“If you can't live on $200,000 a year, you have a spending problem, not an earning problem.”
–The White Coat Investor
An Earning Problem
I've been using this line for years when talking to medical students and residents about their finances and their future. They usually laugh because the truth of the statement is so obvious to them. Attending physicians who are spending $225,000 while earning $200,000 don't think it is quite so funny, or so obvious. They view their issue as an earning problem. “If I could just make another $25-50K a year, then I'd be fine,” they think. Well, some doctors do have an earning problem, but that's an awfully rare situation. I suppose I had an earning problem when I was a military doctor. My gross income was less than the 5th percentile for my specialty, and that included a lot of part-timers, of which I wasn't one. In fact, one year when I was deployed I nearly made it into the 10% tax bracket! Residents and fellows often have an earning problem, considering their vastly negative net worth. However, if you have a six figure income, you make enough money to have a happy, comfortable, financially secure life. That money goes a lot further in rural Indiana than the NYC metro area, but it's still plenty of cash to keep a roof over your head, food on the table, and save for retirement.
A Spending Problem
So, few physicians and other high income professionals truly have an earning problem. Many more have a spending problem. They have chosen not to take money off the top of their paycheck to save. They have also chosen not to budget their expenses. You don't have to do both of these things, but you'd better do one or the other. Saving “whatever is left over” only works for the truly frugal, and there are few of us out there and most of us are gradually becoming less frugal all the time. Even many doctors who come to this site have a spending problem. But their issue usually isn't that they spend more than they earn, or even all that they earn. They simply save too little. Instead of saving 15-25% of their income for retirement, college, and future expenses, they might be saving just 5-10%, which as I've shown before, isn't going to cut it. They just need to be a little more frugal, save their next income increase, or make saving a higher priority.
What's Your Problem?
However, the vast majority of the readers of this blog don't have an earning problem or a spending problem. Their problem is a “what should I do with my money” problem. How much insurance should I buy? Should I prioritize college savings or retirement savings? When should I pay off my student loans? How much of my retirement money should I put into stocks and how much into real estate? Should I pay off the mortgage early? How can I get more money into tax and asset-protected accounts? Do I have enough to retire?
This is a great problem to have. When I talk to family, friends, and random people on the internet I realize just how rare it is to be struggling with these issues. The vast majority of Americans have an earning problem, and at least as many have a savings problem. Many people have both. They make too little and they spend it all.
An airline pilot made a comment on the blog recently. He is in his late 40s and making $25,000 a year. Many lower and middle class folks have more consumer debt than annual income. I have family members who would love to qualify for a mortgage, much less pay it off early. The truth is that you won the money game on the day you received your medical school acceptance letter. It isn't automatic to become wealthy as a physician, but it is still pretty easy. It is not complicated to translate a high income into a high net worth, even if you're starting out with a very negative net worth. Good football coaches know that when you're way ahead in the fourth quarter, you run the ball. An extra 3 points isn't worth the risk of a fumble or an interception. You've already won the game, just don't blow it. Save 20% of your income and invest it in a reasonable manner. Keep your taxes and investing expenses low. Insure against financial catastrophe. Give to charity and enjoy the “good life.”
What do you think? Do you have an earning problem, a spending problem, or a “what should I do with my money” problem? Comment below!
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This is a great post and blog. Following residency I had a significant spending problem; for I felt I had suffered and now it was time to live the good life. That did not last long and I created a money market account where I automatically diverted 5% of my income. It has grown quite nicely. Now I am trying to invest some of it since money markets currently have horrible interest rates. If you make it automatic every month you won’t even know it is gone out of your main checking account. Set it and forget it.
Agreed. Automatic each month: 401k, extra to mortgage, non-IRA, the “I’m gonna pay off mortgage early” fund, 529. Even a little bit for each adds up to real money soon enough!
It would be nice to include an option ‘ No problem’. I am sure there would be lot of us who have been guided by your posts and doing fine.
Always very difficult to decide what to do with the money. Pay off ridiculously low mortgage, invest in cash management account… etc. And at some point decide how to actually spend some of it.
The toughest part about living a frugal high savings lifestyle is being made sometimes to feel like a failure since the only way people judge you is by stuff you own.
You can’t show people your net worth or retirement balance (well you can but it would be awkward… and even then most people would rather have stuff than investments). Even if you chose to live in a more frugal home and had a older car so that you could spend ridiculous dough on travel, that wouldn’t even have value to most people.
