The art and science of spending money
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The art and science of spending money
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Re: The art and science of spending money
#2Growing up poor and then becoming self-made wealthy - nothing like it. My life is so sweet because I am one of those fabled bootstraps people who walked 15 miles to school both ways uphill (paraphrasing).
And what is my favorite thing? I can buy any meal at any restaurant I want and I never care about the price. It’s a glorious feeling. I eat whatever I want. Unfathomable
Re: The art and science of spending money
#3Lower middle class kid to now a slightly upper middle class person here. Migrated from small towns to cities. I think this falls into majority category.
Wow! I don't experience even one of those points the author mentions. In fact quite the opposite. It is unsettling to feel even mildly rich or show the world that I am doing well. Maybe I am not in the majority after all. Or the article is so very rooted in western demography.
Re: The art and science of spending money
#4I have two rules to guide me that can be summed up to maximizing the joy of spending:
It's not what you have, it's what you do with what you have that matters. Going with a car example, spending significant income for a nice car that you use for normal transportation like commuting and shopping will bring little joy. On the other hand if you are into motor sports, regularly tour on or off-road, like to restore classic cars, etc, you will get a lot out of a big car purchase.
Spend it on one thing, don't have it for another. It's really hard for me to calculate if something new is worth X amount of my money. So I transform that money into something I already know how much it costs and how much I enjoy it. Would I rather change my car for a new one or take 10 one week trips abroad? I'll take the later so I decide against the new car even though that will not be exactly what I spend the money for.
Re: The art and science of spending money
#5Not enough people critically question their day-to-day spending and life assumptions.
I find the easiest way to save money is to avoid competition. Everyone wants a 2 bedroom house within commuting distance of work. I bought a 1 bedroom flat within walking distance of work, converted the kitchen into a second bedroom (moved kitchen to living room), couldn't happier.
Re: The art and science of spending money
#6Not enough people critically question their day-to-day spending and life assumptions. I find the easiest way to save money is to avoid competition. Everyone wants a 2 bedroom house within commuting distance of work. I bought a 1 bedroom flat within walking distance of work, converted the kitchen into a second bedroom (moved kitchen to living room), couldn't happier.
And how are your kids doing?
Who's living in a 2 bedroom house solo - that sounds like a lot of maintenance for a lifestyle where you don't need to be spending your time at home.
Re: The art and science of spending money
#7I’ve sort of adopted the mindset that money comes and goes and we should spend it on things if we reckon we will get enough value out of it. Now, I’m having a daughter soon and feel a bit immature about it all despite earning a decent salary, but I can’t help not wanting to feel like a slave to money especially knowing how many people with far less get by just fine.
Re: The art and science of spending money
#8Not enough people critically question their day-to-day spending and life assumptions. I find the easiest way to save money is to avoid competition. Everyone wants a 2 bedroom house within commuting distance of work. I bought a 1 bedroom flat within walking distance of work, converted the kitchen into a second bedroom (moved kitchen to living room), couldn't happier.
And how are your kids doing? Who's living in a 2 bedroom house solo - that sounds like a lot of maintenance for a lifestyle where you don't need to be spending your time at home.
I grew up an equally-sized 2 bedroom in a city centre and its totally fine. Neighbours have kids in a similarly sized house and are not planning on moving. They are wealthy asians with apartments being standard in their part of the world. The American obsession with terraced housing is bad for the environment and highly inefficient.
Re: The art and science of spending money
#9Growing up poor and then becoming self-made wealthy - nothing like it. My life is so sweet because I am one of those fabled bootstraps people who walked 15 miles to school both ways uphill (paraphrasing). And what is my favorite thing? I can buy any meal at any restaurant I want and I never care about the price. It’s a glorious feeling. I eat whatever I want. Unfathomable
Happy for you. I hope to one day be able to honestly express “this is a good life, and I am experiencing things that were unfathomable when I was younger”.
Care to share any details about how you did it in the context of a website dedicated to an older root of the word hacker than the more modern meaning?
Re: The art and science of spending money
#10Not enough people critically question their day-to-day spending and life assumptions. I find the easiest way to save money is to avoid competition. Everyone wants a 2 bedroom house within commuting distance of work. I bought a 1 bedroom flat within walking distance of work, converted the kitchen into a second bedroom (moved kitchen to living room), couldn't happier.
Picking a neighborhood where you are relatively well off seems to usefully calibrate those assumptions. Maybe it has to do with status, which is relative.
Earning well and living in a regular middle class neighborhood of teachers, carpenters, and office workers, I don't feel stressed about keeping up with the Joneses I'm surrounded by. I can afford enough relatively (to my surroundings) nice things.
My social circle is not full of wealthy people, so living in a regular middle class area is also not low-status. I also feel like that the kids feel more secure about the things they do and have than they would be if they were always falling behind their friends, doing and having exactly the same stuff.