Do you agree with slavery? If you do, then you stand with only about a handful of people. What about if you lived 200 years ago? That ratio would be the complete opposite. The republican party was actually formed in order to combat slavery by an abolitionist movement that swept Lincoln into office.
What does this have to do with personal finance? Well there is a similar movement that wishes to free you from the shackles of a lifetime of financial hardship and consumer slavery. The idea that you should save the vast majority of your money and stop pissing it away (along with your life) on borrowing money to buy things that you can't afford, in order to impress people that don't care about you is what I'm talking about.
What if, instead of spending 90% you saved 90%? What if instead of saving 20% you lived off of 20%? What if you retired at 36 instead of 63? The assumption is that you save 10% for 50 years and retire at 65. Here are the American assumptions: have 2.3 kids, send them to college, where they will rack up tons of debt, finance all your cars, get a 30 year mortgage, take a 1 week vacation every year, etc.
Why? Challenge the assumptions! You have one life to live! Never spend one dollar of interest on a car, fixed rate mortgages should only be 15 years, your vacations should last months, not weeks!
1. Emergency Fund
2. Multiple streams of income
3. Work from anywhere
4. Pay down all debt ASAP
5. Learn skills down acquire degrees
In high school my girlfriend's mom gave me a book to read: DIE BROKE. It was written by a lawyer who pushed the idea that everybody needs to work until they die and the check to the undertaker should bounce. No need to save money. There were some very serious flaws in his reasoning, most notably that people really don't want to hire 80 year olds. This is illegal and employers will never admit it, but the statistics are stark. As you peak out in your 40's and 50's your employabiliy and salary are most likely going to fall precipitously from there on out. His assumptions were all wrong.
Don't be on the wrong side of history...
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