I think one of the most fascinating things about reading a book like “The Millionaire Next Door” is the personal descriptions about how people spend their money. As I talk to friends and family, I find the same level of fascination when listening to them describe purchases they’ve made, or are planning on making. What’s kind of neat about listening to friends, families, neighbors etc is that I have a rough idea of how much money they make, therefore it’s easy to see how they prioritize their money. I don’t do this to judge anyone, rather I do it just because I find it fascinating to see what other people do with their money.
If anyone knows of a good book that has a lot of personal stories about how people manage their money, I’d love to hear about it. In the absence of a good book, I’ll continue to browse the pages of my favorite personal finance blogs to learn more about what they are doing with their money.
I’d also like to hear from readers to find out some of their circumstances. Leave a comment and tell everyone some of your basics. How about using a format like this:
Approximate income
What are your vices?
Are you a saver?
Do you spend less than you earn? By what percentage?
Any examples of frugality that you are proud of?
1) I make about $1,400 a month, not including income I earn online or by babysitting.
2) Music on iTunes. Seriously. I could buy music every day. I also like to buy clothes, but as long as I stay out of the stores, I’m OK.
3) I’m definitely more of a saver than a spender.
4) It depends on the month, but depending on what other expenses I have, I’m saving between 40-50% of my income. However, I’m living at home with my parents and so don’t have the expense of rent/mortgage or a lot of good, but that’s where I’m at right now.
5) I don’t know if I’m really frugal, but I keep myself to a budget and choose not to buy a lot of things in order to spend on other things. I’ll go without eating out for several days in order to be able to afford a nice dinner. I also babysit a lot, which I don’t plan for each month, but which affords me some pocket money for things that I wouldn’t normally buy (like… music on iTunes).
I agree with you that it’s so interesting to read about personal stories of how people manage their money. I started my blog mostly to keep track of that for me and my boyfriend, because I’d so enjoyed reading about how other people do it!
1) I make quite a bit more than comment one, by just about 3 times. However I’ve been running on fumes for a while now trying to support a family, we own a house, and get my spouse in to running her own business.
2) I can’t really afford vices anymore. If I could it would probably be computer gear, audio gear, and digital photography gear . . . typical tech geek stuff.
3) I would like to think of myself as a saver, I do put 6% of my salary to my company retirement account which is matched 100%, but only to not lose the match funds since outside of this were running at about a negative 2-4% per month right now. Not too much, but over 2 years we’re now pretty much empty so we have to tighten up even more.
4) See 3.
5) I wouldn’t call myself frugal, but I sure wouldn’t call myself wasteful either. Currently it’s just the necessities for me though.
1) About 10,000 a year (I’m a student full time)
2) Food, I’m a big foodie. Usually eating out and trying new things.
3) Usually a saver, until I get enough to buy what I want with some money left over.
4) I spend less than I earn if you don’t count school related expenses, by about a third I’d estimate.
5) Lately I’ve taken up cooking, as opposed to eating out so much. And for reading, getting whatever books I want to read through the library, or worst case, used on Amazon.
Income: $126k/year
Expenditures: $82k/year (of which $30k is the mortgage for a TINY ranch and $22k is childcare)
Vices: Unfortunately the 2 biggest expenditures in our budget is housing and childcare, but they are also amongst the lowest we can possibly find in our area and are a necessity. Besides those 2, we only spend $30k/year on other things. We admittedly indulge in nice restaurants more often than our wallets would like. Overall, I’m definitely a saver, with about $25k/year combined going into our retirement accounts. To save money, we no longer go on vacations more than 4 hours from our home.
1. Income > $100K annually
2. Vices = not so many really.
3. I’m a saver and big on budgets too. Save for what you need; no credit card debt.
4. I am paying for kids’ college right now so I am only saving around 7 or 8% besides that; but cash flowing college so I will have no loans to repay at the end. The kids have some skin in the game too, it’s not a free ride for them.
5. I got a second job to help with cash flow and to help my general marketability – a good thing in today’s economy. The second job helps me develop other skills and build new contacts. I also pre-pay my mortgage down so if I needed to I could cut back on that but don’t want to.