I like to talk about value instead of cost. My financial aim is to live below my means and aggressively save/invest. However, this does not prevent me from spending money on things that I find a lot of value in. There are some things that I enjoy that are not the most frugal choices in the world, but are a good example of enjoying the road to financial independence. I’m not interested in saving every…
In part 1, I talked about lifestyle inflation and how to avoid it. Building a life of Enough takes more than avoiding lifestyle inflation. It requires a lot of introspective to figure out what is truly valuable to you. This is no easy task. There are two ways to figure this out. The first is to be swept along with the current of consumerism until you wake up one day and realize that you don’t…
Lifestyle inflation is the basis of the phrase “more money, more problems.” It means that as your income increases, so does the cost of your lifestyle. So instead of becoming more wealthy when you get a raise, instead you accumulate more stuff/more payments on stuff. It’s the driver behind buying too much house, a fancier car (that you don’t need), a boat, or any number of “luxuries” that are supposed to make life more pleasurable.…
On December 14th, in the year of Our Lord 2020, I submitted my Master’s Thesis. This 75 page document gave me unmeasurable stress between August and December. I worked nights and weekends, through multiple rewrites and corrections. There were times that I thought I wouldn’t finish on time and have to go an extra semester. With twins on the way in March and a job offer for February, I couldn’t afford to miss the December…