What were the first 3 changes you made when starting on the path to FI?

[Bradlinc4]

What were the first three changes you made to your lifestyle when starting down the path to FI? When I tell friends about what I have accomplished I can tell it overwhelms them. I would like input to determine if there is any commonality of initial changes.

My first three changes were:

1) Groceries - I went from shopping at Whole Foods to Costco. It had an enormous impact and made me feel that I had momentum.

2) Clothing - I had enough clothing so this was easy for me. I was never a big shopper but did order custom cut button up shirts for work. I still wear them but less frequently. I own my own business and can wear what ever I want.

3)Babysitting - I decided that I wanted to spend more time with my daughter so I cut babysitting back to the bare minimum and for the past seven months it has been at zero. This took rearranging my schedule but has been worth it from an expense as well as quality time standpoint.

What I didn't change till about six months later was the rate that I was eating out and my gas guzzling truck. I knew those would be the hardest things for me.

What were the first three changes for you?

(I have had a budget for many years otherwise that would have been my first step.)

[Zamboni]

By far my biggest first changes were a moratorium on eating out, cutting cable, and dumping my expensive phone plan.

In order to change our habits, I decided not to eat out at all for one month. Cold turkey. No fast food for the kids, no lunches out because I left my lunch at home by accident, nothing. That first month, I spent only $1.19 eating out . . . a moment of weakness that involved an egg biscuit during the final week of the month. After that, the expectations of everyone were that it was better to just eat at home.

I got a $10/month phone plan that was described on an MMM post and cancelled AT&T.

I dumped cable and had no antenna, we only had a VCR. A couple of months later we had watched all of the tapes we had plus a few more from a thrift store. So, I splurged and got a DVD player which seemed extravagant, but it was only like $49. My local public library has more DVD's for check out than I will ever be able to watch. Now I have an antenna and streaming services, too . . . still way cheaper than cable.

My kids adapted really fast to the idea. I have no regrets.

[StarBright]

What a neat idea for a post!

We were already on a pretty decent savings path when I stumbled across Mr. Money Mustache so I don't have a "three" - but we did sign up for the "saving 50k (single) or 100k (couple) challenge", with a goal of saving 50k (between the two of us we didn't even make 100k). We were going from undergrad, to grad school, to PhD grad school so we never raised our standard of living enough to have anything major to cut.

When we took on that challenge we'd previously been saving a little less than 25k (including my employer 401k contribution) and we almost doubled it in one years time!

That was pretty amazing for us. We've actually never hit our savings goals (came very close that first year - so we raised our goal the next year :)) , but over the last several years we have saved more just by having a reach goal.

We did cut out a vacation for a couple of years and switch to a cheaper daycare when we hunkered down to start saving- our kids are fine :)

[John Galt incarnate!]

1. quit eating at restaurants

2. carpooled to college/drove my car only when necessary/tried to do errands/shopping/appointments on same day to minimize spending $ on gas

3. increased my savings rate which I was able to do because I had a low-rent apartment

[BECABECA]

For me, it was a little different since I already was a saver and didn’t have a lot of expenses. My top 3 were instead related to investments, since I didn’t know much about that before coming across MMM.

1. Switch my 401k into lowest cost index fund offered. I already contributed the maximum from day 1 because I was sold on the power of compounding interest and how much more important it is to start as early as possible, but I was in actively managed Growth funds with high management fees. Once I switched to index funds, my account really started to take off. And when I left jobs I rolled the 401k into Vanguard for even lower cost index funds.

2. Automate after tax investing. Before I was prepaying my mortgage because that paid off better than my savings account’s interest rate. But then I learned about how much more I would make by instead investing it index funds, so I set up an after tax Vanguard account and automatically purchased VTSAX monthly. I still carry a 3% mortgage now even though I could pay it off completely because I make a lot more than 3% in the market.

3. Choosing to live very close to work, and downsizing to be a single car family. Since we’ve only got the one car now, I have no choice but to bike most of the time. If there was a second car always available to me, I could see myself being lazy and just driving a lot more.

