People often assume we obsess over money. That’s actually pretty far from the truth. In fact, we propose you might think about money more than we do.
What’s more important is that you approach every financial decision from a place of strength and control, not weakness. In the video, we discuss a few reasons why our lifestyle lends itself to that mindset.
Lauren talks about how she finds she rewards herself for her intentions before she starts a diet or forms a new habit.
Similarly, financial New Year’s resolutions are often preceded by splurging on a new TV or computer, when the hard work of getting the budget under control hadn’t been addressed yet.
Mike is still feeling under the weather today, so it?s my first solo video!
I wanted to talk about, well, that I don?t really know what I?m talking about.
Mike has always been financially minded? me, not so much. I?ve always trusted Mike completely, and that led me to not always ask about what was going on with our money.
When we started making our YouTube channel about finance, I was a little nervous since I didn?t know what I would be talking about. So I started researching and reading and asking Mike the questions I might have been too embarrassed to ask before.
This brought up the question of whether it’s OK for one spouse to be in control of the finances?
For us, Mike enjoys all the personal finance stuff, so why not let him take care of it?
I think it?s OK for one spouse to be in control, but it?s important for the other person to still know what?s going on. (We talked about this in our Joint vs. Separate Bank Accounts video)
I came up with a few questions to ask to get started:
How much money do we save a month?
Are we in debt?
Do we have an emergency fund?
Where are our bank accounts?
In the video I answer those questions, and throw in a few more in depth questions. Asking these helped me to know exactly how much we save and why.
Hey guys! Just a quick update to tell you about our new email newsletter. We’re going to be sharing our income, expenses, net worth, and complete budget every month. Be sure to sign up below so you don’t miss it!
It’s been one year since making plans for extreme early retirement. How are we doing? In short, we’re falling behind for the first time this month. But don’t worry, there’s a reason.
We decided to simplify our lives and focus our efforts on our jobs and making YouTube videos. Unfortunately that meant making some tough decisions.
Watch the video to see how far behind we are, and how we plan to get back on top!
We mention all the time that our frugality isn’t a sacrifice for us. That’s because we buy only the things we truly love and cut everything else out of the budget.
Here’s a list of a few things we spend money on and a few things we couldn’t care less about.
A lot of this video was inspired(ripped off) from one of my favorite bloggers Tynan. He has an article called Polarizing Purchases where he describes how he is able to travel and buy (specific) nice things without the need for a “job.”
We have lived our lives pretty much the same way, buying only the things that are truly important to us.
If you’re just getting started budgeting, here are 9 simple ways you can get started saving money.
1. Make coffee at home (we cold brew).
2. Buy generic medicine and food.
3. Borrow eBooks from the library.
4. Downgrade your internet speed.
5. “Pre-game” before going out to bars.
6. Sell one item on craigslist, right this minute.
7. Don’t speed (fuel economy and tickets)
8. Make your own household cleaners.
9. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store.
Have any more tips to share? Leave a comment below!
Some people seem to think we live in a cardboard box and eat ramen noodles to save money. In this video we talk about how we save money in the 3 categories that people spend most of their money.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average household spends $1400/mo on housing, $750/mo on transportation, and $550/mo on food.
We make up a lot of our savings in these three areas by being flexible on house size, driving only one car, and limiting our restaurant eating.
Food is still a work in progress for us, but we’re getting better.
Hope you’re feeling nosy! We’re about to strip down to our financial birthday suit and reveal our income, expenses and net worth. We did it to keep ourselves accountable to our goals and make things more interesting for you guys.
We debated for months whether we should or not, but decided it would need to happen sooner or later, so why not sooner!
We’ll cover our expenses in detail in another video.
Here’s a link to the Blank_Net_Worth_Projections?spreadsheet I referenced in the video.
Let us know if you have any questions in the comments. Thumbs up if you like this video, and don’t forget to subscribe!
Here is a tour of our house. We show just a few of the ways we’re able to save 75% of our income every month.
The biggest budget items for most people are:
1. Housing
2. Transportation
3. Food
We keep costs down by living simply in a small house, saving cash for our car, and limiting our restaurant eating to $50/mo.
Also be sure to DIY everything, buy used, and cut your energy costs as much as possible (gas for the car and electricity at home).