It's What I've Been Doing All Along

munchkin
Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:39:57 +0000

I totally agree with Professor Elizabeth Warren. It’s the fixed expenses from housing and health insurance. Those expenses are not that flexible and not discretionary.

Otoh, I am looking at ourselves and we never made that much money, I was in and out of the work force (sometimes by necessity, sometimes by choice, sometimes forced) :o. My h was laid off for long stretches of time (2 years once, 9 months another) but we managed to do reasonably well. We are lucky we had good health, resides in Canada now with it’s universal health care system (big relief to have a safety net - downside, we pay the higher of both US & Canadian taxes).

One of the main things that we are doing fine nowadays was that we are really good savers, and always spend way beneath our means. I still remember the cockroach infested 1 bedroom in a high crime area (right by a university) we lived in with our 2 babies when we started out. Not that we reco anyone to do the same.