[Bradlinc4]

In order to change our habits, I decided not to eat out at all for one month. Cold turkey. No fast food for the kids, no lunches out because I left my lunch at home by accident, nothing. That first month, I spent only $1.19 eating out . . . a moment of weakness that involved an egg biscuit during the final week of the month. After that, the expectations of everyone were that it was better to just eat at home.

Have you maintained not eating out or have you settled somewhere in the middle?

[Brother Esau]

1. Slashed the grocery budget by more than 1/2. This was actually easy.

2. Paid attention to where each dollar got spent. Really learned to appreciate every single green soldier.

3. Jacked up savings in pre-tax vehicles (457b & HSA). Not quite maxed out but almost there.

[nouveauRiche]

DH found MMM nearly 5 years ago. 

We were already relatively frugal and had been saving aggressively for retirement (but without the big-picture plan that we got from MMM).

1. DH stopped buying lunch & expensive coffee at work & started bringing his own food.  (I work from home so I didn't have these costs.)

2. We broke up with our gardener and housekeeper.

3. The biggest was we just stopped looking for stuff to buy for ourselves or stuff to fix up in the house.

[These are just the first three.  We've made tons more changes and the stache has grown an insane amount.]

[Bloop Bloop]

I don't think I made any changes to my spending habits. I've always had moderate spending.

The only two notable changes I can think of are -

1. Quit my job and began my own business. I felt I could earn more this way.

2. Started putting as much of my usual expenses on my business account (as a tax deduction) as was legal.

[SwordGuy]

1. Decided what we wanted our aggressive (but possible) savings rate to be and automated it.   Upped it periodically.
2. Changed our optional spending to match goal #1.
3. Began researching rental real estate investing and then did it.

[Just Joe]

1. Paid off debt.
2. Began an self-education odyssey that is not yet complete. MMM is part of this.
3. Changed our relationship with money/spending/consumerism. Less random spending, more conscientious spending.

Required a new POV on how we and the people we know best make and spend money. So far we may be "trailblazers" in a tribe (family) of recreational spenders.

All these things led to better outcomes. No more satellite TV. No more lusting after the newest gadget or car. More long term thinking. More awareness of where the money was going. Less going out. Also life has dictated we needed to eat at home more often.

Side benefit: less concern about money. If one of us wants to accompany friends or coworkers out for lunch then no big deal b/c we make far more than we spend. A lunch isn't putting a dent in that. Car needs tires? No big deal.

We started late so we won't RE.

[DaMa]

1. Fully funded Roth IRA
2. Cut living expenses - cable was the first to go
3. Stopped shopping - if you don't shop, you don't see stuff you have to have.

More on #3...I still buy things, but I don't "shop."  I rarely walk through a store browsing.  I might check prices and stock for something I'm looking for, but I go in basically knowing what I want.  I do most of my research online before I go into a store.  I absolutely never shop for entertainment.

[Bloop Bloop]

More on #3...I still buy things, but I don't "shop."  I rarely walk through a store browsing.  I might check prices and stock for something I'm looking for, but I go in basically knowing what I want.  I do most of my research online before I go into a store.  I absolutely never shop for entertainment.

This is great. For the same reason, I try to avoid retail shopping as much as possible. If I need to buy I try to get it from online or overseas. As you say, this avoids the temptation of being exposed to marketing (online there are many fewer ads, especially with an ad-blocker). This also avoids at least some of the pitfalls associated with living in a high-cost-of-living environment, i.e. you are not paying for retail rent and workers' wages.

There are still materialistic wants that I have, but they are basically the same ones that I had 5 or 10 years ago. I'm not constantly changing or revising my "wants".

[Steeze]

Saving changes

1. Paid off student loans ASAP
2. Set 401k to Max
3. Set IRA to Max

Spending changes

1. Bring lunch to work
2. Stop buying clothes
3. Stop getting my laundry done

Honestly my spending hasn’t changed much, probably has even increased a little. I’ve always been broke, but my income has quadrupled in the last 5 years. That’s without counting DW’s income.

