5 ms·
Hack to life: Always always aim to only spend 50% of your salary each month.
by danlugo92 3y ago
Hack to life: Always always aim to only spend 50% of your salary each month.
- charlie0 3y agoAgreed and here's a better hack: Alway aim to only spend 40% of your salary each month.
- bluechair 3y agoAgreed and here's a better hack: Alway aim to only spend 39% of your salary each month
- mccrory 3y agoOr go for 33% of your salary or even better, live on 1% of your salary… at some point you simply can’t make it work unless you are making 7 or more figures. Which then it really doesn’t matter anyway. :-/
- syspec 3y ago7 minute abs
- barbazoo 3y agoThat won't protect you from lifestyle creep over the years though.
- marcusverus 3y agoHow do you figure? If you're always saving/investing half, you've capped the creep.
- barbazoo 3y agoYou're still spending half on ... stuff because once you're at sufficiently high amounts it's not going to necessities anymore. Then you lose your $500k job in tech and have to find a lifestyle that can fund you $250k expenses a year you've gotten used to. It's a real thing. Not for everybody but for many.
- nytesky 3y agoHousing makes that very difficult. Throw in some kids (daycare, summer camps, sports and music enrichment if you want them to have a chance in dog eat dog world) and you need big $$$ to hit 50%. I mean 30% goes to taxes right away!
- silverquiet 3y agoI'd rather be able to retire than have children. I suspect I'm not alone given falling birthrates.
- marcusverus 3y ago50% is high for most, but seems like a good target for the upper-middle class outside of HCOL areas. I'm amazed at how many high-income folks save 5-10% and view the rest of their income as blow money. If you have the means save aggressively, you may well be able to retire 10+ years earlier than the standard. Yet millions people are foregoing a decade of freedom in exchange for the fleeting satisfaction that comes from having marginally better stuff.
- danielscrubs 3y agoHave quite few friends who spends nothing and does nothing, I don’t even think they will regret it either because they have nothing to compare to. No ups and no downs. Programming is addictive.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 3y agoA lot of the expensive stuff for kids to “have a chance” is BS, not very relevant to their life outcomes, basically parents being grifted and engaging in status competitions you could choose to opt out of.
- nytesky 3y agoWhen my kids were applying to summer programs, they asked them what they do in their free time, and listing things like reading and practicing crocheting got a very unenthusiastic responses. The expectation is your kid will do a lot, maybe it could be free stuff, but generally free stuff requires more time from the parents.
- ianburrell 3y agoOne trick is to always save bonuses. Live on salary and save anything extra.
- mancerayder 3y agoSo don't live in a top tier city, or if you do, have roommates like a college student. I'm sorry, that's ridiculously naive.
- tekla 3y agoAt some point /shrug. If you want to live like you're richer than you are, go on right ahead. Incredibly illogical but whatever.
- mancerayder 3y agoThat's dismissive. At a certain age you can't live like a college student anymore.. Jobs are in expensive cities, and they're getting thinner. Remote is out the window.
- tekla 3y agoPlenty of people do it. I roomed with 40 yo right out of college. It's fine if you want to live a high class life, but otherwise, its not hard to not get on the hedonic treadmill.