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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
I'm in one of those nasty situations where I make a little and owe a lot.
I always chuckle a bit when people talk about "disposable income." What an odd term. The word disposable has that connotation of something one could throw away and not have to worry about. If that were the case, I don't think I'd ever have a disposable income.
My money is pretty much accounted for each month, and there's nothing left over. I don't have a disposable income, when you consider the most sober definition of the term. I haven't had one since before moving out of my parents' place back in 1998.
This is why I don't need to heed people when they talk about cutting expenses, controlling your spending, or participating in Buy Nothing Day. To me, cutting expenses and controlling my spending means cancelling my World of Warcraft account to save $15 a month, and perhaps only going out once in a given month (and try to spend less than $40 when going out). There is very little else where I can save money. I've done everything else, mostly. But at the same time, I don't want to lose my mind....
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B_G, your pain is palpable. It shows in your posts in this thread. You don't need to save money. My financial "guru," Dave Ramsey, would say that you don't have a debt or extravagant lifestyle problem. But you know that. You have an income problem. And things are not likely to get better until you find some way to change that side of your financial equation. I don't know what that change would be. I know you enjoy your work very much, but is it, in the long term, (buzz word alert--) sustainable? You sound weary, so probably not. If not, better to change sooner rather than later. Perhaps you need to learn new skills. Ejecting from the couch, as you said. And, as uncomfortable as it may be, leave behind the poor but honest intellectual paradigm. Embrace a more bourgeois attitude.
Quote:
Originally Posted by raging moderate
...lest i be accused of stepping on one idea without suggesting another, my financial guru of choice is Dave Ramsey. I'm not in cahoots with him or anything but he gives really good, sensible advice for real people trying to make their financial lives better. Stash a small emergency fund, snowball your payments by paying off the smallest debts first, rejoice in your successes, use your smaller paid-off debt payments to compound payments on larger debt, repeat. It was my strategy for paying off debt and it as worked outstandingly well...but by paying off debt and then using that monthly payment amount plus the payment on the next smallest debt, and so on, i was able to get rid of almost all of my debt without considerable hardship.
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I don't want to get too evangelical here, but "the Gospel according to Dave" was a big part of my journey from deeply in debt divorced 23 year old exotic dancer to property owning 33 year old investment fund manager with a master's degree. Verging on wealthy and living well below my means. Change can happen.
Lindy
Verging on wealthy, yes, and on the road in a 26 year old car.
