I read Bach’s book and laughed a lot b/c he talks about the cost of Lattes but not about any way to replace them. In fact he does this all over the place and it’s really kind of sickening. It’s an obfuscated and misdirected method of telling people not to buy stuff. David Bach will tell you to stop your morning coffee & croissant @ Tim’s habit, but he’s just being a mindless prick b/c he’s basically telling you to stop eating breakfast.

I think tha the real key to “frugality” is to start from the top-down.
1. Am I achieving my long-term savings goals?
2. Am I enjoying the things on which I spend money?
3. How can I more efficiently spend the money I’m already spending.

A lot of the frugality sites focus exclusively on point #3 and usually completely forget to pay service to lifestyle decisions or points #1 & #2 (which are by far more important). The trick of course is not to fall into the “frugality trap” of being penny-wise and pound foolish.

The decision to drop consistent money into an RRSP is so much more important than deciding on the morning’s coffee that there’s no comparison. The primary benefit to frugality advice has to be how can I get more mileage from the money I’m already spending without making a significant lifestyle change.

Once you’ve cycled through #1 & #2 a couple of times, you’ll realize that you have a bunch of money left over every month and that you don’t mind spending it. Hopefully, The Simple Dollar will let you get a little more out of those dollars.

Barb

Mike

The more frugal you are, the more money you will have….but at what cost???

By the way according to David Bach – if you stop with the vanilla coffees in the morning you will add about $14 million dollars to your retirement savings.