Hi folks, I'm using this thread to solicit some reinforcement and/or reminders about how the mustache way is the better way.
First, a little background ...When my wife and I got married in 2013, I had just discovered mustachianism and it was our lifeline. I made $35k a year doing tech support, and she made something near-zero due to running a small business that was (by then) near the end of its short life. So in those days, with the necessity induced by low incomes, we got on board with the mustachian ideals of constructive thriftiness, without too much fuss.
But then over the next few years, our financial picture changed. We became "successful" far quicker than I expected.
I mean, that term is very relative, but we are a lot richer nowadays:
- She's a professional digital marketer now, and I am a technical project manager. Our combined monthly take-home income is about $8000 (and we still have no kids or pets)
- We have a little 1500 ft^2, 3/2, ranch-style home, which we found for $165k, and it is recently fully paid off
- Despite living in the trendy, always-hyped city of Austin, we don't go out a ton, which means we don't spend a ton of money on hipster food, craft beer, or tickets for shows
As our fortunes have grown, we've taken our eye off the mustachian ball in a very gradual way -- something I expect many of you are quite familiar with.
Basically, we
could be saving about 70% of our income, say $5000 a month or so. But instead, over the past 4.5 years since the start of this story, we gradually shifted to saving maybe 60% of our income, and then 50%, and hey wow, 50% is still pretty incredible so let's not worry too much about it. Know what I mean? And then 40%, and 35%. And hey, saving 35% of our income still puts us into the top 5% (or better?) of savers in this country, right? I have a buddy who makes six figures all by himself, but he only saves about 10% of it. I'm doing much better than him, so I should feel good, right?
You get the idea! I think we need to recommit.Well OK, we
especially need to recommit in the near future, because
I'm going to quit my job to go to an immersive code school for 6 months, and switch over to the software development side of the industry. So for 6 months the tables will be turned from where we started, we'll be living off my wife's income alone, and we can't play around anymore with this casually-spending-$5500-a-month-on-whatever-interests-us.
*Okay so the scene is set, but now let me give you a little more, so that you can give me some brilliant advice.*
The question you should be asking is ... what on earth are we spending our money on??For me, the problem is that the answer to this question is "mostly pretty good things".
Here is a sampling of where the extra spending has gone:
- Mental and Physical Health - We've done a lot of counseling and a lot of physical training / personal training in the last few years. Part of this was simply necessary because of mental health challenges that *needed* some professional care. Part of it was simply, hey everybody really needs some good therapy in their lives, and we can afford it right now, and it's a great time to work ourselves and our marriage. So the work we've done in this area, I would say, has been well worth the money and truly made an impact.
- Hobbies, endless hobbies - My wife and I both love ... all kinds of things. If we had limitless time (say, due to FIRE) we would just: build shit all day long, start businesses, adopt new sports and physical disciplines, learn to cook new foods, sew clothes and home decor items, grow a garden, raise chickens and goats, and pick up musical instruments. I find this wide breadth of interests to be one of our big issues, because we end up with too much going on. At times, it's too much breadth and not enough depth to master all these things we're into. Example: we've been gradually converting a back yard shed into a potent woodworking shop for 2-3 years now, and have probably put in $5,000 - $7,000 between materials, electrical work, and lots of woodworking tools themselves. And yet, how often do we utilize this amazing space? Not nearly often enough, despite the fact that we want to. Other interests and diversions and new projects seem to just pile up and we have trouble limiting ourselves. The problem, of course, is compounded by the fact that (for the moment) we have enough spare cash that we can literally indulge these new interests almost whenever we please.
- Delusions of grandeur for our house - Our little 3/2 ranch-style home was billed as a "starter" but we've been gradually souping it up as well -- sometimes through our own hard-earned DIY efforts, sometimes through comparison-shopping and finding contractors to do the job. But, the list of aspirations never ends. Just like with #2 above, we can always envision some new way that the house or yard can be made even more idyllic. For all the work we've put into the house, it feels like we've barely scratched the surface of what it *could* be, and that sense of potent possibility is mesmerizing.
Now that I've done a bit of verbal processing, it seems to me that we are victims of our own aspirations, particularly in the areas of #2 and #3 (but perhaps all three). There seems to be a constant sense of "how could this be *even better*??" that we can never quite move past. Perhaps it's a lack of satisfaction. Perhaps it's a need for constant stimulation, which the urban / yuppie lifestyle has baked into our neurology?
Well, it's late here, and I'm waxing silly, but I think you all get the idea.
Essentially, in my judgment we seem to want things that are basically decent, but we want way too much of those things -- to the point that we are always jumping between projects, always feel short on time due to our many conflicting interests, and (lately) realizing that we have massively blown our previously-thrifty budget.
Do you agree?And anyhow ... who has run into such issues before? What did it take for you to get your boat righted?
You may issue any inspiring words or face-punches that you deem useful for the moment.
Thanks for reading!