World Series Champs!

We are partying hardcore in the city of brotherly love! The Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series last night and I was all up in the thick of things downtown last night. I watched the game at a bar with about 1,200 of my closest fellow phanatics and after the final out we went wild. We were dumping beers on each other, hugging total strangers, and drinking extremely cheap champagne. It was one of the most amazing moments in my life.

Everyone poured out onto broad street moments after and the streets were absolutely flooded with people! I got on someones shoulders and I could not see an end to all the people in plain sight. We screamed and ran around in the streets around city hall. If you saw some of the images on television last night or this morning you know exactly what I am talking about.

I got home last night, errr I mean this morning, at 330 AM and then woke up at 7 AM for work. I am here at work, but I am more of a corpse than a productive data developer. I took a ton of pictures and videos from the madness last night but I will not be able to upload it all until tonight. I actually have to referee a a high school boys varsity scrimmage tonight after work. Once I get home I will get to it and then I will share the link with you guys so you can see the pics.

I love this city. Philadelphia is absolutely crazy right now. The best part is that everyone is so loving and friendly with each other. We waited a very long time for this moment and now it is here. I just got approved to take off work tomorrow as I am going to get up early and get to the city for the parade. I will most likely begin drinking and partying by 8 AM. Anyone care to join me?

I know this has nothing to do with personal finance directly, but indirectly, it has everything to do with my life. These few days have been some of the most enjoyable times in my life and I am going to continue to enjoy it. I am on cloud nine right now and I hope I never come down. Be easy people!

Gas Prices Down, Are You Driving More?

I guess there are some positives out of this whole economic recession situation that we have found ourselves in the last few months. A few months ago when the price of crude oil was around $120 people were all talking about trying to sell their gas guzzling SUV's and finding fuel efficient vehicles. But oil prices hit a low of $61 yesterday and consumers across the country have been feeling a little bit of relief at the pump.

When gas prices were ridiculously high over the last few months, everyone was screaming that we must drive less and look for alternative methods of transportation so we do not pay for the high gas prices. However, now that gas prices have dropped significantly, are those people screaming before still preaching for other forms of transportation?

Do you change your driving habits based on the price of gas?

I won't lie, I feel alot better filling up my tank now for less than $40, however, I really don't think I am driving more often and taking more trips just because the gas costs less. I definitely made more efforts when gas was so high to carpool and look for shorter routes to my destinations. I even took the train out on the weekends a few times! Many times I answered someones request to come pick them up for an evening out on the town with "Sorry man but we are in a recession!"

So really I am guilty. My habits have changed, as gas prices are cheaper, I will drive more and when gas prices are more expensive, I will drive less. I am my own hypocrite. But I can admit it. What about you? And what about those people screaming earlier this summer? I used to see articles telling people to "Trade in you SUV against oil!". I doubt we will see anyone writing any articles titled "Oil prices are affordable now, but you should still get rid of that gas guzzler!".

If anyone finds one please let me know! Be easy people and carpool!

Making Money Off Sports Fever

If you did not know, I live in Philadelphia and am a huge sports fan of this proud city. This entire city is on another level right now with the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. Yesterday, my friends and I tailgated at the stadium starting at 8 am until 1 am this Monday morning. We had a TV in the parking lot with rabbit ears as we watched the Eagles at 1 pm and then game 4 which the Phillies won late last night. People were running around screaming and hanging out of cars after the game, it took me almost 2 hours to get home!

This craze has created a huge demand for tickets for the World Series as tickets are going for an insane amount of money. My friends won the right to purchase tickets at face value price through a lottery process by the team, they paid $75 for tickets to tonight's game 5. These tickets are going for $1000 on Stub Hub and eBay.

With these situations, when you have a ticket in hand, you have all the power in the world. I wish I could go to tonight's game, but I am not shelling out $1,000 for a ticket. A friend of mine, we will call him Diddy, played this situation out perfectly. Last week, he went onto eBay, and bought the cheapest tickets he could find on there. He bought a pair of tickets in the nosebleed section for $200 total!!!! This was right before the World Series was starting so the "buzz" for it was just beginning.

This morning, he told us he placed an ad on craigslist for 1 ticket and he sold 1 of his tickets for $800! So he is still going to the game AND he made $600 profit of this deal! That is taking advantage of the open market at its finest! Kudos to you Mr. Diddy!