The average person judges you on your home, your car, your clothes, your looks and possibly on some of the other niceties in your life like if you have a maid or a pool or a boat or something.
I have a patent lawyer friend who makes less than I do, is swimming in debt, but because he drives a mazeratti, he’s more successful than I am.. lol.
Even when you KNOW what you are doing is right financially and responsibly it is hard not to take that to heart and want to “show them” sometimes.
I honestly think there is a growing segment of people that either don’t care about retirement and financial freedom or that are content with being poor as a senior citizen.
I have a chiropractor good friend who is also swimming in debt… but has his eye on a BMW Coupe to drive.. in his mind achieving that car is achieving success… it’s a symbol of his success. I’ve told him: “look, you could buy that car, or you could keep driving average cars and probably work 2 YEARS less by the time you factor in the cost of ownership on that vehicle…. is that car worth 2 years of your life” His answer.. a confident: ABSOFRIGGINLUTELY
To be fair, BMW’s are the “Ultimate Driving Machine”
I had a spending problem before I found this blog… I bought a big ass house right after residency, sent the kids to private school, bought a car, had to buy furniture for the house. I was surprised that my big salary didn’t go as far as I thought it would. I have since moved to a more reasonable house with great public schools and paid off the car. Pay myself at paycheck time, and save about 40% now to help make up for past financial sins.
I live in a modest house, drive a nice but not fancy car, save just enough for retirement. Without kids this was fine, but with child care and 527s they are costing me an additional 35k a year. I *could* send them to public school and save 25k a year but Montessori seems way better. However, my budget is bursting at the seams now. Good idea or bad? Downsize something else?
There are lots of “good things” to buy. They’re fine to buy when you can afford it, but quickly become “bad things” when you cannot afford it. As a high income professionals, you can generally buy anything you want but not everything. The choice is yours. Private schools or fancy house. European vacations or a boat. Fancy cars or retiring 5 years early. Your get to make the choices, but the consequences cannot be separated from the choices once made.
I have a “spending” problem. Not because I buy a new BMW every year, but because I live in a high COL area. But sometimes family factors prevail…
i have so many of the students and residents i talk to say that they are going “get a financial person.”
my response: you don’t need a “financial person” until you are:
1. SPENDING LESS MONEY THAN YOU MAKE
2. maxing out retirement accounts
3. have no consumer debt
Like many others I have a spending problem. One that is slowly improving but we still over spend from time to time. I am very thankful for finding this site as the WCI has greatly improved my financial plan.
Still, I see the quote above and all I can think is “Man, 200k would fix my problems”
But that’s my own fault for picking family medicine I suppose.
I will say that even if you have a spending problem it can still be relatively easily fixed given our incomes as physicians. I currently save about 12.5% of income not counting my vacation fund (which I don’t see as savings as its intended to be spent). I have way to many bills ($1200 monthly on cars/insurance and $400-500 on student loans). However we have a plan and I should be out of debt other than our mortgage in about 4 years. Its never to late to make changes however if your spending problem is your house then it may be a lot more difficult. Sometimes I feel house poor but I only spend about 118% pretax on my home. I can’t imagine how people get by at twice that, but I also can’t imagine how easily I could pay off my debts if I made $250K a year either…
Um…18% not 118%… That would be a huge spending problem
“Keep your taxes and investing expenses low”. Nice concept, but not an easy one to implement. Most physicians work as W2 employees with limited access to tax breaks enjoyed by businesses. Thus depending on where the physician lives, state and federal taxes will take 30-40% of gross income. Not easy to grow wealth with that kind of draw down on pay. Do you have any suggestions on how to minimize taxes for W2 employees?.
And most physicians vastly over estimate how much they actually pay in taxes.
For instance, using minimal tax deductions (mortgage interest, 401K, and property tax) my federal income tax came out to about 14%.
If you make 200K or less, have no 401K, and don’t own a home you still wouldn’t pay more than 20% federal/25% combined.
You mean besides getting a new job or lobbying your employer to implement a real retirement plan? Sure, I’ve got lots of ways to minimize taxes, but not if you also want to spend your income on something besides mortgage interest, college savings, retirement savings, charitable contributions, health care etc.
30-40% is pretty high, but not impossible for a highly paid doc in a place like Manhattan or California. I paid about 16% last year, including payroll taxes (about 4%) and state income taxes (another 4%). It’ll be worse for 2013, but I don’t know how much worse yet.