[Vertical Mode]

I was a mid-twenties single guy living the young professional urban lifestyle when I found MMM. The first step I recall taking was reviewing my YTD spending; this led to the revelation of how much money I was spending at bars (!!!), and then the second step, which was scaling back on going out to bars.

The third step was taking a hard look at optimizing the investing I was doing - this meant maxing out the 401(k) plan my employer offered (I was already participating, but not to the extent that I could have been). I also switched to Vanguard at this point from a more actively-managed mutual fund I had at Fidelity.

Somewhere shortly thereafter, I began biking to work, which was probably the single biggest adaptation in terms of lifestyle and a direct improvement to my quality of life.

[NoVa]

Number One, the most critical, was tracking every dime I spent.

Number Two, once I had that information, was modifying my spending so I maxed out my 401k.

Number Three was just gradual reduction in useless things that didn't make me happy. DirecTV, eating out for lunch, etc. Now I have more money to do the things that make me happy without having a higher income.

[AO1FireTo]

This is a great topic...  I've always been pretty frugal but since finding the FI community here are some changes I've made:

1.  Quit drinking coffee when I go out.  I make it at home and bring a thermos.
2.  Stopped lusting after new cars, current one is 14 years old and going strong.
3.  Cut down on my vacation spending.  I find a week off work at home getting things accomplished and sleeping in, was more enjoyable and less stressful then going to some all inclusive resort. 

[use2betrix]

My changes weren’t anything drastic in my spending or habits, but more so in my financial tracking and decisions. It gave me more incentive to max out my 401k, Roth’s, eventually HSA’s, taxable index fund accounts, etc.

It’s guided a lot of my financial decisions, which has led to a healthy emergency fund, which has increased my leveraged in job negotiations, and in turn, boosted my career.

[Life in Balance]

I've made lots of changes since, but the first three were also the biggest changes I could have made:

1) Increased my pre-tax contributions until the budget squeaked (and then I adjusted to spending less and upped the contributions again, repeat)
2) Really looked at the funds I had for choices and switched to low-fee index funds
3) Sold my bigger house and moved to a smaller townhouse

[roomtempmayo]

I don't know that these happened in chronological order, but they're the three that have mattered most by far.

1) We automated our financial life as much as possible.

2) We moved to a modest house < 3 miles from work for both of us. 

3) We cut down to one car that we only drive on special occasions.  No more car commuting.

Those three changes put us in control of our finances, and took us from treading water financially to making rapid positive progress toward our goals.  Everything else has been details by comparison.

[Just Joe]

There are still materialistic wants that I have, but they are basically the same ones that I had 5 or 10 years ago. I'm not constantly changing or revising my "wants".

Yes, that. Me too. Frequently rebooting hobbies and interests or decor or wardrobe is expensive. I know people who change cars every 18-24 months b/c they get bored with the old one. Its damn expensive.

[iluvzbeach]

1) Paid off all consumer debt, which included not buying things that I couldn’t afford to pay cash to buy.
2) Paid off car and kept said car, a 2005 Honda Pilot with 196K miles. Runs like a champ and I don’t care if it gets scratched or dinged. We also dropped back to one shared car four years ago, we’ve found it to be a total non-issue and has helped to save even more money.
3) We began to contribute as much as we could to 401K accounts until we were consistently maxing accounts each year.

There are many more I could add to the list, but these have been the most impactful.

[dignam]

1.  Maxed out 401k, invested in index funds with low fees
2.  Paid off student loans
3.  Eliminated the idea of ever buying a new car again.  Hard for me as I have always loved cars and enjoy tinkering.  But I realized I can spend a fraction of the sticker price on a very nice used car that still ticks all the boxes

[charis]

5 years ago (but already frugal with modest house living on one salary and married with kids):

1) Started tracking everything on mint.com
2) signed up for HDHP and maxed HSA immediately
3) set up to max IRAs for the year (no 401K options at that point)

One of our biggest saving tricks that predates our path to FI-but likely wouldn't have stuck without MMM/FIRE philosophy-is rejecting lifestyle inflation.  We do spend more, particularly on kid activities, but our SR has increased with our income.

