expensive collision insurance required by the bank, paying an army of servants to cater to your food needs, buying $5 cups of hot water poured over roasted beans, etc. "But, but, I need all of those things to get to our jobs reliably, to de-stress after so much work, etc!" No, no, you don't, but American marketers have convinced you that you do, and you see it reinforced by most of your peers, so you do. For those who want to learn more, start with: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/04/22/curing-your-clown-like-car-habit/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/04/22/curing-your-clown-... and http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim... and then randomly click around his blog) Even if you don't want to buy a bike to commute with immediately, you can make small changes, like keeping your sensible, reliable car for 12 years instead of 4, cutting out $5 coffee runs entirely, switching to a $50/mo plan for 2 cell phones, cook at home more, etc. (I have no connection to MMM and I don't follow all of his guidance, but I find his perspective to be amazingly helpful in challenging auto-pilot consumption. I use Ting [Sprint reseller] as my cell phone plan; wife and I pay $45-55/mo for 3 phones, two iPhones and a Nexus. www.ting.com is the non-referral link, [ https://z9prmb2f3t5.ting.com/ https://z9prmb2f3t5.ting.com/ is my referral link, but I care more about you saving money than getting a referral credit, so I listed the other first ])
- marak830 11y ago
  Gods i wish. I dont own a car, we have talked about renting one, but it hasnt come about yet. We eat at a restaurant maybe once every month, and we try to keep it under $50. I take my own coffee to work(nice big starbucks mug though! haha... sigh) No cable TV, we do have internet, thats $50 a month. We dont live in america, its easier here in Japan compared to Australia where i came from, i get a comparable wage(about 2k per month AUD approx), and instead of paying 1200 per month in rent, i pay 870, so we can save now. But we have public transport costs, food bills etc. Honestly i have no idea how anyone could survive if they had cable tv, starbucks coffee, restaurants too often AND a car. We could pick one, maybe two if we didnt want to save. I think their idea of a standard wage is not accurate. IF you are programming in some big company, yeah maybe, but i earn less than 40k US per year (which btw is more than i was earning as a fully qualified chef in Australia, with over 10 years experience - when you consider the hours 50+ hours then vs 40 now). As i said originally, i may be missing the point of the article, but for me, if i was earning enough to get what you mentioned, id be quite happy. Id have my house very quickly. Side note: My apartment/house is my goal, a shitty little place that will allow me to save half my rent a month towards another shitty little apartment that i can rent out. Again, maybe im missing something here?
  - sokoloff 11y ago
    I loved visiting Tokyo, but I recall an almost overwhelming sense of not understanding how the economy worked for the people there. It did seem insanely difficult to just break-even working a job there, yet everyone I met was unfailingly polite and pleasant to interact with.
    - marak830 11y ago
      I get a fairly good wage comparatively to australia, and infact compared to locals in the same industry. So technicly im being paid well, and if you compare costs/income, im sure you could find the issue i have here -.-
      - 11y ago
barry-cotter 11y ago
Move to Shanghai. I make 20k rmb a month, roughly 2.5k usd and rent is a fifth of that. I eat out regularly and save half what I make. I teach English too.
- marak830 11y ago
  Honestly - it is tempting, but ontop of that i dont have a uni degree - im a self taught programmer, so im stuck between a rock and getting my own software out haha. Sigh, im pretty happy, were getting by, but articles like this, seem to piss me off a little (im sorry it was also a bad day), i wish i earnt enough to follow what it said.
ZenoArrow 11y ago
What if you could earn a living wage on part-time hours, would you take that opportunity? The underlying message of the article may be not obvious at first, but my impression was that it's a criticism on the effects of unrestrained competition. On the surface it's about how the game is structured, people are rewarded for the hours spent working rather than their work output, and questions about why do we need to do more work once the work we have signed up to do is done. However, if you dig deeper a different message emerges... imagine every worker was on flexitime, and could choose how much or little they worked so long as they got their tasks done, companies would start expecting more and more tasks to be done right? The blame for this isn't solely with the employer, whilst they might be partly motivated by greed, there is also the issue of competition, and as a general rule the more competitive a market is, the fewer resources are directly available to a company, and the fewer resources available the more demands are going to be placed on the worker. Imagine what work would be like if we didn't need to compete in order to earn a living. It's not a pipe dream, it could happen, for example a universal basic income would be a step towards this.

