I am starting to like biographies, especially of famous people in times past. More than knowing about the people, these biographies provide great perspectives on what life was like then.
So think of Benjamin Franklin’s times. There was no electricity, no running water, no air conditioning, no automobiles, not even penicillin. That was the life for Benjamin Franklin, a big deal at the time.
And then our lives now. Even the most regular of us folks have access to comfort that Kings and Presidents didn’t have. Like you can turn on a tap and good drinkable water flows out of it. You could be anywhere in the world within a day. That smartphone you carry, you can do things with it that you couldn’t even imagine a mere decade ago.
Sometimes we forget how good we have it. Like imagine going through surgery without anesthesia, something we expect today. Benjamin Franklin didn’t have that, nobody did.
Comparison is the thief of joy but if you must compare, don’t forget about the past.
Back to the topic at hand, housing, cars and taxes make up a big chunk of our fixed costs. Taxes we can manage around. I mean you pay what you have to pay but not a cent more.
Cars and houses are tough though. That is where we get into the Keeping Up With The Joneses game.
Yet there are so many perks with controlling our fixed costs. We learn to live small. Everything costs less with living small. We get to save and invest the difference into productive investments. We get to become work optional in our forties instead of in our sixties. Life becomes much more fun.
Our kids adapt to living small. I am not saying you have to deprive them but a little bit of deprivation never hurts. They learn to work harder because they think they want to better their situation.
Keeping fixed costs low frees up money for experiences. I am a reluctant traveler but I have learned to enjoy it. Time slows down when you travel. You do interesting things. You try new food and experience new cultures.
And you bond with your family in ways that you’ll never do in your McMansion.
I know they don’t make it easy but an ideal fixed cost target is keeping it below 50% of your after-tax income. Not gross income but after-tax income. If you can design your happy life within that, life gets easy.
Thank you for your time.
Cover image credit – Adriano Alves, Pexels