The Savings from Living on Less

A vacation home on a lake!  How marvelous!  How Expensive! It was fun while it lasted.

Living the Vida Loca was a lot of fun, for a while.  But like a lot of folks my age, I found out that having a "nice lifestyle" while fun, was costing a lot of money.  And it was costs that I didn't really realize until I stopped paying them.  I am still adjusting to the idea that I don't need to be running like a hamster on a wheel all the time, just to stay in one place.

Selling off a lot of "things" I thought I had to have, and learning to live on less and be debt-free is turning out to be far more relaxing.

So what are the savings?  Just off the top of my head, I can come up with:

Interest Not Paid:  $18,000 per year

Property Taxes, New York:  $6,500 per year

Boating Costs (Riparian Day 3):  $5000 per year*

Boating Costs (Riparian Day 2): $2000 per year*

Cars: (BMW Concertibles, Pickup truck, Jeep): $3000 per year*

Lawn Care (5 acres of lawn): $500 per year

Utilities, New York:  $2000 per year**

House Maintenance, New York, $2000 per year***

Total:  $39,000 per year.

*storage, insurance, gas, repairs
** adjusting for increased costs in Georgia
*** includes gardening, improvements, service contracts, winterizing


Hoochie-Mama!  That's a lot of dough.  Now consider this, in order to make the same amount of income, with taxes, I would easily have to increase my income by at least 50% or more.  So, in other words, a savings of nearly $40,000 per year ends up being equivalent of getting a raise of $60,000 a year - more than most people make.

Ouch.  Yea, having a lot of toys was nice.  But Geez Louise, it was breaking my back!

Not working is better than working hard so you can own stuff.