by Jeff Yeager
Lots of reading going on this week. Thank you library. (We will be making a donation.)
Great tips to be had in this book that really focuses on the intangible ways we allow money to control our decisions. When we stop spending, money loses its power over us.
Time is money, but as Yeager points out, money is time then. How do you want to spend your time? What makes you happy?
One thing living in Germany taught me was that I am happiest spending time with family and friends, not shopping. I like having the memories of doing things together. My law school friends have a pattern of always going out to dinner and drinks when we see each other. The food is always great, but I find that sometimes I wish we would all go do something. (Now, I do live a few hours from all of them, and this is also a generalization, but try not to focus on that…)
Back to the book. The author is cheap. I mean cheap in ways I had never thought of. Linda was cheap too. So is Erica. I mean, not eat food all day when traveling to DC cheap because the food was all too expensive cheap. I am the opposite of that. If I feel I need something, out I go to get it. I think there needs to be some middle ground. Spending for the sake of spending is not good, nor is over-saving.
One of the many tangible pieces of advice he gives in the book is to pick a firm number for the amount of money you think you need to live on, and save the rest. He suggest picking the amount of money you were making when you turned 30. All raises, etc. should go into savings. I love this ideal. In fact on of my favorite high school teacher’s sister lived only on every other paycheck. She was a millionaire.
With the year of making do we are really trying to do this. But with 3000 advertisements flashed before the eyes of all Americans EVERY DAY, it is hard. Just keep trying I say.
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