About me

I am an ordinary Joe. I have a beautiful wife with 3 young boys and a dog. I work in the IT industry in a regular job that pays a medium range salary. My wife also makes a medium range salary.  But I’m thrifty. As my sister says, I’m the most frugal person she’s ever known.

I have always been a good saver and hated debt from the time I was young.  If I borrowed money from a friend I was quick to pay it back, or if my friend and I swapped off paying for each other, I always took the first step so I wasn’t in the hole.  I was good at saving, but I didn’t really understand the big picture until I started reading more and more financial articles and stumbled across some great websites.  I guess I have always been pretty frugal.  I never understood why anyone would pay $100 for a designer shirt when the same one without the logo cost $15. Why you would pay for a VIP table at a club to sit at a tiny table in uncomfortable clothes just to overpay for liquor, deplete your funds and not be able to hear a word that your friends say? My idea of a good time was spending time in a relaxing place with good friends where you can drink a few beers in comfortable clothes - that’s all I’ve ever needed.

I’ve realized that I don’t need to spend money on stupid stuff that I don’t need that really doesn’t make me any happier. It really only keeps me working in the rat race for longer.  Now if you have made enough money to piss some of it away and still save, then good for you! Stimulate the economy if it makes you happy. But my goal is to eventually (soon!?!) be financially independent enough that I can quit my job, travel, or just engage in hobbies for which I previously didn’t have the time.

So, in order to become financially independent, I learned all sorts of money-saving tricks. I don’t spend money on babysitters (but still have dates), I did a cost analysis to determine whether we should purchase our dog (we did – that’s her!), and I’ve used the Internet to make my own soap and detergent. I use the internet to save money on home repairs. I even moved after doing a cost benefit analysis of housing markets. I am the definition of frugal.

I’m not even forty. I have three kids, a giant dog, and have been paying daycare expenses for eight years. But because I am so frugal, on our medium range salaries, we’ve managed to save a very solid amount in retirement savings, college accounts, and investments.