Am I buying it at a fair price? Payment was the focus, not the purchase price of the vehicle.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\nI wisely left the dealership, bought me a used Toyota Celica with 150,000 miles, a bunch of rust, faded paint, requiring minimal repairs. It didn\u2019t look good, but it fit my pay grade level, I drove it for 3 years,<\/g> and sold it for almost the same amount of money I paid for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe overall cost of ownership of that car, at that time of my life and earnings level, fit me perfectly. The big concern I had was I had $10,000 in student loans to pay, which I factored in to<\/g> my overall budget. So that absolutely precluded me from affording a new car. My plan, after paying off the student loans, was to save money to pay for a nicer car in cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI could also tell you the story about how I got a loan to buy a bunch of furniture, but I’d rather not discuss that failure of confusing a need with a wa<\/g>nt!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Boost Your Income<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nMost people think the easiest way to balancing wages with purchases is to cut expenses. That is definitely one method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other way to live in balance is to increase your paychecks. That could be taking a second job, having your significant other go back to work, or starting a side business. Raising the proceeds into your budget may allow you to lower or even eliminate your need to cut your bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are all valuable ways to increase your pay. Our favorite, being entrepreneurial at heart, and looking for passive income is starting a side business. We’ll have a whole section dedicated to this topic in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Build An Emergency Fund<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nOnce you achieve living in harmony with your bills, the next step is living below your means<\/em>. When you get there, it is when you can start saving money. Businesses call it, \u201cbeing in the black\u201d versus \u201cbeing in the red\u201d. Personal finance guru\u2019s call it being cash flow positive. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is the time to start building that fund for rainy days. It will enable you to resist tapping into credit for an emergency. Once that happens, you end up on a slippery slope of credit again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I learned the base of my personal finance plan from my mom at a very young age. She was a single mother, raising 4 kids by herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still remember noticing the steel threads sticking out from the bald tires on her car. I told her, \u201cmom, that looks dangerous. You need to buy new tires!\u201d. Her response, \u201cI know. I should have replaced them months ago. But I already spent our piggy bank on other items. I don\u2019t want to get a loan but I may have to do that\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had to go thru the process of going to her credit union to get a short term<\/g> loan and got the new tires. And once again ended up with yet another line of credit to pay monthly. It was a Mandatory Expense that had to be taken care of as it impacted her ability to earn an revenue. <\/p>\n\n\n\nMy mom did a great thing having a savings for emergencies, and was doing better than most that never had one to begin with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moral of the lesson was that life will thru your curve balls. You can\u2019t prepare for all of them, but you can try to prepare yourself as best as possible. Only when you have a balanced budget and an emergency fund can you truly be financially independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Spend Less Money Than You Bring In<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThis is the holy grail of this article. Spending less money than you bring in is essential to living in harmony with your wages and expenses and getting to living below your means<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLater in life, I knew of many people making six-figure compensation that were broke with massive amounts of debt. One of those people was my neighbor. We lived in a rental house and he owned a $1.2M home (or should I say was paying $8,000 per month mortgage on a house that was still owned by his bank) but didn’t have the cash to pay for a little thing like a car wash. He was trapped, broke, and hoping he never got fired or laid off. His car always had a perpetual coat of dirt covering its faded white paint and it was the eyesore of the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had software development skills that was<\/g> in high demand and often thought of switching jobs to a higher paying one. That may have worked for him, but I caution most people that making more money is a solution but it requires discipline. It still requires spending less money than you bring in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nLiving a life you can afford can be challenging at first, a bit humbling, and may not be accepted by your loved ones. But you’ll quickly adjust, with the eventual goal of living below<\/em> your means, spending less, and building a savings<\/g> for emergencies is the path to true financial freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>
\n
<\/span>You May Also Like These Posts<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n[wp_show_posts id=”1827″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Back To You<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nDo you have any tips or advice on living within your means?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You\u2019ve probably heard the phrase, “living within your means.” But what does it really mean? Simply put, if you\u2019re living within your means, you can … Living Within Your Means Read More \u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"How To Live Within Your Means in 8 Easy Steps | ManagingMyMoney","_seopress_titles_desc":"Struggling to stay afloat? Feel like you're buried under a mountain of debt? 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Simply put, if you\u2019re living within your means, you can … Living Within Your Means Read More \u00bb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managingmymoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}