The moral of the story, when you have something that someone else wants, there is always someone else who will pay big bucks for it, especially if its on the verge of something similar to Philadelphia winning a sports championship for the first time in 25 years! If you are from this city, you would understand. Enjoy the day people, I might be scarce for the next few days, especially if we win!

Living Frugal 1.0: Home Cooking

I am on a constant journey to learn how to live frugal. Trying to understand what exactly "frugal" is has been a learning experience the past few months. Many other personal finance bloggers concentrate on this topic and is an objectionable opinion because every single viewpoint of frugality is different.

On one hand, I want to be able to enjoy my life and experience things that I have dreamed of doing since I was a little boy (Or last week's dream of cruising on my own yacht in Ibiza). The reality of it is that I know I spend my money carelessly and I have made humongous strides to become financially conscious of every action in my life. However, I do not want to live a life where every minute of my life is evaluated based on the monetary association of the task, that is just now way to live! Mr. Tough Money Loves wrote a banging article on this aspect titled "If This Is Frugalism, Count Me Out".

So the goal is to find some sort of balance with this idea called being frugal. Easier said than done right? How frugal are you?

Well, for my first installment of frugality, I am going go into my food habits because last night my dad cooked the best homemade chicken gumbo! You may know that I love eating food and much of my money is spent on fast food. However, I have been very disciplined in packing my lunch for work every single day. Ask anyone who works and they will tell you that this is a huge way to save money every month. 20 weekdays in a month and the average lunch meal is between $5-$8, so if you do the math, that is $100-$160 every month just to satisfy one meal a day? Some serious cash flow right there!

On to the gumbo, my dad cooked up a huge pot of this stuff last night. If I could package this stuff up and sell it I would (Currently Accepting Angel Investors ). I will try and mail it to anyone who is interested as my pilot customers (You pay shipping please lol). I told my dad straight up, keep cooking these soups and lots of it because I can rock this stuff at lunch all winter!

I guess this is my first step towards my idea of being frugal. Being frugal is not being cheap, consider it more as being money conscious. During these crazy times in our economy right now, I am doing myself a favor by thinking this way. Do yourself a favor and evaluate your frugality for yourself. Let me know it treats you! Be easy people, its lunch time!

Halloween Costume Ideas?

I am 25 years old and some people say I should stop dressing up every year during Halloween time. I think the people that say that need to just shut up. I will stop dressing up for Halloween when people stop having Halloween parties! Anyways, I know I try and hit the personal finance topics with my writing, but I am sure you know that I love going off on tangents and here is one of them.

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Currently I am coming up with a few lists that will be featured next week, but lets hear what you want to be for this season's masquerade ball! I have a costume party to go to both this and next Friday night so I will be in full effect. Not sure of what I am going to be, but I do know what I WISH I was going as and that is at the following link: GREEN MAN! If you have never watched the show on FX! "It's Always Suny in Philadelphia" then you might not know what I am talking about. Check out this YouTube link below. Here is another link with some more cool stuff bout Green Man and the show!

So lets hear those crazy ideas and please guys stop cross dressing!! Be easy

Credit Card Debt Free

Another one of those selfish posts about my own life, but this one is way past due. In June of 2006 I graduated college with about $2,000 worth of credit card debt. I said to myself "I have a job now and will be able to pay this off in no time!" Well, no time became a few months and then a few years. I went up to $5,500 and back down to $1,500 and then back up some more.

This morning I made a large lump sum payment to pull my balance down to $0.00. I must say it is quite an exhilarating feeling to finally get this done, words can't really justify it at all. I still have mountains of student loan debt to attack, but I have convince myself that it will take time and I will be okay with it. Now that the credit card is paid off, it is time to keep it that way. Any balance I have from now on will be paid off by the end of the month and I plan on sticking to this plan. It will be especially hard to mess this up considering there are no credit cards in my pocket!

Next up I will be breaking down the income and spending habits to better budget every month and implement a method so I can begin building up my savings account again.

I will not celebrate this accomplishment other than this blog post today. The last thing I want to do is go celebrate with a drink or seven at the bar! I noted another blogger making a huge stride in handling CC debt, congrats to Tricia at Blogging Away Debt.

Have some debt stories of your own? How did you feel when you did pay it down? I have a ton of things I would love to say to the credit card companies themselves, but I am sure many others share those "kind" sentiments as well! Have a great day people, I am on cloud 9! Be easy.

One

My Work Life Balance/Procrastination Problem

Man have I been busy! I must say, I am glad that I decided to continue with my part-time graduate school program, but I am really making it much harder on myself by procrastinating like my old days. I know it is my fault, I can easily admit that, however, even though I know it makes my life tougher, I still continue to do it.

