Exteme Frugality Hits the Mainstream

Gourmet Magazine just featured an article called “Extreme Frugality” about how a family of 6 will live on $550 a month after major expenses (or $41k a year). I hope some of that frugality includes at least a little investing for retirement…but this should be a great read. You know it’s mainstream when this high end magazine touts the virtue of saving money…and they will probably make it look pretty too. Of course $41k a year is not terrible, it could be worse…

Here are some quotes from the article, which can hopefully inspire Utahns to save or spend less than we earn.

I felt entitled to live as did my father (although he was 25 years older than I) and all those successful, happy people in ads and on TV…Like 70 percent of our fellow Americans, we were living off our VISA cards with no means of paying them off any time soon. As a result, we had $75,000 in credit-card debt and owed $245,000 on a $289,000 house. What had I been thinking?

Ninety percent of us buy something we don’t need every month, and Americans in all walks of life—except the very rich—carry $961 billion of credit-card debt at any given moment, paying $1.22 for every $1 they spend. For the first time ever, my family is going to do the unthinkable. We’re going to live within our means.

Written by admin on April 2nd, 2009 with no comments.
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