10 Incredibly Fun Things About Living Below Your Means
Last week I crabbed a little about my frustrations of being a cheapskate and on all the things I feel like I miss out on by living this way. Yes, at times it gets quite rough. Sometimes, you just have to talk about it and let go of some steam. You know what I figured out this week after venting last week? I figured out how many incredibly fun things there are about living below your means. Today, I’m choosing to double last week’s negative number because the fun things outweigh the not-so-fun things by at least double. So, on a positive note for this week, here are 10 incredibly-fun things about living below your means, all of which, I’ve experienced first hand:
1. You stop digging a deeper hole – By default, when you start living below your means, you stop digging yourself a deeper hole. When you spend less than you make, you stop the bleeding on a disastrous financial situation. Many people, without even realizing it, are digging themselves a large hole financially that can take years, decades, or even an entire life to dig out of. When you live below your means, you set yourself up to put a stop to any further damage.
2. You get yourself out of debt – Getting yourself out of debt is fun. It’s stressful being in debt. I know because I was in $25,000 of debt just a few years ago after I bought an expensive car right out of college. I still had student loans to pay as well. My first year out of college, I spent everything I made and got myself into the car mess. Once I woke up and started cutting my spending, I was able to pull myself out of that mess of debt. It’s all about cutting your spending and living below your means. That has to come first.
3. You don’t have to borrow money anymore – Borrowing money, by definition, is living above your means. If you’re borrowing money, you’re buying something that you don’t have the money for. It’s pretty simple. Therefore, if you’re living below your means, that means you are not borrowing money. When you keep this up for a while, you’ll have money. When you have money, you won’t have to borrow it from other people (and pay interest) anymore. That’s pretty darn fun if you ask me.
4. You have more money than all of your neighbors – I live in a run-of-the-mill apartment building. Sure, it’s fairly nice and I’ve got plenty of room, a private balcony, a dishwasher and a heated underground garage. But it’s not as nice and/or hip as the places many of my colleagues live. You know what’s neat? I’m probably one of the most financially secure tenants in this apartment complex. It feels kind of good knowing that, too. I’ve heard it said before that it’s better to be the richest person on your block than it is to be the poorest. If you’re trying to keep up with the Jones’, that will likely cause you to go broke. If others are trying to keep up with you, that won’t affect your finances at all. Now that’s fun too.
5. You can set all your bills up on auto-pay – I know people who could only dream of setting up all their bills on auto-pay. Why? Because they are barely squeezing by and doing so would either put them under serious stress or cause them to overdraft their bank account regularly. When you’re living below your means, you can keep a comfortable amount of cash in your account at all times and never have to worry about over drafting your bank account. It hasn’t happened to me once and I’ve had all my bills on auto-pay for several years now. In fact, I don’t think my bank account has even been within $700 of being over-drafted since I set everything up automatically. Doing this allows me to have fun and not have to worry about my bills.
6. Life is less scary – Imagine this. Your car is getting up there in miles. What if something happens to it on your next trip out of town? What if the engine blows up or the transmission goes out? Are you prepared for that? What if your mechanic tells you it’s time for new tires during your next oil change. What if your computer crashes and can’t be repaired? What if you drop your new iPhone 4S in the toilet and you turned down phone insurance? You may have to dish out hundreds or thousands of dollars very unexpectedly as soon as next month, next week or even tomorrow. Ouch. Well, it’s not scary when you live below your means because you have the money to handle it. You have an emergency fund. So go ahead, get out and have fun.
7. You aren’t scared of losing your job – Here’s a scary thought for almost everyone. You walk in to work tomorrow and find out that your department will be cut or outsourced. Or perhaps you have been struggling for a while to find passion in your work and they have noticed your lack of focus and will be letting you go to search for someone who better fits the position. Whatever the reason, your relationship with your employer is likely at-will, which means, they can let you go whenever and however they please (with the exception of a protected reason). This can be scary when you are living paycheck to paycheck. It puts you into panic mode. It can result in taking the crappiest of crappy jobs as soon as you can just so you can keep the lights on and food on your table. With an emergency fund, which comes from living below your means, you’ll have the funds to weather the storm of being let go from work. Sure it will be inconvenient because you’ll have to job search and learn something completely new, but it won’t put you into panic mode. You will have comfort in knowing you are ready for something like that if or when it happens. Maybe instead of jumping on the first crappy job you find, you can finally get the chance to pursue your passion and start your own business? That can only happen when you have been living below your means.