It is not going to get any easier in the near future. Not only will I have my normal 8 am -4 pm job routine with night class on Mondays and Wednesdays (6-9 PM), but the refereeing season is getting underway. This is one of my biggest goals currently in my life, to referee as many basketball games during the week as I can. I want it to get so busy that I have to defer games because I just do not have any time. That is my goal. This whole idea is solely driven by money because I can really make some good secondary income if I just get the opportunity.

So somehow I will have to balance the day job, night class two times a week, homework for that night class, and refereeing the youth of America. Did I mention that I also like to work out at least four times a week? Man oh man this is going to be busy, but I really enjoy it because it is more time I won't be spending money! As pitiful as it may sound, the times I make bad financial decisions are the instances where I have too much time on my hands.

How am I going to get enough sleep with all this? Sound like too much? Any advice on dealing with procrastination will be very helpful.

What are your best methods for managing work/school/part-time jobs/pleasure/sleep?

The best answer will win a prize that is currently undetermined! Enjoy your Tuesday people. Go STOCK MARKET!!!

Friday Blog Link Blitz

I like to do this on Friday and throw a list out of some of the best stuff I read all week! check out the links and show them some love this weekend. Watch your wallet this weekend people! Be easy.

The Digerati Life - How the State of the Economy has Affected My Financial Goal

Budgets Are Sexy - 10 Cheap Ways to Woo Your Other Half - Any Day of the Week!

Broke Grad Student - Who Should Pay for a Birthday Dinner?

Tough Money Love - Our Economy Needs More Engineers and Fewer MBA's

My Open Wallet - I'm Mad About Yesterday's Market Gain's

Broke in the Suburb - I Promise...

Money Funk - Cuts Up All the Credit Cards in the Wallet

Hollyisstoppingshopping - Five Frugal Minutes with J Money at Budgets Are Sexy

What Is Considered "Rich" ?

If you have read some of my work before, you know that I love reading big mainstream sites and ripping them apart. So I found another one that I have a little bit of a gripe with, however, this is a small one. Mr. Rick Newman writes in US News & World Report a decent piece titled "What It Takes to Be Rich - Where You Live".

The article provides an in depth statistical presentation of what is considered to be "Rich" in every major city across the U.S. It breaks it down by the top 20 percent and also the top 5 percent and what they make in comparison to the "Average" household income. It really drills home to me that I am poor and everyone around me is poor, but I guess it is because I live in a suburb on Philadelphia. The author definitely provides us with great data and I do not question the accuracy of them at all.

I question the definition he assumes of the word "Rich". Is money everything in this world? To some it may be, but to others maybe not? I guess I just find this to be another one of those superficial articles produced by mainstream media to depict the lines that divide our society today. That is one of the biggest problems I have with society. People hate it when you say that they stereotype people or judge them, but the people denying such notions are walking proof of everything that is wrong with our country (Just check the chinchilla fur coat in his mistress' closet!).

I am not rich and as much as I would love to be one day, I do know that I am probably going to have to work for the rest of my life. I really wish that, as a society, we would stop glorifying and idolizing those who carry around a large wallet or are in the top 5 percent of joint household income.

This may just be a rant on my part but let me know your thoughts. Read the article and let it sit for a bit. I hope one day I will be rich and will have so much money most people would not know what to do with it. However, if I was that rich, I would know what to do with it and my main goal would be to help the less fortunate and those in need so we would stop creating the lines that divide us between "Rich", "Average", and "Poor". Maybe one of these big media outlets will write a nice article about that when/if it ever happens.

What do you consider to be "RICH" ??? Think about it.

Be easy. Doc

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty

It is a great feeling when you fall on blogs that are promoting something for a great cause and I came across one of them this morning. Over at BLOG ACTION DAY, thousands of bloggers have united to discuss a single issue - poverty. The goal is to raise awareness, initiate action and to up shake the web! They have over 11,000 sites participating with an estimated audience of over 11,000,000 visitors! Now that is some serious traffic! I wish I fell upon this a few days before so I could have joined in on it. Nevertheless, check it out and voice your opinions.

During the current financial crisis we are experiencing, we may tend to forget some of the problems that are setting entire countries back and poverty is probably the biggest. CEO's and executives are worried about their share prices when tens of millions of people around the world still live in poverty. Read as much as you can and share it with everyone you know. It is definitely all for an amazing cause. Thanks. Be easy.

