T-Minus 6 Days: How I Saved The Money

There are a couple questions people ask when I tell them The Plan.

1) How are you going to live?

Simply.


2) How did you save the money?

I'm not entirely sure. I never really felt like I had to tighten my belt. I went out quite a bit, ate a lot at restaurants. I bought all the clothes and video games I wanted. I lived my life as if I had all the money in the world. This was true even when I was working at an entertainment non-profit, and making $35,000.

But when I sit and think about it, I had realize that I had several factors going for my bank account, which many may not have:

• Rent-Controlled Apartment

If I were to move out of my current space, and try to find an equivalent space in Los Angeles (or worse, Santa Monica), it would cost me at least $900 a month. As it is, I happened to luck out during my initial apartment search. I live in an extremely spacious building in a very pretty and quiet neighborhood, located within walking distance of shops and restaurants. And it's rent controlled, so they can't raise the rent beyond 3% a year. I pay about $600 a month now, but I paid $500 when I first moved here.


• I'm Happy and Healthy

Much of this has to do with my relative youth, which is definitely helpful. But I also go the gym a few times a week, I meditate, and I brush and floss. I don't have any significant mental and emotional issues (significant, I said). I'd like to give a very special shout-out to my parents for remaining married all these years - that definitely helped. The bottom line is, I'm a happy person and my life is good. This results in tremendous healthcare cost savings. I don't take any expensive medications, I have no chronic conditions, and I require no complicated dental work. I could probably get by without health insurance, but I'm too risk averse.


• No Debt Load

If there's one thing I kind of regret about the past five years (and it's not a big regret), it's buying a brand new Honda five years ago. I took out a $20,000 car loan, which took me four years to repay. At the very least, I could have purchased a used Honda and had an extra $8000 in my pocket right now. That's about four months living expenses, or about six extra vacations, or all the next-gen video games I can buy. Then again, I graduated from film school with no school loans, and no credit card debt. There are people out there who have all three: car, credit cards, school loans. I can't imagine what the monthly payments are like. Hopefully, I'll never have to find out.


• No Alcohol

I don't drink. This is not a moral decision; I have nothing against imbibing. This year I had my fair share of alcohol, though, and came to a somewhat obvious realization. Alcohol does absolutely nothing for me, and I don't really enjoy it. So I stopped. If you enjoy drinking, though, it gets really expensive really quickly. I've paid $10 for a gin and tonic. Whenever I do that, I thinking, I'm in a bar, that's how much drinks cost, okay. But as soon as I'm out of that context, I realize that I often purchase entire meals for that much.


• No Starbucks

So now we're stretching it. But there are people at my office who drink a Frappuccino every day. So let's do the math. Let's say that's $4 a hit. Twenty or so work days per month, and you're looking at $80 a month. That's almost $1000 a year! Again, coffee does nothing for me. My palate is a little childish, so I tend to favor sweetness over bitterness. When I was a kid, I thought coffee would taste like really awesome hot chocolate. Imagine my disappointment.

[ Next: The Budget (with pie chart and figures) ]