Living below your means

that's a funny line. Give it a second glance.

I think some of us live below our means as a penance for the world's sins.

i come from a family of 4 sons. In the old days one of us would of been shipped off to the monestary. The other one to the Army, the other to the Navy, and the eldest stayed home.

 

Hello LBYM folks. I found my way to this place from Mish's blog. I hope it works out. I used to post (and mostly lurk) at the Motley Fool several years ago, but quit when they started charging a fee for it. I wasn't prolific enough to get my fee comped, and I'm too cheap to pay. Besides, its not like there isn't enough to read on the web as it is. Regarding LBYM, that pretty much describes my wife and I. We acquired our LBYM skills early in life, due to not having much income. After so many years of buying stuff used and cutting out unnecessary expenses, we were too set in our ways to change. As our income went up as we got older, our expenses didn't keep pace. So now we are LBYM. I don't think we deprive ourselves, though. We just consider our "wants" carefully. For example, I love bicycling, and have two real beauties for bikes. But we drive a ten year old Honda for a car, bought used. A goal of mine is to retire early. Maybe I won't retire, since on most days Iike my job. I'm a teacher and a scientist, and my wife's an artist. I'd like to think that I could retire if I wanted to. We could retire now if we could keep our employer provided health insurance, which would cost too much to replace. Here is my list of LBYM things that work for us: 401-K, 403-b & 457 deferred compensation plans, and Roth IRAs. Great for legal tax avoidance. Craigslist. Cash-back no-fee credit cards. Emigrant direct, for the emergency fund. - Stopped Clock

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2007 06:41PM by StoppedClock.

Interesting topic. Practical yet philosophical at the same time. I suppose the first few things one would do is stop using credit. Get rid of debt and then take a serious inventory of daily habits and what they cost.

Whats emigrant direct? 

Emigrant direct is an on-line bank. They have a no-fee, no minimum savings account that earns 5.05%. Here's a link: https://www.emigrantdirect.com/EmigrantDirectWeb/index.jsp

Wow, guys.  Thanks for posting and very good stuff.  For as long as we own the company, the message board will be for free.  Like you guys, my wife and I try to live way below our means.

Andy

Hello.
I think this is a unique message board to have part of the other well rounded larger investment topics. So I wanted to say thanks and great idea. I also found out about it through Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis web page.

The Student,

Glad to have you and all of the others here.  My name is Andy Millette, and I am one of the cofounders of themarkettraders.com and Galt Publishing.  My original partner Rob Righter and I started this website almost three years ago.  We just recently added the message boards with Mike "Mish" Shedlock, and have made him a partner in this venture. 

This forum or "board" is really very close to home for me.  My family and I do pretty well compared to the "average American" standard of living.  But that was not always the case.  We have been quite poor and quite middle class (and we still live the middle class lifestylet).  During the times when my wife and I did not have much, we learned to drastically live within our means, to live within a budget, and to appreciate the little things in life; the things that are free or inexspensive.  And by doing this, our quality of life increased dramatically.  Not in the material sense (although it has); but in the peaceful sense.  We tend to shop around, to save, to help and be helped.  And it has allowed us to see what really is important in this life:  family, friends, experiences, and just plain day to day living.  We enjoyed each and those around us so much more. 

So I hope that you post more, as I surely will.  If you, or anyone else would like to be a administrator to this board, let me know and I will try to make it happen.

Andy