What type of real retirement plan would you recommend to lobby your employer for. I will be a W2 employee at a community hospital with only 403b and 457b.
At least you have a 457 in addition to the 403(b). Does the employer provide a match to get you to $52K total? If not, I’d lobby for that. It’s worth giving up some salary in order to get that match. You could also ask about a 401(a) or a defined benefit/cash balance plan. If the plan expenses are high or the investment choices are poor you could also lobby for changes there.
“…when talking to medical students and residents about their finances and their future. They usually laugh because the truth of the statement is so obvious to them.”
Ha! I’d think you agree that med students aren’t the ideal population for validating financial principles. You’ve discovered that before fielding comments on your very reasonable budget.
I agree with the importance of budgeting, saving, and fiscal responsibility. And I’m sensitive to millions that will never eclipse half of a six figure income. But your statement “if you have a six figure income, you make enough money to have a happy, comfortable, financially secure life” is far too simple and silly for your caliber of knowledge.
Take my me and my cohort- graduating med school 6mo-2yrs, ~$285k in loans borrowing only for tuition & fees quickly growing @ 6-8%, early to mid 30’s with no savings for retirement/home/kids, facing good but declining reimbursement subject to top tax rates, having forfeited years of opportunity cost, entering a changing landscape hell-bent on extracting as much as possible from docs. I’m sorry, but it ain’t all rosy at >100K
Take away the $285K in loans, and many Americans would gladly trade a few years of lost savings for a $100K income. But that’s not what we’re really talking about. We’re generally talking about a $200K or more income, $300K or more if you’re talking about the top brackets. $285K in loans is a big hole to fill, but if you’re in the top tax brackets, you’ve got a pretty big shovel. Take an income of $300K, pay $60K or so in taxes, put $50K or so into retirement, put $90K toward those loans, put $25K toward a down payment, and live off $75K. In 4 years the loans are gone, you’ve got $250K or more toward retirement, you have enough for a down payment on a mansion in most of the country, and you can now spend $15K a month for the rest of your life. I dunno, sounds pretty rosy (and feels pretty rosy, since that’s where I’m now at) to me.
There is no doubt that doctors face some serious financial challenges, but with some solid financial planning they’re pretty easy to overcome, even for the lower paid specialties and for those who attended expensive medical schools. Although avoiding both of those challenges is at least somewhat within your control.
Whew – 240K take home on 300K? – I’m a few years away from attendinghoood, and I believe that it’s possible, but that seems far from an average effective from my calcs.
I suppose I’m tired of the naivete of med students and much of the media/public espousing that a 200k physician salary affords immediate richness.
I don’t think that is what you are arguing, and I agree with what I think is your essential point- that it is the balancing of spending, earning, saving, and allocation that is most important.
But we shouldn’t discount the challenges of the current/future salary landscape and summarily dismiss the real financial difficulties of our hard-working, debt saddled, heavily taxed moderate income colleagues as solely irresponsible lavish and greedy spending problems. You’ve put forth a ton of effort into educating on the savings and allocation aspects. I hope the physician community can put step up the discussion of educational debt and earnings protection.
And congrats on the book – looking forward to it!
new(ish) attending here. anesthesiology, in an academic setting. with med and law school loans owed north of $330K. i manage to fully fund 401, 403 and 457 each year, plus put 10% into emergency savings. on top of all that putting $7-8K/month onto student loans.
the point is that if you want to get out of debt you have to align to spending and savings with those goals. is it difficult at times? sure, but the thought of being out of debt in less than 5 years is a great motivator. personally, with the concern of future salary i think the best thing we can do is get rid of debt. sure gives you a lot more flexibility in the future.
Wow. I should have gone into anesthesia! I’m also in academics, different specialty, but with a salary just south of 300k. Take home for me after maxing out pretax retirement options us around 10k. We live on 6k(family of 6) with 210k in student loans. Leaves 4k….1k in kids 529, 2k in emergency fund, with 1k leftover. Would love to put 7-8k A MONTH toward student loans. You certainly did hit the lottery with that gig.
It doesn’t sound like he hit the lottery. He didn’t have 6 kids.
Kids eat your food and your money. People that choose to have large families must take into account the financial costs. You’d have a pretty good gig if you were single.
