Lowering Your Expenses Can Actually Increase Your Happiness
My Current Monthly Expenses:
$200 – Apartment/Bills
$10 – Cell Phone
$10 – Health Insurance
$600 – Food, Entertainment, Etc.
$100 – Misc.
$920 – Total
This is what I live on and I would say my life is pretty good. If all I wanted to do was eat and survive I could decrease my spending by another $300 and get rid of all entertainment, etc. But I do believe that we should spend some money on experiences/vices/etc. We are still human after all = )
I live in Taiwan and have been living here for the last 6 years. The cost of living here is low and the wage for teaching English is relatively high. You can rent a room for about $150 a month and teaching English is about $20USD/hr, you do the math.
This means that you can enjoy a pretty high standard of living while only working part-time. Not only is the cost of living low but the amount you pay in taxes is low to, about 6%. Imagine keeping 94% of what you earn!
Monthly Expenses – $920.00
Divided By: 19/hr *.94 (after taxes) = $920/$17.46 = 52.7
This means that to cover my living expenses, I only need to work 52.7 hours/month. Or 12.2 hours/week (4.3 weeks/month).
So for 1 year, this is exactly what I did. I worked 12 hours a week, kept my expenses at $920 a month and spent the rest of my time building a business.
In one year, I have completely transformed by life.
The key is to lower your expenses until you get your business off the ground.
Now, the idea of moving halfway across the world and teaching English might not sound appealing to everybody. That’s fine. You can do this anywhere. There are numerous places all across the world where the cost of living is significantly lower than in the US, Europe, Australia, etc. Even in the US you can live on about $1,000 a month. I know because I did it. I rented a room for $300.00/month, bought a 1999 Honda Civic, cooked most of my meals and didn’t buy stuff that I didn’t need.
Your Money = Your Freedom
If you have more money coming in every month (from assets) then you spend, you are wealthy. The world is your oyster and with the internet and cheap travel, your options are only limited by your imagination.