Please read this short article about what Dr. Shiller a noble price winning economist at Yale. I've been saying this exact same thing for years, but I guess since a noble prize winner said it, now it makes it legit. Meh.
When I lived in college I lived a pretty normal lifestyle. I lived off of $12,000 and they were some of the best years of my life. Now I live off of 3 times that much! WTF happened?! If I could get back to that level I could have retired long ago. For some reasons this is impossible, namely because of things like health insurance. Plus I don't want to live off of ramen noodles for the rest of my life. I am outlining a plan that should cut my costs by around $300 a month from my expenses.