Sunday, February 14, 2010

Living below your means

I read this article recently on LivingAlmostLarge about living below your means and living within your means. This reminded me of my past and how different phases of my life I have lived differently.

All through my student life, I have lived within my means so that I never run out of my pocket/earned money and need to ask it again from dad in between of month. I used to have very little money at that time and hence lining below means was certainly impossible when living within means was a challenge in itself.

After finishing my education, I started working full time. After little spending spree, I started living below my means. I made it a practice to save 50% of what I earn. In the process I have fallen off the path many times. Many a month I splurge on clothes or nice vacations, but it happens once in a while. When I look back at my nest-egg I feel happy that I can survive for few months if I lose my job, I feel happy that I can take care of my family in case they need some help.

To grow financially, it is very important to live below your means, because that is only how one can set-up some nest-egg for rainy days.

2 comments:

  1. This is very, very hard to do in the US. The cost of living where you're at must be very low. Just to afford a place to live in many cases costs 50% of your income here, whether renting or paying a mortgage.

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  2. hi IT
    Its a nice read, i didn't knew the difference till now.
    Cost of living does make a difference but the point is true, we gotta strive towards it.
    I try to keep my expenses below a figure which arbitrarily i chose after seeing my lifestyle.basically it all comes down to what we are content with.

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