-Doc

Life a Mess? Clean Your Room!

Yeah, I have a "case of the Moondays" (Take your pick with those clips). Just do not feel like being at work a) It is cutting into my web 2.0 time b) I have a paper to write for night class tonight. I definitely feel a little out of wack today as well as stressed out.

However, this feeling takes me back to this summer to a point where I was really going nuts. Back around June I was going through a bunch stuff with relationships, home, and work. Pretty much everything in my life felt like it was piling on top of me. I could not sit still without having my mind race at 1,000 MPH. I would talk to a few friends about it seeking advice and they all just told me to try to relax and do things that take my mind off it all. To make it all worse, my finances were all over the place. Credit card debt was mounting and I was not prioritizing paying off any of my debts.

One Saturday I was at home and decided to clean my room and that two hours I spent in my room absolutely changed me! I tore up my entire bedroom and just started throwing stuff away. I was filling up garbage bags and boxes full of old junk: Trading cards, old homework, books, toys (Yes I had toys in my room), magazines, and useless objects (Google lava lamp). I went through a ton of old clothing and tried stuff on and gave all the stuff I would not wear to goodwill. I was moving stuff around and cleaning out everything.

For some odd reason, going through all these old things had a very calming effect on me. Maybe it was the fact I was reminiscing about old memories associated with these items? Or maybe because the act of cleaning things up and putting things back in place actually set my head back in place? I can not explain why, but I urge you to try it for yourself. I really hope you were never in the same state of mind that I was experiencing, but I do know that I made it out of it because of that day.

From that weekend on my room has been cleaner and I have been calmer. During my teenage years, whenever I was down or out of it, I would take my basketball outside and just go dribble around the block or down the street or whatever the ball took me. I am older now and resorted to cleaning, because it would be pretty awkward seeing a 25 year old man dribbling a ball between his legs in the middle of the night right? You would probably call the cops on me!

How do you cope with stress that pulls you down into a depressive state? What activities make it all go away?

The irony in all of this? It was a few weeks later after that for when I started blogging! Pretty crazy seeing it all come full circle. It all popped in my head this morning when I was getting ready for work. Everything happens for a reason!

Financial Crisis: Doing Things Differently?

What a crazy morning! The behavior of the Dow this morning demonstrates the fear of the market right now. It opened on this bright sunny day with a 900 point drop! That's 10% and it even went below the 8,000 point mark! It recovered very quickly back to even but it continues to go down and up and down further and up. It is seeming that the global markets are heading into a recession and there is zero confidence in the governing bodies to right this ship.

How is this effecting you and your financial situation? Many people are saying that it is such a great time to buy stocks because everything is so cheap! However, I still think it is a bit risky right now because everything is volatile right now, I would not buy anything! I am clearing off my credit card debt first (next week we can all celebrate!) and then saving as much money as I can right now into my ING.

As far as doing things different, I am really trying to cut spending as much as I can. My parents and I started cooking larger meals at dinner so there were more leftovers to bring to work everyday. One positive out of all of this is that oil is at a 12 month low and gas prices are fluttering close to $3! This does not mean that I will drive more because it is cheaper but it definitely feels a little better filling up my tank for less.

What else can be done? Are you going out less on the weekends? Weeknights? With the economy the way it is, prices are going up everywhere, even bars! Even the cafeteria at work had to raise its prices for the first time in 5 years! I spent last weekend home the entire time and am definitely going to try and attempt that again this month. You will not believe how much money I do not spend when I stay home!

The crazy thing is I am hearing the same response to almost every question. My friends went to Cali this weekend and I wish I could have gone, but my response to whether I was going was "Dog, we are in a recession!" Another friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go out to eat for lunch and I replied, "We are in a recession man, but I am down for the dollar menu!"

So what changes are you making to cut a few corners during these rough times, I am sure there are a ton of creative ideas out there. Lets hear it. Be easy people and stay positive. We are in a recession.

Thoughts on last night's debate?

I am not going to lie, before this political season I have held zero interest in the election. I was not even registered to vote until an Obama volunteer was going door to door in my neighborhood. I figured it was easy for me to just fill it out real quick and hand it back to her and two weeks later my voter registration card came in the mail. I am not the type to tell someone they should vote this way or that way, it is a personal idea and I really hate people that try and preach why McCain or why Obama.

