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

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.

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.

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?