[middo]

My first three things I did were:

1. Started to track my spending and our net worth.

2. Reign in our spending on bills for insurance, mobile plans, and deregistered a few vehicles.

3. Became more mindful of spending every dollar carefully. 

[Freedomin5]

We found MMM when our incomes first started increasing, so we have always been pretty frugal. The first three changes we made were:

1. Opening a taxable account and reading up on index investing (Vanguard, jlcollins, Canadian Couch Potato)

2. Setting an 80% savings rate goal. Pay ourselves first.

3. “Tracking spending”. We don’t really track spending, but we have a $1000/month budget. Every month I transfer $1000 into a dedicated account, and we pay all expenses from that account.

Eventually we moved to biking (instead of taxi), and now we live walking distance to school and work.

[Hula Hoop]

-cut way back on eating out and starting bringing lunch to work every day
-cut way back on clothes spending.  Now I wear my clothes until they wear out and try to keep my kids' clothes purchases to a minimum and shop around.
-switched to a cheap phone plan

We had already switched to Netflix from cable and we already didn't own a car - which is a huge savings.  Our housing costs are also reasonable as we bought our apartment below market value.  We've always been pretty mustachian I guess.

[Zikoris]

We set up automatic tracking with Mint, cut our weekly grocery delivery service, and started looking for better jobs.

[BigIslandGuy]

I had three big changes to get out of debt, before I discovered FIRE:

1: I built a tiny house for 17k (paid cash as i could afford so it took me 2 years) which I now live in, thus lowering my rent to $400 per month. That includes most utilities.
2: Ditched Verizon plan for MINT cellular prepaid for one year
3: started living by a strict monthly budget, and more or less following Dave Ramsey's baby steps

Then I found FIRE info and started a few more things:
1: bought a used Nisssan Leaf EV so I wouldnt have to buy gas (my landlord covers most of my electricity bill)
2: cut way down on my eating out for breakfast and lunch while at work  - bringing my bacon and eggs to work with me now :)
3: relentless studying for I.T. certifications to improve my income potential to maximum (got 7 or 8 of them now)

[redhead84]

We were already saving a lot of money with minimal lifestyle inflation. We started getting interested in FIRE at about same time we started having significant cash available beyond the retirement savings vehicles.

1) Reduced our cash savings and automated investments into the market
2) Stopped single stock investing and started investing in low cost index funds
3) Start thinking about the "why" - we've always been savers, but deciding to pursue the non-traditional choice of ER has made us think about the life we want to live and how to know when enough is enough. We could save this way until 65 and have multiple millions of dollars, but what is the purpose for accumulating all that wealth?

We are fortunate enough that our incomes & lifestyle make saving fairly easy. The bigger questions and balancing both of our priorities has been the bigger challenge.

[Dicey]

I had three big changes to get out of debt, before I discovered FIRE:

1: I built a tiny house for 17k (paid cash as i could afford so it took me 2 years) which I now live in, thus lowering my rent to $400 per month. That includes most utilities.
2: Ditched Verizon plan for MINT cellular prepaid for one year
3: started living by a strict monthly budget, and more or less following Dave Ramsey's baby steps

Then I found FIRE info and started a few more things:
1: bought a used Nisssan Leaf EV so I wouldnt have to buy gas (my landlord covers most of my electricity bill)
2: cut way down on my eating out for breakfast and lunch while at work  - bringing my bacon and eggs to work with me now :)
3: relentless studying for I.T. certifications to improve my income potential to maximum (got 7 or 8 of them now)

If you are living in a house that you built yourself, who is this landlord who covers most of your utilities?

[Fish Sweet]

I was already someone inclined toward saving and being a cheapskate, so maybe take this with a grain of salt.  That said, MMM helped me establish a framework and a financial goal, where previously I was just hurling however much money seemed available into a savings account and then doing nothing with it.

1) Tracking every penny of my spending.  It had the dual effects of forcing me to be accountable for all my expenditures-- every purchase, no matter how impulsive or frivolous, got logged, and demystified my own spending habits, good and bad.  Doing this also answered important questions like: 'just how much do I need to live on anyway?' 'how much am i eating out compared to how much i cook at home?' 'just how much money did I save last year?'