sokoloff 11y ago

> Thats the only way we can save money Please take this in the constructive manner in which it is intended: Do you drive 2 cars newer than 2009? Paying a loan payment on both (or worse, leasing)? Do you eat out at restaurants more than once a month [for very special occasions]? Do you regularly buy Starbucks or the equivalent? Do you pay $100 to your cable company and $120 to your cell phone company every month? If you're anything like the average American, you are leaking a large amount of consumption that's on autopilot. Expensive, nearly new cars, in multiples, upgraded frequently, each with a loan or lease payment and expensive collision insurance required by the bank, paying an army of servants to cater to your food needs, buying $5 cups of hot water poured over roasted beans, etc. "But, but, I need all of those things to get to our jobs reliably, to de-stress after so much work, etc!" No, no, you don't, but American marketers have convinced you that you do, and you see it reinforced by most of your peers, so you do. For those who want to learn more, start with: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/04/22/curing-your-clown-like-car-habit/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/04/22/curing-your-clown-... and http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim... and then randomly click around his blog) Even if you don't want to buy a bike to commute with immediately, you can make small changes, like keeping your sensible, reliable car for 12 years instead of 4, cutting out $5 coffee runs entirely, switching to a $50/mo plan for 2 cell phones, cook at home more, etc. (I have no connection to MMM and I don't follow all of his guidance, but I find his perspective to be amazingly helpful in challenging auto-pilot consumption. I use Ting [Sprint reseller] as my cell phone plan; wife and I pay $45-55/mo for 3 phones, two iPhones and a Nexus. www.ting.com is the non-referral link, [ https://z9prmb2f3t5.ting.com/ https://z9prmb2f3t5.ting.com/ is my referral link, but I care more about you saving money than getting a referral credit, so I listed the other first ])

marak830 11y ago
Gods i wish. I dont own a car, we have talked about renting one, but it hasnt come about yet. We eat at a restaurant maybe once every month, and we try to keep it under $50. I take my own coffee to work(nice big starbucks mug though! haha... sigh) No cable TV, we do have internet, thats $50 a month. We dont live in america, its easier here in Japan compared to Australia where i came from, i get a comparable wage(about 2k per month AUD approx), and instead of paying 1200 per month in rent, i pay 870, so we can save now. But we have public transport costs, food bills etc. Honestly i have no idea how anyone could survive if they had cable tv, starbucks coffee, restaurants too often AND a car. We could pick one, maybe two if we didnt want to save. I think their idea of a standard wage is not accurate. IF you are programming in some big company, yeah maybe, but i earn less than 40k US per year (which btw is more than i was earning as a fully qualified chef in Australia, with over 10 years experience - when you consider the hours 50+ hours then vs 40 now). As i said originally, i may be missing the point of the article, but for me, if i was earning enough to get what you mentioned, id be quite happy. Id have my house very quickly. Side note: My apartment/house is my goal, a shitty little place that will allow me to save half my rent a month towards another shitty little apartment that i can rent out. Again, maybe im missing something here?
- sokoloff 11y ago
  I loved visiting Tokyo, but I recall an almost overwhelming sense of not understanding how the economy worked for the people there. It did seem insanely difficult to just break-even working a job there, yet everyone I met was unfailingly polite and pleasant to interact with.
  - marak830 11y ago
    I get a fairly good wage comparatively to australia, and infact compared to locals in the same industry. So technicly im being paid well, and if you compare costs/income, im sure you could find the issue i have here -.-
    - 11y ago

barry-cotter 11y ago

Move to Shanghai. I make 20k rmb a month, roughly 2.5k usd and rent is a fifth of that. I eat out regularly and save half what I make. I teach English too.

marak830 11y ago
Honestly - it is tempting, but ontop of that i dont have a uni degree - im a self taught programmer, so im stuck between a rock and getting my own software out haha. Sigh, im pretty happy, were getting by, but articles like this, seem to piss me off a little (im sorry it was also a bad day), i wish i earnt enough to follow what it said.

ZenoArrow 11y ago

What if you could earn a living wage on part-time hours, would you take that opportunity? The underlying message of the article may be not obvious at first, but my impression was that it's a criticism on the effects of unrestrained competition. On the surface it's about how the game is structured, people are rewarded for the hours spent working rather than their work output, and questions about why do we need to do more work once the work we have signed up to do is done. However, if you dig deeper a different message emerges... imagine every worker was on flexitime, and could choose how much or little they worked so long as they got their tasks done, companies would start expecting more and more tasks to be done right? The blame for this isn't solely with the employer, whilst they might be partly motivated by greed, there is also the issue of competition, and as a general rule the more competitive a market is, the fewer resources are directly available to a company, and the fewer resources available the more demands are going to be placed on the worker. Imagine what work would be like if we didn't need to compete in order to earn a living. It's not a pipe dream, it could happen, for example a universal basic income would be a step towards this.