I am for Obama and it is for this main reason: If the Democratic party had an older candidate who was out of touch with the youth of America like previous candidates, I would not be interested. Yes it is a very ignorant comment on my part and irresponsible as well, but that's my stance. Obama has engaged voters of the younger generations that changes to our country can be made, he is a progressive thinker who I truly believe will listen to the voices in America. That's my stance, you will not hear me rant again. But on to the debate.

I sat with my mom, dad, and older sister for the entire 90 minutes of the debate. I was also on Twitter the entire time (Twitter me @doctor_s), they had a special Election 2008 page where hundreds of people were tweeting like crazy with their views on every point in the debate, it was very interesting and hilarious.

Some of my favorite moments...

• McCain and both questions he received from African-American questioners. First, he told Oliver Clark that he probably did not know who Freddie and Fannie were? Second, he forgot the second questioner's name when thanking her for the questions. Her name was Ingrid and McCain just looked uncomfortable in both situations.
  
• McCain just looked uneasy up there, he made good points with his new economic policy that he introduced, but he was really pacing back and forth the entire time.
  
• When the question asks you to prioritize three item in our economy by importance, do not say that you can work on all three of them at the same time Mr. McCain. That one hit a nerve with me!
  
• Obama was really long winded, many times I was just wondering when he was going to get to the point. However, he did reference JFK a few times and I thought that was very subtle and highly effective on his part to try and portray himself as the next one.
  
• Neither of them answered many of the questions and Obama asked many times for follow-ups to McCain's follow-ups.
  
• McCain referring to Obama as "that one"? Kind of disrespectful, but not racist. McCain finished his statement by referring himself to "this one". It was just sloppy on old man McCain's part.
  
• The final question: "What don't you know and how will you learn it?" I thought this was a great opportunity for both of them to say something memorable but I did not like either of their answers as they both reflected on their past?

Overall, I found it to be very entertaining, much of that due to some of the stuff people were saying on Twitter. What did you think of it? Give me some honest feedback regardless of whether you are Democratic, Republican, or still cheering for Ross Perot! Any moments stick out in you heard for it? Hmmmmm?

Synchroblog: Energy Crisis Must be Top Priority

I mentioned last week about the Synchroblog Project and today is the day! Myself and 8 other PF blogger-istas are all coming at you today in a joint effort to answer the question:

What is the single most important initiative that the next administration should undertake to improve the economic health of the U.S. middle class?

Let's hear your thoughts out there on this question, but if you ask me, the next administration has to make some large and quick moves when it comes to our country and its energy crisis. Gas prices absolutely decimate families who barely make enough money to get by every day. When gas prices skyrocket like they did this year, it sets them back even farther.

We live in a country that has arguably the most intelligent scientists in the world. Yet, the last ten years has consisted of just talk about the progressive technologies that are supposed to rescue us from our dependency on oil. Where are the solutions? Let us hope that once we have a president in the White House without any historical ties to oil companies that some initiatives will catch more steam. I really think it is a conspiracy theory that many of the most powerful and rich men that run these oil companies have such a huge influence on legislation in our government to prevent the mass implementations of alternative energies, but again, that is just a theory on my mind. We have seen an increase in hybrid cars being produced, purchased, and driven on our roads today, but we need to speed this trend up exponentially if we intend to make progress with our energy crisis. More incentives need to be provided to large energy and oil companies to come up with solutions that venture into alternative sources of energy such as wind, water, solar, and ethanol.

I am not one of those crazy environmentalist that make their entire life revolve around being green. However, I am not a stubborn fool because you do not have to be a scientist to know that our environment is changing and any breakthroughs we can make to reduce the amount of crude oil we consume as a country will benefit our environment. Other countries have made great strides, so why not us? It has to start with the leadership of our country and hopefully the next guy up after the moron presently in the White House will make this one of our country's top priorities.

Make sure you check out all the other sites participating in this live project:

Tough Money Love - Personal finance education

Blunt Money - Long-term thinking

My Journey to Millions - Less government intervention

My Dollar Plan - Education

Clever Dude - Accountability

Cash Money Life - Pork-barrel spending

Student Scrooge - Education

Fiscal Zen - Confidence in banking/lending

Rebalanced Your 401k?

I am only 25 years old so my retirement account is only about 2 years old. I do have some cash in there but most of the account is full of money contributed by my company. However, the big losses do concern me because I am losing just like everyone else. The difference between me and the 65 year old man who was looking to retire this year? I have a ton of time for the market to bounce back and make some gains. Someone who was planning on retiring this year might e second guessing it after experiencing some significant losses. My hope is that they got good advice and as they got older they moved their money into investment engines that are far more conservative than the stock filled mutual finds. Some financial advisers say people who have diversified portfolios are not getting hit as hard as everyone else. I would really like to see their accounts!