Just saying…
We are currently paying for our past sins of having a spending problem. But to quote NCIS, “We’re working on it, Boss”. And soon we’ll have a what should we do with the money problem. But that won’t really be a problem, because we’ve got a plan.
I could always earn a few more bucks, nothing wrong with that since I’m one cheap SOB haha. But my fiancee is in med school right now and there seems to be a certain sense of entitlement amongst some of her friends. A lot of them jokingly(but I think they’re also serious) say they don’t care what their debt is like, once they get out of residency, they’re going to buy a Range Rover(or some other grossly expensive behemoth) because they’ve earned it.
My fiancee is kind of like that, but I told her she has to pay for it all in cash if she really wants it and I think that put an end to that haha. But what are your thoughts on those med students/MD’s who want to splurge financially since they feel like they’ve earned it from working so hard to get to where they are?
-Future Stay at Home Dad
I had a lot of friends like that as well. I didn’t splurge a bit after residency but I did after I got back from Afghanistan. I bought a 40K car because I wanted it, despite the fact that I really didn’t “need” it. I however now plan to drive it no longer runs (because its the ultimate driving machine 🙂 )
Robert Doroghazi, author of The Physician’s Guide to Investing, says “If you want to splurge, do it after there is $1 Million in the bank.” I’m not quite that frugal/cheap, but there is a lot of truth to that statement. It also depends on your idea of a splurge. If it’s a $5-10K trip to Europe paid with cash from the first paycheck, fine. If it is a $200K Maserati financed at 8%, well, not so fine.
Possibly entitlement. But just as likely – financial ignorance. (except for the ones reading this site)
The administration tells them they will have no problems paying off their loans. The formative financial encounters with taxes, emergencies, car replacements/maintenance, housing, kids hasn’t happened for many med students. Their previous salary was a 25K gap year lab job without much financial responsibility besides rent and beer. They see 150K and a 70K Range Rover and believe that they will be swimming in the 80K remainder – more that 3x their previous salary.
It’s challenging and trying to argue that 150K isn’t that much, and despite what they have been led to believe, they haven’t reached the end of the rainbow and still must practice delayed gratification.
I think the issue is really one of expectations.
You say: “That money goes a lot further in rural Indiana than the NYC metro area, but it’s still plenty of cash to keep a roof over your head, food on the table, and save for retirement.”
Many med students/residents feel entitled to more than that. (not saying right or wrong, but that’s the feeling). They want the good life. The folks who overachieve enough to get into med school could have easily gotten into a top notch business school and ended up on wall street. The I Bankers have the same crazy hours as MDs but have a lot more bling to show for it in addition to less debt and a 5+ year head start.
So MDs are not comparing themselves to the “average” American but rather their peers who chose other professional routes. I think this is another reason why so few people go into primary care and instead chose more lucrative subspecialities.
There also aren’t many I Bankers out there compared to physicians.
i think what is really hard for new attendings is the sense of expectations. you “expect” to feel like you finally made it, that you finally don’t feel so damn broke like you have for the previous 12+ years. on top of that, you look at other attendings in your practice, hospital, etc who have been practicing for many years and think you can spend money just like them. of course that is forgetting, med school debt was 25-50% of what it is currently.
after being 10+ years behind on starting financial goals, these first few years out of residency are so crucial to getting back on track and getting ahead. i am forever grateful for finding WCI, bogleheads, etc.
of course, to each their own. if you want to be in debt, drop money on cars, boats, etc, go right ahead.
I have an unfavorable tax situation and when considering federal, state, city, social security, medicare that takes up 37% of my income. This does not take into account property taxes, sales taxes, gas tax, and any other taxes out there. Then considering my high student loans of 250K nearly half my salary is gone to taxes and loans, and we haven’t even gotten into retirement, college funds for kids and insurance. So while a salary of 200K+ looks good on the surface when factoring in this was deferred income, the high student loans and tax burden, being behind the eight ball in retirement and kids college and insurance issues that higher income people face, that money sure goes fast and I am not even talking about mansions, cars, boats and travel. Sometimes people just look at the number and say if I made 200k or 300k all my problems would be gone, but do not consider the entire picture including all this money is not disposable to spend frivolously on ipads, ipods and the newest Mercedes Benz, and the work and devotion it takes to perform at a high academic level from high school on.
Yes, I agree with the premise though that making 200,000 a year, even with all of the above, means you shouldn’t be struggling and if you are, then you do indeed have a spending problem.