2) Making savings automatic.  Can't spend it if I can't see it, and can't even miss it, really-- whether it's an automatic push of $X amount into a savings account or upping your 401k contribution, that really helped me focus on staying within budget, and padded my stash without conscious effort.

3) An actual change in mindset (plus side: FREE, downside: HARD) away from the 'buying things equals happiness' cultural mindset that's so damn pervasive, and actually putting thought into how a new purchase will fit into my life-- where will it be stored, how will I use it, how long do I expect to keep it, and does it fill a need in my life that is currently empty?   Do I still lust for random things?  Hell yeah.  Do I still buy them after some thought?  Well... sometimes!  But the things I buy now actually make me happier, and has resulted in so much less clutter, spending guilt, and a much fuller wallet.

[MrThatsDifferent]

1. Eliminated my cc debt
2. Consolidated my retirement accounts
3. Eliminated massages and dry cleaning
Bonus 4: Opened a Vanguard account
Bonus 5: Started tracking my networth

I lost focus at the end of last year, now it’s time to get back to the plan.

[texxan1]

First things first.. I made a budget to look at exactly at what i was spending and where to cut

next, CUT all i could within reason

Watched closely, every dime i spent in cash, cards etc.. All written down so i could get the full picture.

Then started cutting the easiest things first... Snowball effect basically

and guess what it, Worked

[Goldy]

1) signed up for Mint and tracked our budget.  This identified areas that needed work and we were able to get them down.

2) realized how little of a take home impact increasing my 401k contribution actually was and ended up maxing it out starting when I was 25.

3) set up a fun money monthly allotment so the DW and I still have money to blow on whatever we want while also keeping it within reason.  This has helped immensely especially when one person is more fire motivated than the other. 

[Morning Glory]

1. Read JL Collins stock series, fired the robot advisors, moved everything I could to Vanguard. Started tracking net worth.

2. Started tracking spending and being more mindful about purchase decisions. Decided to keep existing car.

3. Set 403b contribution to max out each year.

[pachnik]

IIRC, the first few things I did were:

1.  track spending
2.  talk to my husband about going out for a meal once a week rather than twice
3.  cancelled my gym membership.  (I did eventually go back).

[MissNancyPryor]

At T-minus launch:

I read The Millionaire Next Door.  Then,   

1) In 1996 began maxing out 401(k) contributions and never borrowed from or stopped them during the 2000 dot-com or 2008 busts

2) In 2002 decided to never carry a balance on a credit card again

3) In 2003 started a Roth and maxed that out until my income would no longer allow it, invested 100% in AAPL

I was always frugal, had a good budgeting system, and didn't do fancy pants food or phones so I have no lightbulb moments like that and didn't really have baby steps to get adjusted. 

I will say that being smart about cars is the biggest "consumer thing" I did, having only ever bought one car new in 1995 (Honda) and kept that one one for 14 years before giving to my daughter who drove it for 8 years more.  Every one before or after was used.  I have paid cash for every car since 2009; deciding to never borrow on cars again as of that time. 

[julia]

1. Maxed out my TFSA
2. Opened a Questrade account and dumped the rest of my cash into ETFs
3. We were already big savers before MMM but I went through each expense and tried to lower it (ie. signed up for an app that tracks our driving which saves us 25% on our car insurance, carpooled to work, etc)

[Billy B. Good]

After getting an overall consciousness, I don't know if these were precisely the first three things, but certainly the most important three things for me.

1. I fired my financial "advisor" and converted all financial assets under management to Vanguard index funds that I manage myself. My expenses related to investment holdings went from 2.5% a year down to .06%. This has by far had the biggest impact.

2. I sold my three-bedroom house and everything in it (lawn mower, ladder, furniture, etc.) and moved into a one-bedroom apartment that suits me just fine, with rent that is one-third of the monthly mortgage payment for the house. No more cutting grass, shoveling snow, fixing broken shit or anything else. Worry-free living, and a lot less cash siphoned away from me every month.

