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This is sound. The difference between "below my means" and "at/above my means" is having a bunch of cash on hand so layoffs and market crashes are annoyances ra

This is sound. The difference between "below my means" and "at/above my means" is having a bunch of cash on hand so layoffs and market crashes are annoyances rather than crises. Not everyone can do this, but if you can, it's worth it for your sanity alone. Also learn to cook. Cooking is infinitely cheaper than eating out. There are a lot of comments about streaming services, which is similar to "make your own coffee." You can cut all that out of your budget at the drop of a hat. It's not particularly important as long as your saving margins are significant.

Clubber 5y ago
>is having a bunch of cash on hand so layoffs and market crashes are annoyances rather than crises If you really planned well, getting laid off due to market conditions can be a blessing. I've allowed myself a 3 month sabbatical before and it was amazing. My costs were higher than I wanted them to be, so I started to stress (unnecessarily really) toward the end. I'm in a much better position now though. Edit: Health insurance w/ COBRA is the biggest cost. I wish the ACA would apply to recently unemployed people and apply the subsidized zero income rate temporarily, at least for catastrophic events.
- frumper 5y ago
  Your edit is good information to know. I didn't realize California's ACA marketplace won't let you enroll if you lose your job and have the option for COBRA until it's exhausted. https://www.coveredca.com/special-enrollment/ https://www.coveredca.com/special-enrollment/
caeril 5y ago
> having a bunch of cash on hand Not the best choice if denominated in a currency that loses its purchasing power by 8% annually and whose supply is managed by the people who called the 2007 housing market as "a little frothy", the 2021 inflation as "transitory", and habitually gives in to the crack addict tantrums and demands of the market for easy money if they even hint at tapering asset purchases. These people are somewhere on the spectrum from totally incompetent to actively malicious, and trusting them to steward the value of your cash savings is pants-on-head idiocy. Identify any and all durables and non-perishables that you know for a fact you'll use in the future. Convert your fiat into those goods as fast as you possibly can. Appliances, canned food, dry rice/beans/wheat, toothpaste, keyboards, printer toner cartridges, whatever it is you use regularly, buy it now. If you have variable-rate debt, pay it down. Pay it down now. The next rate adjustment is going to murder you. You can also somewhat mitigate the collapse in purchasing power by converting your worthless currency into precious or base industrial metal ETFs, or globally-diversified equities. Just bear in mind that the government will steal 15-30% of your realized "gains" (which are not actually gains, just standing still in terms of purchasing power). Your half of a grass-fed cow in the freezer and 800lbs of Jasmine Rice will be taxed at precisely 0% when you eat it. Or you can buy TIPS or other inflation-indexed securities and gamble and pray that the bullshit PCE/CPI deflator they pull out of their ass and dramatically lowballs cost-of-living increases we actually experience doesn't put you too deep into negative real yields. There's no real winning when both your currency and your fiscal policy is managed by sociopaths, but we can still try to mitigate the damage by escaping the currency.

Clubber 5y ago

>is having a bunch of cash on hand so layoffs and market crashes are annoyances rather than crises If you really planned well, getting laid off due to market conditions can be a blessing. I've allowed myself a 3 month sabbatical before and it was amazing. My costs were higher than I wanted them to be, so I started to stress (unnecessarily really) toward the end. I'm in a much better position now though. Edit: Health insurance w/ COBRA is the biggest cost. I wish the ACA would apply to recently unemployed people and apply the subsidized zero income rate temporarily, at least for catastrophic events.

frumper 5y ago
Your edit is good information to know. I didn't realize California's ACA marketplace won't let you enroll if you lose your job and have the option for COBRA until it's exhausted. https://www.coveredca.com/special-enrollment/ https://www.coveredca.com/special-enrollment/

caeril 5y ago

> having a bunch of cash on hand Not the best choice if denominated in a currency that loses its purchasing power by 8% annually and whose supply is managed by the people who called the 2007 housing market as "a little frothy", the 2021 inflation as "transitory", and habitually gives in to the crack addict tantrums and demands of the market for easy money if they even hint at tapering asset purchases. These people are somewhere on the spectrum from totally incompetent to actively malicious, and trusting them to steward the value of your cash savings is pants-on-head idiocy. Identify any and all durables and non-perishables that you know for a fact you'll use in the future. Convert your fiat into those goods as fast as you possibly can. Appliances, canned food, dry rice/beans/wheat, toothpaste, keyboards, printer toner cartridges, whatever it is you use regularly, buy it now. If you have variable-rate debt, pay it down. Pay it down now. The next rate adjustment is going to murder you. You can also somewhat mitigate the collapse in purchasing power by converting your worthless currency into precious or base industrial metal ETFs, or globally-diversified equities. Just bear in mind that the government will steal 15-30% of your realized "gains" (which are not actually gains, just standing still in terms of purchasing power). Your half of a grass-fed cow in the freezer and 800lbs of Jasmine Rice will be taxed at precisely 0% when you eat it. Or you can buy TIPS or other inflation-indexed securities and gamble and pray that the bullshit PCE/CPI deflator they pull out of their ass and dramatically lowballs cost-of-living increases we actually experience doesn't put you too deep into negative real yields. There's no real winning when both your currency and your fiscal policy is managed by sociopaths, but we can still try to mitigate the damage by escaping the currency.