Comments on: Are You Living ‘Within Your Means’ or ‘Below Your Means’?

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:21:54 +0000

I truly believe that you should have what you want BUT want what you have… Do we even know why we want things? What is our motivation behind wanting stuff anyway? The other thing I embrace is I have nothing in my life that causes me pain…whether it’s a relationship, a thing, a memory…whatever it is/was I got it out of my life. It frees up my heart and mind… and I am able to care for the things in my life that I want…

By: JMK

JMK — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:06:27 +0000

To me saving 15% is as essential as being able to afford food, clothing, shelter etc. If you’ve geared your life to accomplish everything without incurring debt I figure you are living within your means. You have set up your transportation, shelter, food budgets etc to reflect the amount of income available.

Living below your means either means you make more than what you require to do all of the above or you’ve chosen to make some frugal choices in some areas in order to increase the funds available for a “non-essential”.

We make a good combined income and could easily cover all the basics, save 15% and have a little fun money. Instead we’ve chosen to skip the things that aren’t important to us so that we can travel and still save about 35% of our income so that we can retire early. We buy used cars with cash, we haven’t had cable in 20yrs, we plan meals around sales, pack our lunches and rarely eat out. On the other hand we spent a month in Europe with the kids in 2008 and are planning another month this year. Yes we could afford to have a giant TVs, new cars, 500 channels, trendy wardrobes, eat out every week and so on, but none of those things are as important to us as travelling and retiring early.
We’re choosing to live on way less than we can afford so that we can spend freely on travel and more than double the recommended rate of savings. There’s no right or wrong way to allocate the money, it’s more important that you figure out what is important to you. Most of us can’t afford to do everything at once. If we followed the recommended percent allocations for our housing, transportation, savings, food etc we’d live very comfortably within our means and retire at 65 and then start travelling. We’ve just chosen to travel now, retire at 55 and skip what’s not important to us in order to make it happen.

By: Fabulously Broke

Fabulously Broke — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:04:58 +0000

I am definitely within my means. I choose to spend my money on technology and “unnecessary items” just because I want to. I make choices about what I consider important and I focus on what makes me the happiest.

Giving up vacations just to save money when you can clearly afford it? What’s the point?

She who dies with the most cash does NOT win. She loses. The one who does with $0 or a bit above $0 wins.

Fabulously Broke in the City
“Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.“

By: Weekly Roundup and Carnivals

Weekly Roundup and Carnivals — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:06:17 +0000

[...] Money Relationship asks “are you living below your means or within?” I think within. If I were living below, I’d be saving [...]

By: Personal finance blog roundup « Monogamoney

Personal finance blog roundup « Monogamoney — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:07:08 +0000

[...] within your means: Your Money Relationship engages in a rather semantic, but interesting argument about the meaning of living within your [...]

By: LAL

LAL — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:35:50 +0000

Within my means because I probably could save a lot more.

By: thomas

thomas — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:34:31 +0000

I’m in the middle. I have very little debt (student loan, car, house) and no revolving debt. I save. I could always save more, but I don’t as I am living comfortably.

By: The Carnival of Personal Finance Is Up! : Yielding Wealth

The Carnival of Personal Finance Is Up! : Yielding Wealth — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:54:08 +0000

[...] A look at the meaning of “within your means”. [...]

By: Paul Morales

Paul Morales — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:26:34 +0000

I use to think living below your means meant you were cheap. NOW, I think living frugal/cheap just means your being smart about where you spend our profits.

It’s no longer your money if you spend your money on useless things.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:47:21 +0000

The real question is, what’s your definition of “living”? I think saving should be an expense like any other. So when I say I’m living within my means, it indicates that I am able to spend what I want to spend AND save what I want to save.

Living below my means would be even better. To me, that would mean spending what I want to spend, saving what I want to save, AND having some money left over which I could either spend or save, depending on what I desire at the time.

But technically, I don’t think there’s a difference between living “within” or “below” your means. Think of your income as a circle. If you are living within your means, the amount you spend is a circle within that circle. The difference is just semantics.

More at http://www.monogamoney.com.