Do you live within your means?

I save first (30%), spend whatever is left over (~10%)....once kids come into the picture I'm sure I'll have to alter my lifestyle to compensate for the resource drain the little critters will be. If I'm lucky I'll have them on lease for only 18 years.

I think the definition is pretty simple, if you spend more than you make, then you're living outside of your means.

To put it in "common man" terms....if you put a shit load on your credit card and you can't hold on for 6 months if you were laid off without draining your entire savings...you're a broke bitch living beyond your means.

We did, we were able to sell our house and pay off our mortgage and obviously we're incredibly fortunate because of that. Believe me we'd give it all up in a heartbeat to have her back, but yes it put us way ahead of the game, obviously the circumstances that put us in this situation just stinks.

Indeed we are fortunate due to some very unfortunate circumstances. Beyond this though I firmly believe (although I'll never be able to prove it) that we were headed in the right direction. My dad was a cop, and built his wealth based on good old fashioned savings etc. Both me and Matty are well educated and have saved for retirement as soon as we could. After college we both paid off our credit card debt, and began saving. We did not buy an expensive house, but one we could reasonably afford. I can't deny we had an advantage, but that was exactly was my parentswanted for me and planned for themselves. Thanks to that, I'll be able to do the same for my own kids.

I guess you and I have vastly different definitions of what "living" is.

To me, you can't beat playing with your kids in the park on a sunny day. The best things in life are free.

That's not to say I don't spend the money to belong to a pool, or that I don't take them to amusement parks, etc. But you don't have to spend a lot to have a good time in life. My opinion.


I meant spent like food, housing, etc... and I agree you don't have to over spend. I was targeting more folks who won't even go to the park on a sunny day because they have to spend money on gas, that is the cheap I am talking about.

Honestly my son is two for Xmas I could just wait and until everyone puts out there boxes and then go drag them in, he would be in f--king heaven and it would cost me $0.

I was just looking at my BofA checking account online, and it made me think of this thread. Anyone who banks with BofA, I recommend the "Keep the Change" feature for your accounts. If you're not familiar, what it does is for every purchase you make with your check card, it rounds the amount up to the nearest dollar, and puts the difference between that and your purchase directly into your savings account. For example, if you spend $6.50, it will debit your checking account $7.00, and put $.50 into your savings account. That feature alone has put an extra $1,000+ into my savings account this year.

I haven't made great choices, and between divorce, 3 kids, and another bad relationship that bottomline I allowed use almost 25K of what was my good credit, I am right now trying to work myself back to the right side of the ledger. I am almost there, but saving hasn't been a part of it yet. :( hopefully y'all like me enough when it's time to get Social Security, right?

I meant spent like food, housing, etc... and I agree you don't have to over spend. I was targeting more folks who won't even go to the park on a sunny day because they have to spend money on gas, that is the cheap I am talking about.

Honestly my son is two for Xmas I could just wait and until everyone puts out there boxes and then go drag them in, he would be in f--king heaven and it would cost me $0.

I got ya now. I honestly can't say I know anyone that frugal. That sounds like living in a prison.

I do have a problem though with people who live beyond their means even when they don't need to. People who get laid off and are forced to dip into savings and go into debt, that's sad and I feel for them. But this guy who works for me (so he makes less than me) lives in a 3000 square foot house (pretty sizeable for Philly suburbs) while mine's about 2100, and drives a BMW while I drive a Toyota. Then he has the gumption to whine about how his electric service is about to be shut off because he's been missing too many payments.

I don't feel envious of the lifestyle he lives, I just want to shake the stupid out of him. Is the bigger house and the nicer car really worth the stress of feeling that strapped for cash? I'd much rather scale down and not have to worry about money than be house-rich and cash-poor.

nah i dont.... saving for a retirement, is not for me, there is not guarentee, I will collect it........

nah i dont.... saving for a retirement, is not for me, there is not guarentee, I will collect it........

Did you know that if you put away $1000 now in an account that earns about 5% per year, it would be worth $4300 30 years from now?

If the account earns 8% per year, it would be worth $10,000 30 years from now.

Save a little now, pay yourself a lot more later. I think if more people understood the basic concept of compounding interest, a lot more people would save a little bit of money. This stuff should be a mandatory part of the curriculum in high schools.

Better yet, if you put $1000 in an account each year for 30 years straight, at the end of that 30 years you'll have $122,000 if the account earns 8%.

That's $30,000 in over 30 years, $122,000 out at the end.