3. I stopped socializing in restaurants and bars. There was a time when I was in a bar or restaurant almost daily. No more. I eat at home or I pack a meal/snack/drinks for outings. I wish I had a dime for every dollar I have blown at bars and restaurants in the past.

It is amazing how little I have to spend now to live a fulfilling and adventuresome life. 

[mspym]

1- started maxing out my pre-tax super
2- we stopped eating out/bought an espresso machine (with points!) and that was it for cafes
3- we set a fortnightly budget challenge and ran with it for 6 months until frugality was habitual.

But the biggest change was getting the big picture goal locked in, which was life-changing.

[clarkfan1979]

1) Bought a used car, instead of a new car
2) Increased my 403B contributions by 3%
3) Created a mint account

[AnnaGrowsAMustache]

1. Dropped all ongoing costs - subscriptions, plans, even paying insurance monthly rather than yearly, and this includes debt
2. Signed up for the kiwi version of employer matched retirement plan
3. Started working on a serious savings plan

I've had a series of legit disasters over the last 10 years, so I haven't made a great deal of progress. I can't imagine the crap storm I'd be in now if I hadn't already taken those steps, though. I've had resources that other people in the same position didn't have, and I rather think they may be financially screwed for life now.

[Linea_Norway]

We were already doing many things right for the last 20 years. But what I did after discivering MMM was:

- Paying a lot more attention to grocery shopping. Shopping at the cheapest shop instead of the other one which had more convenient parking. Buying much cheaper bread. Switching to frozen spinach instead of fresh.

- Cancelling a subscription for a magazine and two memberships.

- Deciding to sell the clown house we had just moved into. Although we didn't start selling it until recently and it is still not sold.

[Chrissy]

1)  Moved to a smaller place.  Saved ~$200/mo.
2)  Renegotiated internet.  Saved ~$15/mo
3)  Rejiggered renters insurance.  Saved $4.60/mo

After Baby #2 arrived, and I emerged from the fog:

1)  Cut cleaners.  Saving ~$30/mo.
2)  Got an Aeropress & cut eating out.  Saving ~$120/mo.

[damnedbee]

I don't actually remember the first concrete steps I took, so I'll go a little abstract.

1. Tracking: I audited and assessed every dollar. How was I getting them? How was I using them? Where were they going? What were they doing? How did I feel about them?
2. Learning: I read MMM and every applicable personal finance blog I found. I read Dave Ramsey's FB page. I read Boglehead and MMM forums. I read books about investing. I read blogs about frugality and penny saving. I read inspirational quotations on Pinterest boards.
3. Planning: I made spreadsheets and Word docs. I played with FIRE calculators. I made vision boards. I journaled. I bookmarked FIRE resources.

[DadJokes]

I loved reading all of these. Prior to discovering MMM, we were doing the Dave Ramsey plan, so we were at least doing better than average already.

1) Shifted extra money from early mortgage payoff to investments. It's amazing how much faster our net worth grew in only a year as opposed to the previous year with just that change.

2) We went through each line item in our budget to see if we were throwing away money. And boy were we! We changed phone service providers, got better rates on all types of insurance (home, auto, life), and cut discretionary spending by about 30%.

3) I looked for a way to increase my income. Unfortunately, nothing I found was worth all that I would have had to give up.

[JSMustachian]

1) Stopped using debt or financing to purchase things.
2) Reduced the cell phone bills and data usage.
3) Stopped going out to eat unless it was to celebrate a birthday or anniversary.

There are many more but this three items stand out the most that helped free up some income to max all the pre-tax retirement accounts.

[mudstache]

I love this!  Very good ideas for people to take real, concrete steps to get started!

For us it was:

1. Set up Mint to see the full financial picture and set up a budget
2. Canceled cable
3. Started cooking everything at home/stopped getting takeout or food delivery even on busy nights.

Good luck everyone! 

[Panly]

1. track income & expenses
2. improve on budgeting <-> reduce expenses
3. improve on investing <-> read a lot