Why You Should Be a Mutant, Not a Miser

Bring confidence to your wealth building with simplified strategies from The Money Guy. Learn how to apply financial tactics that go beyond common sense and help you reach your money goals faster. Make your assets do the heavy lifting so you can quit worrying and start living a more fulfilled life.

[GSR]

Thank you. I needed to hear this.
I used to say 50% of my gross salary, then this year I dropped it to 40%. Even when I run my numbers with a fixed dollar contribution that will let me live an awesome retirement, I sometimes feel the need to increase it.

[tomj]

Why turn it off when you get that from making choices that not only save money but are better? I've got many examples but let's take the one from last night (Halloween). I started by playing 80's music videos on the TV while I made a jack-o-lantern pepperoni and a sausage, mushroom, onion pizzas from scratch. After we sat down with the finished pizzas I played the classic cartoon from the 30's "Bottles" and then we watched the original "Nightmare on Elm Street". Halfway through the movie I stopped it for an intermission where it was back to the 80's music videos while I made kettle corn on the stove top to munch on while we finish the movie. The pizzas were a total of $7, another 30 -50 cents for the kettle corn and the music videos, cartoon and movie were all free. No matter what our net worth grows to, there is no way that I would ever do anything else because not even the finest pizzeria is better and nothing beats enjoying a relaxing pizza and movie night at home.

My other latest money saver is that I noticed last week that for one day only our small town grocery store had 20% off of store gift cards so we went and scored $3, 000 in gift cards (the limit) for just $2, 400. Since we only buy sale items this is a huge savings for us. Not only that but we tied the trip into town for the gift cards with going to the dump as we passed by, going to the bank as well as our local butcher to make our gasoline go further which not only saves money but reduces pollution, wear and tear on our vehicle and I just love being efficient as it makes everything easier.

The best memories don't come from spending, they come from doing and enjoying time with loved ones. You can't take "it" with you but you can leave it behind to help those that come after you.

Cheers!