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No Desire To Spend

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Re: No Desire To Spend

#81

Post by zurn »

debacle wrote: post #77
zurn wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Lifestyle" and "standard of living" are unquantifiable Happiness can be quantified, then there are things like the Human Development Index, Satisfaction With Life Index etc.

Please quantify happiness.

It generally works by asking people how happy they are + statistics to work out causes or correlations. I gather psych people do this kind of thing all the time about seemingly subjective things.

WP on measuring happiness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness#Measures_of_happines...

More generally: Measures of emotion: A review http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2756702/>

Re: No Desire To Spend

#82

Post by npsimons »

spindritf wrote: post #17
npsimons wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's actually a good article on this: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-c... Basically, the idea is that for every mile you live closer to work, you can afford another $15,900 worth of house. It's also interesting when you throw in cycling to work; I used to argue with a friend about going to the gym (which I'm not fond of). I told him I could bike to work (20 minutes) and bike home (20 mi…

Workout at a gym is not really comparable to a bike ride.

Workout at a gym is not really comparable to a bike ride.

You're right; I get a better workout biking home against the wind than I do on the step mill!

Re: No Desire To Spend

#83

Post by SatvikBeri »

patio11 wrote: post #40

I spent more than a few years scrimping to the bone earlier in my twenties. The notion has an intrinsic appeal to me. Just so you know the context when I say: For what it's worth, if you're a HNer, I'll tell you something Ramit Sethi says often which would have been useful to internalize, oh, five years earlier: it is very hard to cut expenditures in such a meaningful fashion that your financial situation qualitative…

Just to add to this, I spent roughly the first two years of my career with 80% of my attention on reducing expenses at 20% on earning more. I got about the same amount of money from both. Later on I shifted that ratio, and significantly increased my income over the next two years. I did increase my expenses, but I'm saving much more as both a percentage of my income and as an absolute quantity.

It's also helpful because the same technique that helped me earn an X% raise has worked over and over again, with roughly the same results. So when you learn to negotiate, you're changing the rate at which your income grows, as opposed to a one-time increase in income. That has a massive effect in the long term.

Re: No Desire To Spend

#84

Post by dagw »

engtech wrote: post #64
dagw wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure it can mean space. I disagree that the only reason to want more space is to hold more stuff. I want more space so that I can have a room that I can close the door on and call my own (and by extension let my daughter and girlfriend have their own rooms as well). I'd like rooms with dedicated functions like a workshop for me to build things in and a room where my girlfriend can paint. I'd like a guest room so I ca…

I sometimes question the utility of guest rooms. I've often seen people layout their house so the guest room is in some prime area of the house and the workroom they use all the time is in a horrible dungeon. I've always thought that the rooms should be allocated based on their utility.

I've always thought that the rooms should be allocated based on their utility.

I personally agree with you, but I guess it all comes down to how much utility you put in hospitality and being a good host. My girlfriend feels really bad about only being able to offer guests a sofa bed in the living room to sleep on, so do her being able to offer guests a private room with a comfortable bed has a huge utility.

Re: No Desire To Spend

#85

Post by jf271 »

debacle wrote: post #27

"The people who generally have their financial shit together don't usually realize when it's pay day." Seems like a pretty specious argument. If you pay bills, then you know when bills are due and you know when payday is. That's finance in a nutshell - managing your AR and your AP. "Do you live within biking distance from work? No? Then move closer to work." I live in one of the better school districts in the area an…

"The people who generally have their financial shit together don't usually realize when it's pay day." isn't a specious argument. You would have enough to pay your bills whether or not you got paid for a multiple of months.An emergency fund that covers 6 months of expenses is the first step to having your financial shit in order.If you can manage that it gets easier.

They only time I notice I got paid is when I make a ATM withdrawal and see the balance go up.

Re: No Desire To Spend

#86

Post by tomp »

Robin_Message wrote: post #68
tomp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain why, otherwise it still looks like spam.

I kind of see what you mean, but what more could I have written that wouldn't look like spam desperately trying not to look like spam? I wrote "no affiliation" to indicate it was not spam; since I am the only Robin Message on the internet, and I suspect the whole world, my word is my bond ;-)

I didn't mean spam, as in by bots, per se. What I've meant is, explain why "if you like this, you will love that" - are they similar, talk about the same things, etc... Some context. Otherwise I just have to rely on your word, your subjective opinion, and no arguments. I don't know if what you're saying is true, unless I actually click the link.

Btw, I wasn't commenting on MMM, just on the content of your post. I find MMM quite interesting too (thou I can't really learn much from it).

Re: No Desire To Spend

#87

Post by Cass »

patio11 wrote: post #40

I spent more than a few years scrimping to the bone earlier in my twenties. The notion has an intrinsic appeal to me. Just so you know the context when I say: For what it's worth, if you're a HNer, I'll tell you something Ramit Sethi says often which would have been useful to internalize, oh, five years earlier: it is very hard to cut expenditures in such a meaningful fashion that your financial situation qualitative…

It's certainly easier to make an extra couple thousand by asking for a raise than by scrimping on lattes, but I'd argue that a frugal mindset is every bit as important. Unfortunately, spending every cent of $200,000 a year is exactly as easy as spending every cent of $50,000. There are plenty of people whose approach to financial management is to simply... spend their money. Doesn't matter whether that's a little bit of money or lots of money. If they make 50,000 a year, they spend 50,000. If they make 200,000, they spend 200,000. If they come into an inheritance, they spend the inheritance till it's gone.

I'm a student who's never had a full-time job in her life, and I have more money in savings than many well-paid professionals I know, simply because I actually put money into savings.

Re: No Desire To Spend

#88

Post by Cass »

startupfounder wrote: post #18
cperciva wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of people who are physically incapable of biking to work -- not because of distance, but because of some combination of {age, injuries, lack of fitness, difficult terrain, luggage}. It's easy for a fit 20 year old who lives on a flood plain to say that more people should cycle to work. It's not so easy for an overweight 40 year old who needs to drop her kids off at daycare, works at the top of a steep h…

The fact is most people work within biking distance of work, yes there are SOME that can't, but most just plain don't want to. In NYC is is faster to bike then any other mode of transport. If you are in fact a overweight 40 year old who has kids and luggage needs then what about: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/faradaybikes/faraday-por... ? An electric bike for hills, add on a kids seat on the handle bars and on…

"put your groceries in the front basket"

That may work fine for one person who lives alone, but the average front basket will barely fit the toilet paper and milk to last a four-person household a week, never mind the two dozen other things they'll need. And someone with two kids doesn't have time to go shopping every single day just because her transport will only hold a fraction of the groceries they need.

Re: No Desire To Spend

#89

Post by itmag »

leeHS wrote: post #46
patio11 wrote: post #40

I spent more than a few years scrimping to the bone earlier in my twenties. The notion has an intrinsic appeal to me. Just so you know the context when I say: For what it's worth, if you're a HNer, I'll tell you something Ramit Sethi says often which would have been useful to internalize, oh, five years earlier: it is very hard to cut expenditures in such a meaningful fashion that your financial situation qualitative…

If you can get a raise, that's fantastic, and congrats! My experience however is that without asking "why do I buy the things I do", people tend to raise their spending to their new salary level. Why not two or three latte's per day? That's what $15 per day, or about $4000 per year.

I question how effective the Ramit Sethi tactics would be here in Sweden. Has anyone here tried and gotten a raise?,
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