8. You can have fun that’s paid for – The next vacation I go on will be paid for before I go. The fun that you get to treat yourself to when you have been living below your means is paid for in cash. The money for your fun doesn’t get borrowed from someone else. It’s fun that’s deserved and earned. Fun that’s borrowed for isn’t earned. It just doesn’t feel as good either, knowing that you’ll have to work in the future to pay for it. Yuck. Paid for fun is much more fun!
9. You see a lot more opportunities – I just bought a domain name this morning for a second site that I plan to create. It’s going to be every bit as good as this one but more broadly focused on things outside of money. I see a ton of opportunity for what I can do with these sites in the future. I’ve been seeing a lot of opportunity in general lately in regard to almost everything. I love the idea of building a business from scratch. I love the idea of learning how to start making money on my own. I love the idea of going to the Financial Blogger Conference in September. There, I’ll have an opportunity to meet many of the people I’ve been getting to know over the past 5 months. I can’t even foresee all the opportunity that will be available to me at that conference. It’s exciting. I didn’t really see these opportunities back when my life was focused on spending everything I made, showing off my material goods and living large. It was about the goods back then and not about the future possibilities and opportunities. Now, it’s different because I live below my means.
10. You can take more risks – Even though I’m not taking many risks right now, I know I could if I wanted to and that’s fun. I live far enough below my means that I could actually hire someone full time to work for me, on anything I would want done and cash flow it every month. That’s kind of exciting, but I haven’t figured out how that would possibly be a good idea, yet. Maybe once this blog and potentially my next one get off the ground, I can hire someone to help take it to the next level. I am in a position to do all sorts of crazy things since I have that cash flow surplus as well as a healthy bank account from living below my means for just a few years now. No, I won’t take stupid risks, but I may take smart, calculated risks. I want to win and being able to take risks when the opportunity is there for success is crucial.
Cheers to living below your means. It’s fun, trust me!
Category: Getting Ahead
lol, this post wasn’t what I was expecting. You have an interesting view on fun Kraig. All of these things are nice perks, but I dunno if I’d call most of them fun. Maybe I’m just a tough guy to please.
Looks like you are not alone, Jeremy! Way to make a guy feel bad, haha.
Right on.
I am going to have to agree with Jeremy. It was a good read just not what I expected
Thanks, I think?
Although I cannot really say that these are fun things to do, living below your means can be less stressful. It makes you a more responsible person.Like living in a simple apartment with basic amenities that you only need. The true benefit of these is that you are able to give your children a better and more stable future.
Looks like I shouldn’t have used the word fun. You all are pretty rough on me!
Ha! I was one of those people who dropped my iPhone in water (the kitchen sink), and passed on buying the insurance. But thankfully I have a cushion in my bank account and an emergency fund. It’s times like that, where I see how good becoming debt free is and the benefits it provides.
I dropped my phone in the water a few years ago and didn’t have the insurance. Luckily, it dried out and started working again after a few days.
Different than what I was expecting but so true. I just posted about feeling a little gleeful that the lady in front of me had to split up a payment between multiple credit cards and cash.
Great points Kraig ! I owe about 20k between my car and student loans. Its time to man up and pay off my debts as soon as possible. I know it wont be easy or fun but itll be worth it. Im 21 so I have an advantage to make the right choices in the future. Ill NEVER finance anything ever again. Thanks for your blog , its really helps me. Keep it up.