37% effective tax rate?! I call BS, please break it down, maybe I’m wrong??
I’m roughly rounding on some.
220k salary
55700 federal
7050 social security
3318 medicare
9607 state
5856 city
81531 total ….37%
Ok I was wrong 🙂 I guess 37% is about right if you have basically no deductions other than standard and one exemption. 401k, mortgage int/prop tax, student loan int should all reduce that effective rate though by quite a bit.
I’m no doctor but my fiancee is a future one so thanks for breaking that down. 138.6k(.63*220k) still seems like a pretty good after tax take home pay – even with student loans. You mentioned prop taxes so do you own a home? Student loans probably eat into that a bit but once those are paid off I think you’ll be looking pretty good. Doctors do have it tough b/c there is a very long break even point but once they do pay off all their loans, things get pretty good pretty fast.
Not all physicians have access to 401K, in fact probably half don’t. Student loan interest phases out with income so its no (I was able to deduct 15-20% as as a family doc I can assure you I am at the lower end of doc pay. Child credit also phases out. I got $50 for my two kids.
You’re right, you do have an unfavorable tax situation. That makes retirement accounts much more valuable for you than for many.
Moving would be favorable as well.
Cant deduct any student loan interest since that phases out. I max out 401k/403b. Just bought a small place last year so I will see how that effects the taxes this year. Probably won’t effect federal because AMT will negate that but might help a little with state.
Yeah, every year at tax time I say the same thing…30 something percent, almost 40 especially when I see many people on here and other sites paying far less (obviously, state and city are a big chunk).
I see plenty of new graduates in far worse situations though with student loans eclipsing 300k and at 6-7% interest rates. This is starting to become the norm and not the exception.
Your state/local taxes are bad (and your federal is terrible), but your payroll taxes aren’t. I’ll be paying more than twice what you’re paying in payroll taxes this year, although some of them are at least deductible. Getting married, having kids, and moving to Texas would help a lot!
LOL Yeah, I have thought about moving to Texas or Florida. That would help. I am still in the early stages of becoming more financially competent, but I have learned a great deal from your blog. I will be ordering a few copies of your new book (keeping one for me and have a few on hand as an incentive for resident participation during morning lecture).
I’m sure many of my senior co-workers think that I certainly act entitled as the “young guy”. I also discovered that I’m in the 30th percentile in my subspecialty’s earning, with little room to grow within a managed care situation. Add in $200k of student loans and minimal retirement savings from residency, a somewhat stressful job, and expensive tail coverage if I were to seek other opportunities, I do feel at days that I didn’t make a great career choice. Of course, seeing the senior doc’s fancypants car, home, hobbies makes me feel like I missed the bandwagon by about 20 years. 😉
The bottom line is that we do “win the game” as physicians, but have to be a lot more strategic with the financial side than our predecessors.
I agree with that last statement.
The US government needs to read the quote that starts this article….Multiply exponentially on the figures though.
Ooo you are going to get beat up for a title like that Jim. It reminds me of the blog entitled “What’s your excuse?” of the Fit Mom who was in great shape after 3 kids. She got all sorts of criticism for that one but it sure helped her revenue. You might get a boost in book sales!
Fortunately my MD husband and I managed to stay cheapskates after school long enough to pay off his school debt and have maxed out almost all of our tax advantaged options. So we’re at a stage now where we’re looking into other investments but not sure what yet.
“Take my me and my cohort- graduating med school 6mo-2yrs, ~$285k in loans borrowing only for tuition & fees quickly growing @ 6-8%, early to mid 30′s with no savings for retirement/home/kids, facing good but declining reimbursement subject to top tax rates, having forfeited years of opportunity cost, entering a changing landscape hell-bent on extracting as much as possible from docs. I’m sorry, but it ain’t all rosy at >100K
You guys you think you have it bad? Try being a veterinarian graduating in the last 5 years. Similar loan burden and starting salaries stagnant at a paltry 65k. Many of my colleagues will not ever be able to get a mortgage let alone save anything for retirement. Most of the vets graduating with debt at 6.8% are clinging to IBR and praying that the government upholds their end of the deal on forgiveness when the time comes. Of course, that debt forgiven will be on the shoulders of the rest of us tax wise.
Yeah that is pretty brutal. Vets even more than MD seem to have been subjected to the perfect storm of rapidly rising tuition, increased supply, and decreasing demand with falling salaries.
