Month: August 2014

Competency or Mastery

martial-arts-masterI recently discovered a blog by JD Roth, the guy that started get rich slowly. I’m enjoying reading his articles, and would like to highlight a few in my posts. One of the first that caught my attention was about tenacity verses talent, largely because I think I fall in the tenacity section! It describes about learning a new skill and the hours needed to become competent or to gain mastery. If you want to be reasonably competent, you need to spend approximately Continue Reading

1 Years Salary Spent on the Wedding?

ringsI just read an interesting article on Fox business news describing that the 2013 Real Weddings Study revealed that the average US wedding costs are close to $30,000. Wow that is a fair chunk of change, considering the average household income is in the low $50,000 range. As may be expected, there is quite a range of costs between the states, and it looks like if you want to spend the least the best state is Continue Reading

Carpooling

LA-trafficHousing, food and transportation are typically the big three expenses in one’s budget, and so finding ways and means to lower these can really boost your escape velocity into the land of the financially independent. There are several great ways to save money in your daily commute, with one of my favorites being biking that I wrote about earlier. Yet, biking may not be for everyone, and you may have to drive as part of your commute. Carpooling is a great way to save money here, Continue Reading

Fuel Economy

gaspistolBuying a fuel efficient car and keeping it for 5 years or more can save you 1000s of dollars  in gas. There are plenty of options for getting fuel efficient cars, you can go for hybrids that include plug-varieties, all electric or those that run on diesel. There’s a lot of choices nowadays, and when you are calculating your overall costs you may even want to add in very fuel efficient gasoline cars. One place I have found very easy to use that helps me compare cars of all types and costs associated with each is Continue Reading

More Fruits and Vegetables!

FD0000A056Focusing on your health is of huge importance to the Frugal Lifestyle, as you want to enjoy as many of your years as you can, and without wasting tons of money on healthcare costs. You could become vegetarian, although this still relatively uncommon in the US with a Vegetarian Times Magazine survey back in 2008 revealing that there are 7.3 million million US vegetarians (3.2 percent of the population). Being vegetarian can certainly be a great frugal step but if this is a little extreme for you, upping your fruits and vegetable intake is likely to be a significant health benefit to you Continue Reading