AnimaLepton t1_j5hzpm6 wrote
Reply to comment by Dauoa_Static in LPT: A good financial habit to get into is treating money as hours of work. Ask yourself how many hours of work something would take if you buy it. The awareness of the amount of time you put into purchases helps reduce compulsive spending. by humvee911
Your Money or Your Life also brings up the life and retirement investment aspect of it. It's the book that popularized the term financial independence, i.e. r/financialindependence, which is about having enough income from your investments to cover all of your expenses.
Like with everything else, personal finance is personal, and you want to strike a balance that makes sense for you. There's a bunch of dated stuff in there since the book was first published in '92 (even if it's been revised since then and has a 2018 release), but there's some solid advice there too. The advice can just get lost in the 'you can't afford a house because you spend money on avocado toast!' reproaches some people/news outlets take online.
You don't need to deprive yourself, just be deliberate in your spending. If you can reduce your expenses by $10 a week, that's ~$520 a year. Invest that for 10 years at 7% growth (after removing inflation), and that's a solid $7000 dollars. (Your expenses in retirement are also $500 less per year than they would be otherwise, but maybe that doesn't matter for your eating out decision). If you decide 'hey, that's still worth it to me,' then make that financial decision and spend the money guilt-free with the knowledge that it's a conscious choice rather than something that ran away from you.
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