Although a middle class salary – that 65K doesn’t really convey the whole story. And that was my point with the 200K salary as well.
It most certainly does not. Its incredible that the education system has been allowed to spin out of control to the point where people with professional degrees are forced to live like paupers for years, or in some cases, literally cannot afford to make loan payments required to pay off the loan. The governments solution is IBR? How short sighted is that? I have a real concern for what’s going to happen in 25 years when “poof”, hundreds of millions if not billions in IBR loan money is magically erased from the ledgers. And if you think that the multitudes of people who have been on IBR for 25yrs are going to have saved the money to pay the tax on the forgiven amount …Hah! To me it just feels like an impending economic disaster. Here’s a radical idea- charge students an appropriate amount of tuition, let them borrow the money at a fair interest rate, and them hold them accountable for paying what they’ve borrowed back into the government coffers.
You will never get elected. You know too much arithmetic.
I don’t know how I stumbled onto this blog 2 years ago, but I’m glad I did. Maybe because I’m also a cheapskate like WCI. I have a colleague at work who always inquires when I’m going to purchase a new car. I graduated from residency 4.5 years ago. I still drive my 2001 toyota camry with 180,000 miles clicking away on the odometer. I think this colleague is extremely envious of my frugality.
I have another colleague who bought a big, 1 million dollar home out in the hills of Glendale, CA. This dude is trying to keep up with the Jones because he recently put in a $80,000 kitchen too. Well the sad part is this guy hasn’t even passed his written boards yet!!!!! (he graduated from residency the same time as me)
Health is the best investment!!!!! Stay in shape to relieve all the financial stress mentioned above.
Great post and interesting comments. There can be light at the end of the tunnel. I am retiring from OB this year (continuing on with GYN). I met with my stockbroker at Merrill-Lynch this week. I have greater than 5 mill invested with him and he simply could not believe it when I told him I only spent 67K last year (not including taxes). Two lessons here. 1. I use a stock broker because I do like to bounce ideas but I make the decisions. I do not use any proprietary products. All new money goes into primarily Vanguard ETFs and individual Muni Bonds. 2. If you do not know exactly what your spending is you cannot possibly tell when it is ok to kickback and live off dividends and interest.
Hi, I am interested in your decision to drop OB. Can you give a little detail on the % pay cut you are expecting and the hours/benefits you are expecting to gain? I also see that OB/GYN single specialty practices usually bring in Attendings and start them at a low salary. What does it usually cost/time involved to become a partner? Do most jobs offer tail coverage as part of the package? Sorry for all the questions, just interested.
Approximately 30% of my 2013 was Ob. I think delivery numbers naturally decline with age for most people. I plan to work only 3 days a week after I stop Ob. I am currently solo but am considering sharing office space with some other gyns to cut overhead. My big savings will be with malpractice premiums. I also will essentially not be working nights, weekends or holidays. Partnership varies with different groups. I was in a big single speciality group that had a huge buy in. I left to return to my hometown and ended up solo for 20 plus years. I have had a call sharing arrangement however. One local hospital will bring in new people if they agree to primarily use their hospital for several years. This was not available when I started. Be careful partnership arrangements are good only if you are dealing with honest people. It can be hard to evaluate this from afar.
Thanks for the info.
My misspent youth is still haunting me, and although I am beginning to reduce my frivolous spendings, my outgoings are still high in comparison to earnings. I am UK-based and live in a city where the cost of living far outweighs the average wage (Brighton, Sussex). The first rung of the property ladder is a far-off dream and as I approach my mid-thirties I often wish for a time machine to go back and instil some frugal sense into my younger self!
I would recommend the Mr. Money Mustache blog to anyone who is or has a desire to be frugal. Read it from the start, comments included. It will take a long time to get through it, but there is a lot to be gained from reading it, even if you only apply some of the ideas.
This blog is great for specific financial planning issues, and MMM is great for lifestyle changes that can help build your wealth and change your attitude.
Thanks for the tip, appreciate it.
I used to have an earnings AND a spending problem, and now have neither, thank the Lord. Mr. Money Mustache is a smart, erudite, bad ass who helped show me how to be more hard core, but I had an inner desire to do much of what he talks about.
I’m now debt free, including the house, at age 48, and saving 50% of salary and my S-corp distributions….it CAN be done.