Master List

[Wrecks]

Hi,

Is there somewhere a master list of things to check when plugging money leaks?

So far:
Reduced frequency of several service providers
Canceled many subscriptions (newspapers, Hightail, HBO, etc)
Switched from Amex Platinum to Green
Switched home and car insurances
Went down a metal level on health insurance because I've never had more than checkup expenses, ever.

So far my total savings is $12,652.90 and I want more!

I already keep my house ~62 in the winter all day/night, and ~78 during the summer (I work here so have to be reasonably comfortable; cold is fine with me, too hot would impair work performance).

I have a fancy car but purchased in cash 5 years ago. I need a car for occasional work road trips, but my total mileage/year is <3000.

I have a house with a $700k mortgage at a very low rate.

Since I'm anonymous here I'll tell you a little about me.

*I am a single self-employed homeowner in NY state, age 45
*I have an awesome job in science that is fun (for me) and allows me to stay home 95% of the time
*I've been doing this since 2000 and making in the high 6 figures/low 7 figures for the last 8 years
*I recently got divorced; prior to the divorce I was basically completely financially independent; I could have quit working and been fine for life--not that I'd do that because I like my job. Post-divorce I am what I guess you would call semi financially independent. Meaning I could retire on what's left (if I wanted to retire) but I'd have to downsize, and I like my life just the way it is. I grew up dirt poor in a shitty situation, so the house has a huge psychological importance for me.
*I have a weakness for fine furniture and expensive bicycles, but the costs of those are pretty trivial in context. Plus the furniture spending is long done, and I really don't need any more bicycles.

For me this is mostly about not wasting money. For too many years I let people and companies take advantage of me, mostly because I felt like by the time I addressed an issue, the amount of time taken at my hourly rate would eliminate any savings...of course I was stupid and not thinking of how the savings add up year over year. I was also stupid in thinking that it would take a bunch of time--all of the above leaks were plugged in half a day....not a bad return for half a day's work!

Thank you, you're all inspirational.

[Sibley]

classic way: post a case study and let us rip it apart :)

[ixtap]

Why not sell the car and get a rental for those rare trips?

[AMandM]

So far my total savings is $12,652.90 and I want more!

Congratulations!

Since I'm anonymous here I'll tell you a little about me.

Be careful!  You're probably not as anonymous as you think once you start posting. A mention of your county here, a mention of your job type there, ....

I like my life just the way it is. I grew up dirt poor in a shitty situation, so the house has a huge psychological importance for me.

There comes a point pretty soon where saving money requires that you make lifestyle/behavioural changes.  Not necessarily changes for the worse, but changes of some kind. The low-hanging fruit is usually in the areas of housing, transportation, and eating (especially eating out).

[Hotstreak]

You've been making high 6 figures to low 7 figures, AKA a million dollars per year, for 8 years, and you have 12k in savings?  I hope one of those is a typo.


On the chance your post is actually correct and honest - you don't need to focus on canceling your $10 HBO subscription, you need to cut items in the $5-10k/month range.

[surfhb]

I hope this is a troll

[TheAnonOne]

You have made a million dollars a year for 17 years, lets cut that in about half... taxes, career growth, ect

8 mil / 2 for divorce

You have/had 4 million assuming 0 growth, 0 investment at all really.

Your house is maybe 9 months of income.


Your savings rate should be off the charts (90%+), so I don't know what you are doing but "12k" in annual savings is clearly not your problem.

[farfromfire]

I took this post to mean 12k in additional savings which is very possible.
OP, I too suggest an organized case study.

[marty998]

No you're all wrong - it's $12k savings form those items that he listed

So far:
Reduced frequency of several service providers
Canceled many subscriptions (newspapers, Hightail, HBO, etc)
Switched from Amex Platinum to Green
Switched home and car insurances
Went down a metal level on health insurance because I've never had more than checkup expenses, ever.

So far my total savings is $12,652.90 and I want more!

That's a shitload of money to be spending on this items.

Anyway, also going to comment that a $700k house sounds cheap for someone on your income too. (Spoken with a Sydney perspective).

I grew up dirt poor in a shitty situation, so the house has a huge psychological importance for me.

Sorry for trolling, but I'm not really sure what you want us to say? Plugging money leaks is a simple as not buying things you don't need, preparing and planning in advance to get the best deals, and being mindful of triggers and peer pressure.

[Wrecks]

Yes, it's $12,652 now in savings yearly from simply changing or canceling stuff I have no need for--like an Amex Platinum card ($445 yearly savings), housekeeper every other week instead of every week ($3750), changing my car and home insurance ($3500), etc. That savings is trivial in the context of my income but it was just money flushed down the toilet.

Pre-divorce I had about $8M; immediately post-divorce I had slightly less than half of that plus my house; I'm back up to around $5.4M. I should have a lot more than that but my ex-wife was exceedingly expensive, plus I got to pay for 5 years of her Ivy League graduate education. My post-tax savings rate is around 70% in the 2 years since the divorce, before that it was more like 20%. I should note that I'm a self-employed sole proprietor, so I'm counting unreimbursed business expenses as part of my routine spending. If those are deducted those my savings rate is substantially higher.

I have no plans to retire...ever. My job is awesome, I work 70+ hours a week and it is completely painless for me. As I explained earlier, I grew up poor and in a shitty situation, so money to me is just about security...insulating myself in every way possible from ending up back in the trailer park. It's illogical and purely emotion based.