Regardless, have you made any changes over the last week or month? I was on twitter and facebook and some some people's status stating "Rebalancing my 401k". Is that really the smart thing to do? I am mostly in funds that are largely international so I am getting hammered. My plan is just to leave it alone and let this situation fix itself. Am I a moron? What are you doing? I am calling all you CFA's out there! Spit some good advice to all of us, in return we will give you a virtual high five and a few nice words. Speak on it people!

Doc

Weekend update!

Wow. Guess what I did this weekend? Actually guess what I did not do this weekend? For the first time that I can remember, I was in before midnight on both nights this weekend. You may be alughing at me but this is a big feat for me. No wild nights out and no crazy spending whatsoever this weekend. I think all the money I spent this weekend wa $20 that was for admission to a beerfest at a houseparty in Manayunk and that money was being donated for charity.

I posted earlier this morning an article for the upcoming Synchroblog thinking it was this morning, but that is not until tomorrow so we will save it for then!

Looks like the market is reacting to the labor announcements from last week with the higher unemployment rates. We will see how it reacts the rest of the day. I will be back later but enjoy the AM peoples. Be easy.


Doc

September Goals in Review

Lets take a look back at my horrible attempts at making goals and achieving them for the month of September. I hope some of the people out there are doing a better job than I am!

Pay off at least 50% of my remaining CC debt: PUSH! By next week I will be totally credit card and interest accumulating debt free! It just took me a few days longer than September but I am just waiting for this paycheck tomorrow and it will all be processed and paid off by next week.

Submit that damn FSA reimbursement!: FAILED! During my declaration of goals for this past month, I guaranteed that I would submit this stupid FSA reimbursement. Well, I didn't do it and yes I am a fool for thinking I could. I truly am a moron when it comes to paperwork.

Reduce number of fast food trips: COMPLETED! By the numbers I spent $216 in July, $187 in August, and $132 in September! My fast food spending is decreasing significantly by the month! I am going to shoot for $100 or less for October!

Get back on my gym habits: COMPLETED! I was on fire during the beginning of September as I made it to the gym 5 times a week during the first 3 weeks. However, the last week I only made it 3 times, but it definitely outperforms my goal of 4 times per week! I feel great!

Find some Refereeing work: FAILED! I did not send out any communications, emails, or phone calls for this goal and have to get on it ASAP, like tomorrow!

Move back in my old bedroom: FAILED! I cleaned the room, but I never made any effort to not sleeping on the couch and enjoying the confines of a nice queen sized bed! Something must be wrong with me right?

Not bad for the month: 2 completed, 3 failed, and 1 push. I will start figuring out what I need to get done this month, but it is huge that the CC debt will be gone. I keep talking about how it WILL BE GONE, I am not going to mention it until it IS GONE. Enjoy the nice cool fall day today people, make sure you tune into the VP Debate tonight at 9 PM and leave some of your thoughts on it afterwards! Be easy!

How Do You Live Below Your Means?

A very straightforward question: How do you live below your means?

It is a very common term that is thrown around all across the personal finance world and I have been having an extremely tough time coming to grips with this idea. So I pose this question to you with the hopes of getting real examples to help me analyze my current situation and hopefully other readers can benefit from the insightful comments of everyone out there!

What I would like you to do is tell us what it means to you to "live below your means". Is it something that you have grown accustomed to? Or did you really have to work at it to reach the point you are at? Or are you not even close to that point at all?

I will start off with myself. To me, living below your means describes a mentality to do less with the goal of having more later. Maybe this is why I struggle with this idea so much because I have always been set on living every second of life concentrating with right now. This philosophy often gets me in trouble with respect to my personal finance. I am saving for the future, just not enough. I do have future plans, I just lose sight of them very often. Living below your means is a disciplined mindset that forces you to keep your future goals on your brain at all times. A disciplined person is cognizant at all times about how every single one of their actions affects the outcome of the future.

That may sound a little profound of an answer but I tried. What do you want from me? I work in I.T. people! Anyways, lets here some feedback, tell me your stories about how you live below your means and what impact it has in your life. As my boy Joeykrak would say "SPEAK ON IT!!!" Have a good day people and be easy.