HELL TO THE YES! I remember when I paid off my last credit card payment. Hello debt free! But that didn’t mean that I went out and spent more than I made. The most important advice that’s been nailed into my head is living below your means. It removes a lot of paranoia and anxiety related living WAY beyond your means. I was in that situation, and every time I spent more… I was just feeling regret and downright depressed. Great post!
I need to print this out and read it daily…especially when I get down about what I might be missing. It’s so much better to have less stress than more stuff. All of what you said is true!
Great Post Mate..
For all those reasons and more is why I do what I do. There is not a day that goes by that I thank my lucky stars for budgeting early in life and living below my means. I hope to motivate all my fans and encourage them to follow steps to get themselves on track to enjoy some of these fun things! Waking up in the morning with a smile and less stress makes it all worth it. Like I always say “It’s not about how much money you make, it’s how you save it”
Cheers,
Mr.CBB
Right on!
So true! I still have debt from college and morgage but I also have 2,000 a month after paying all bills and saving 1200 per month. Sometimes I do look around and see my colleagues in huge posh houses and feel guilt and anger over the fact that my younger son’s bedroom is a badly converted entryway. Sometimes I’m embarrassed when my same younger son who goes to an expensive private school invites his best friend, whose dad is a lawyer and whose mom is dean of a college and whose house could easily fit my entire home in just the lower portion. But then I realize that yes, I can take a 3 week trip down the Nile and spring for my sister’s family too! I also love that I could, if fired from my job still pay all my bills by getting a job with 1/3 the income. Not sure I like being the wealthiest in my neighborhood. This is a great list for my downer days!
You don’t know that those parents of your son’s friend aren’t in debt up to their eyeballs! (And you don’t know what kind of a home life he has – does he ever even see/spend time with his parents??) Just because people make more doesn’t mean they don’t spend more! It may be hard – but seriously, don’t compare yourself to them.
Being debt free is EMPOWERING – it’s FREEDOM! And look what you are teaching your kids – it’s NOT all about “stuff” and keeping up with the Joneses! It’s about being comfortable and having your basic needs met. And PRIORITIZING your spending (his education). And most importantly SAVING for the future! Hang in there and keep saving, ywilbur! I’m cheering for you!!
What a great list! FUN?? NOT! But good points! Yes, living below your means will truly make you happier in the long run. I (and husband) are living proof. We just retired last year at 50. We’ve always been good savers, and a bit frugal. While he was a professional (engineer) with a good job with the same company for many years, we’ve ALWAYS lived below our means. Thankfully my husband is a good fix-it guy, and if he didn’t know how to do something, he’d get on-line or go to the library, read and then do it! Can’t tell you how much $$$ we’ve saved over the years with him being able/willing to repair things. We’ve always said we’d never live in our money (big house), drive our money (expensive cars) or wear our money (designer fashions) and have held true to that. Yeah, we love watching the neighbors out shining up their spiffy new BMWs or Lexus’ – all the while snickering “yeah, we can buy the WHOLE DAMN CAR LOT if we wanted to” but have CHOSEN to drive average yet dependable cars for 10+ years (can you say NO CAR PAYMENT??!!). You young people have one thing in your favor…….TIME!!! SAVE SAVE SAVE and it WILL GROW! You will be ever thankful down the road (since most of you won’t have a pension or social security when you get to my age!). You don’t need all the “stuff” – don’t even try to keep up with the Joneses – Kraig is right – it’s a better feeling knowing you can afford what everyone else has, but you’ve made the CHOICE to save that money instead! And no debt usually means a lot less stress – you aren’t laying awake at night sweating bullets about what bills to pay. Being a saver and frugal really does become just kind of habit and it’s not painful – it’s empowering!!! We are just average folks who have millions of dollars socked away and it’s a great feeling. Even our financial adviser told us that we’ll probably always spend the same way as we have in the past – with a few exceptions (travel, building a second home out west). Life is good……..and simple……….and we LIKE it that way! Do we feel like we’ve been deprived of anything along the way… HELL NO!! I want to be a cheerleader for ALL of you young people who are really trying to live below your means……YOU CAN DO IT!!