Living Below Your Means Archives

How to Increase Your Savings Rate When You Get a Raise

One of the easiest ways to increase your household savings rate is to take advantage of raises at your job. Actually any type of raise or increase to your income can be used to quickly accelerate your savings rate. For example, I was recently notified that I was getting a market increase at my job. […]

How to Calculate Your Household Savings Rate

If you follow any financial independence blogs or podcasts … a resounding theme is to save a lot more than you spend. Some bloggers call it “growing the gap” … which basically means increasing your income while lowering your expenses. Everything leftover would be considered savings. In order to reach financial independence one day in […]

What Is the True Cost of Owning a Car in 2018?

After paying for housing, our next largest monthly expense comes from transportation. Not only do we have car payments (just like most Americans), but there are plenty of other expenses tied to transportation each month. The makes the true cost of owning a car a lot higher than what it may seem. For those interested […]

How Much Does It Really Cost to Own a Home in 2018?

Want to know what I consider my biggest financial mistake? Actually, it would be my wife and I’s combined financial mistake … which was buying a home that was too big for our family. About a decade ago, we bought 3,360 square foot home with a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. At the time, we […]

My Grandfather Taught Me Long Ago Never to Buy a Car on Credit

Another Lesson from The Great Depression – Don’t Spend Money You Don’t Have

A few weeks ago, my youngest son and I had the opportunity to interview my grandfather for a class project. My son’s class was tasked with interviewing someone who had lived through a historic event. We decided to interview my grandfather … who along with my grandmother both lived through The Great Depression. We found […]

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