Anyone live below their means?

[Anonymous]

Why and when (if ever) did you decide to start spending according to your income?

I have lived below my means since I started working 7 years ago. When I was right out of school, I was making 150k+ but clipping coupons, taking Greyhound buses to visit home rather than Amtrak etc., online shopping for non-designer clothes etc. None of these are so unique for where I grew up but unheard of amongst my professional colleagues, who think nothing of going out to walk around the mall at lunchtime and end up buying a $400 shirt or shoes. I have since loosened up a lot but as my salary has gone up, my lifestyle hasn’t changed that much. I have always done it because I’m in one of these careers where there is a lot of money when you’re young but it can go way down/become very unstable as you get older, if you don’t make your promotions - which is never a guarantee. So I was always “financially planning” for that. When can one stop doing that or slow down on that? I’m at the age where I’d love to splurge on a luxury car and/or a new condo but don’t know how long I should keep economizing as I don’t know if I will ever be “comfortable” with what I have and the career instability has only gotten worse with the economy. WWYD?

[Anonymous]

Keep doing what you are doing. Your savings and investments are your key to freedom and happiness. Don't become yoked to a crappy, high paying job just so you can pay for unnecessary things to impress people who don't really like you for who you are.

[Anonymous]

We live below our means so we can fully fund our 401k and make it on one income if ever needed. Its a little less stressful to worry about $

[Anonymous]

Well, you can just spend more money, but do so in a smart fashion. For example, buying a condo in a nice area isn't some sort of splurge, it's a good investment. I also think buying high quality items that you'll use for a lifetime, like nice furniture, is a sort of investment. It doesn't have to be stupid stuff like shirts and cars, where you can buy something just as good for way less money.

[Anonymous]

We live below our means, and as a PP pointed out, we do it so that we can live on one income if needed. I sleep well at night!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live below our means so we can fully fund our 401k and make it on one income if ever needed. Its a little less stressful to worry about $

+1

[Anonymous]

we live below our means but still spend a ton of $

[Anonymous]

I've lived below my means my entire adult life.

[Anonymous]

I live above my means, have 4k in credit card debt and am struggling to change.

[Anonymous]

We live below our means and paid off our mortgage and max out our Roth-401K contribution every year. Both DH and I are feds.

[Anonymous]

We did until our special needs kid necessitated private school tuition. But thank god we'd saved so much we can just manage this huge tuition bill every month using some buffer savings. But that's why you live under your means -- you never know what will pop up. And things do get more expensive as you age. Just dental work alone can cost thousands. By your mid-30s you can break teeth, need root canals, then teeth get pulled and all of a sudden you are into bridges and implants. Just one implant can be $5000 for a tooth. You will need/want your teeth. Long term health care, other types of insurance, it's just crazy what stuff costs.

So keep doing what you are doing and put everything you can away now. If you put it away now and later slack off at retirement you'll have more than the person who starts at 40.

[Anonymous]

We live below our means. We will pay off our mortgage before the end of the year; we built it 2004-05. We have no debt. We have a lot of savings and have 250K saved for our ds's education. We pay cash for cars. DS goes to private school. It isn't that we don't like nice thing; we do. We just try not to buy them all at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Not sure what the definition of living below your means is. We each fund our 401(k) and we save some each month. Our HHI recently increased by 80K due to DH's job change and we are not planning on living differently which means we will save more for retirement and emergency savings. We need to do about 20K in much needed home repairs/maintainance.

We could save more: we get once a month housekeeping, I buy Starbucks frequently (but pack lunch almost every day), and I like to shop at Whole Foods for some things, and buy a lot of organic food etc. But we could also spend a lot more. So in that sense, yes, we do make more than we spend.

[Anonymous]

My husband does, and always has; I don't. That mix is not ideal. Still, all our big purchases are based on his financial preferences, so we have a mortgage that is about the equivalent of our combined annual income - we qualified to spend at least 3x as much, but this will be paid off before our first child starts college. We pay for all improvements in cash. Our cars are 5 and 12 years old, and are modest. We vacation with family. He has huge savings and hopes to retire before 60. I don't spend crazy - I spent little on clothes or hair etc. But I do buy all the food and make all spending decisions regarding our kids (camp, eating out, presents, parties) and I don't penny pinch on any of that. I wish we could be a bit more balanced, but this is who we are and it will all sort itself out in the end.

[Anonymous]

OP, this is great! We make about 400,000 and save about 130,000. It's a great feeling knowing we have no debt, have 6X our gross income saved, and can retire in our early 60s if we choose. Having said that, we vacation every year, have relatively new cars ('09 and '10, but Japanese lol) and don't skimp on the kids. Life should be a balance.