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Being someone who mostly spends what he has (with expenses rising steeply when a lot of cash comes in; most probably because of deferring purchases until there
by manmal 14y ago
Being someone who mostly spends what he has (with expenses rising steeply when a lot of cash comes in; most probably because of deferring purchases until there is a certain surplus), I have found that setting up a dedicated bank account for daily expenses really helps. If you have 1k in the bank, you act differently than when your balance says 10k. I think in the US it's a bit different (with CC spending much higher), but setting up any budget should help cutting down useless luxury or impulse buying. I'd not call myself frugal (e.g. I have no budget for food), but I definitely want to save up, at least for unexpected journeys or other awesome experiences. Good thoughts in the article about that!
About retiring: I'd never consider retiring in 20 years if I'm not forced to do so. Whenever I'm fully idle more than 3 days, I'm drawn back to creating something. Retirees around me have to fill up their days with boring or unjoyful stuff, because there's only so many crosswords and trips to the spa/whatever you can do every day. If by retiring, the OP means "do whatever you want without worrying about the money" - that's not retiring for me, but the result of gaining enough funds to do whatever you want.
- marvin 14y agoThe blogger referred to in this article, Mr. Money Mustache, adresses this interpretation of the word "retired". (In this case we are unfortunately down to arguing semantics). If you take "retired" to imply "don't have to work on anything for the sake of making money ever again" rather than go to the spa every day, it sounds like your goals are more or less in line with the goals of this article. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/13/mr-money-mustache-vs-the-internet-retirement-police/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/13/mr-money-mustache-... This is something I see a lot in people who don't have a very creative nature (unlike yourself obviously). A lot of people appear to need someone telling them what to do all day, or they'll just stare at the wall all day and be miserable. I imagine for these people, financial independence could be a curse rather than a blessing. But assuming you are able to come up with rewarding ways to spend your time, I can't really imagine an existence that is more rewarding than being able to spend your effort and creative energy on whatever you want.
- manmal 14y agoThanks for the clarification! In this case, I'm ok with retiring tomorrow :)
- monksy 14y agoI do the same. I have an account for everyday expenses during the month, and then another for long term expenses. It is a major pain to transfer money between the two. Electronic means takes 5 business days. Wires take 3 hours [if it is at the first of the day]
- manmal 14y agoWow. In the EU wire takes 0-1 days, but often in a matter of minutes.