So I'm really only looking for some kind of list of things to check to reduce waste. Think of it this way: If someone were to decide to embark on a MM lifestyle, is there a checklist of things to examine?

Also just want to note that I've been making high 6 low 7 for about the last 8 years, before that it was less.

[JustGettingStarted1980]

Do you track expenses on Mint or YNAB? That's your checklist... run down every line item on a regular basis and brainstorm how you can eliminate them or make them more efficient.

For example, last year I did a home energy project and lowered electrical and gas bills by replacing light bulbs with LEDs, installing more installation, etc...saved me about 1K per year for about 10 hours time

Also, your hourly rate is so ridiculous that you would be better off paying someone to find these efficiencies for you, and putting in a few more hours at work.

On a completely different note, What do you want all this money for? It's not just a numbers game, you have to figure out your own personal goals besides just MORE.

[surfhb]

Well...this is a retirement forum so thats out of the equation i guess ;)

Yeah....what is your goal in life besides working the equivalent of 2 full time jobs every week?   What do you do when youre not working?

If you cant think of anything you are living the perfect life.     Just be mindful of where your money goes and to what.   Ask yourself if you really need this item or service?    Do you need the car?   Of course you dont.     Sell it

This site is just as much about wasteful spending as it is about Financial independence.   There is no checklist

Did you read the articles?   Which ones?   What stands out?

[Wrecks]

What is my goal? The money is just insulation at this point. The way I grew up shaped my perceptions and has driven some serious paranoia about making sure that I'm insulated from all potential adverse events.

What do I do when I'm not working? Well, 70 hours a week isn't as terrible as it sounds because I have zero commute and I can kick off whenever I want. I work 7 days a week from 7 to 3, from 3 to 5 I'm riding my bike or hiking and then another 2-3 hours of work. Some weeks I'll put some extra hours in so I can take a full day off on Saturday for a long-distance ride. Dinner, book, bed. I'm boring. I'm done traveling extensively--I had many years of over 100k miles per year all over the world for work and that's more than enough for a lifetime. This year I only did about 20k.

I'm working my way through all the articles; the ones that stand out are about generating passive income. Most of my income is still from my work. With the Republican tax plan that was just passed I'm going to get hammered pretty hard as an active pass through in a high-tax state. People keep saying that the tax bill benefits the 1%...but really it's only a subset of the 1%. So passive income, taxed at a lower rate, is more important than ever.

The car, unfortunately, is needed. I'm a biking fanatic--however, the route to the grocery store is extraordinarily dangerous--55 mph road with no shoulder. And I say this as an experienced road cyclist. Also my fancy car isn't worth much any more, as my ex had a minor accident habit, so not much resale value there.

I found another one this morning: Switching my cell from Verizon to Trackfone. About $800 a year.

I know $13,000 savings in a year is not much in the context of my income...but over 20 years that's $260,000 without counting the money it would make (at 6.5% 13,000 yearly savings deposited in increments of 1 months would be roughly $578,000). That's not trivial.

[Metta]

What is my goal? The money is just insulation at this point. The way I grew up shaped my perceptions and has driven some serious paranoia about making sure that I'm insulated from all potential adverse events.

What do I do when I'm not working? Well, 70 hours a week isn't as terrible as it sounds because I have zero commute and I can kick off whenever I want. I work 7 days a week from 7 to 3, from 3 to 5 I'm riding my bike or hiking and then another 2-3 hours of work. Some weeks I'll put some extra hours in so I can take a full day off on Saturday for a long-distance ride. Dinner, book, bed. I'm boring. I'm done traveling extensively--I had many years of over 100k miles per year all over the world for work and that's more than enough for a lifetime. This year I only did about 20k.

I'm working my way through all the articles; the ones that stand out are about generating passive income. Most of my income is still from my work. With the Republican tax plan that was just passed I'm going to get hammered pretty hard as an active pass through in a high-tax state. People keep saying that the tax bill benefits the 1%...but really it's only a subset of the 1%. So passive income, taxed at a lower rate, is more important than ever.

The car, unfortunately, is needed. I'm a biking fanatic--however, the route to the grocery store is extraordinarily dangerous--55 mph road with no shoulder. And I say this as an experienced road cyclist. Also my fancy car isn't worth much any more, as my ex had a minor accident habit, so not much resale value there.

I found another one this morning: Switching my cell from Verizon to Trackfone. About $800 a year.

I know $13,000 savings in a year is not much in the context of my income...but over 20 years that's $260,000 without counting the money it would make (at 6.5% 13,000 yearly savings deposited in increments of 1 months would be roughly $578,000). That's not trivial.

You have quite a bit of financial insulation at this point. You may want to consider working on non-financial forms of wealth: relationships, health, and so forth. There are things that money can't insulate you from that these intangible forms of wealth will.

[aperture]

I know $13,000 savings in a year is not much in the context of my income...but over 20 years that's $260,000 without counting the money it would make (at 6.5% 13,000 yearly savings deposited in increments of 1 months would be roughly $578,000). That's not trivial.

Yes it is trivial.  You have 5.4 million, make something north of $900K per year, save 70% (presume after taxes = >$378K/year) and you never want to stop working. You either do not understand math (though you work in science) or you are a troll.

[SC93]

A troll because he will never stop working and is rich? So some of us here are trolls for that?