Over half my income is disposable. My wife (who also works) and I end up eating out way too much and still manage to put 40% of my after-tax salary into savings each month.
I still log into my bank and credit card accounts every week to make sure nothing suspicious has appeared, and I manually pay off my credit card with every paycheck on the 1st and 15th of every month.
> Oddly, poor people make similar choices for almost opposite reasons. They don’t want to check because it causes anxiety and they feel like they don’t have control anyway.
An utterly dangerous action to take based on that mindset. I've been poor (though not really destitute, just could only budget ~$3 per meal), and I watched my finances like a HAWK. I even had a Post-It note stuck to the side of my monitor with the due dates of all my bills as well as the typical range (ie, Electric $30-100 depending on season), so I always knew what was coming.
Most places I go out to eat I just rely on the law of averages if I go there often enough. If I'm going to a place I go to once a week or more I won't even look at the bill. I just don't care. Why should I? I'm going to come back here 100 times. Sure, occsaionally I'll get someone else's bill or whatever but it also happens in reverse and you are on the receiving end. I only notice it when the notification hits and the difference is oddly large. If it's within $20-$30 I probably wouldn't even notice.
I think many people start to internalize the cost of their time as their income rises. You don't think about it expliclity, but if you are making $100/hr, is spending 20+ minutes to save $20 really worth both the time AND hassle? I mean maybe. At $200/hr is it still worth it? Probably not.
> I think many people start to internalize the cost of their time as their income rises. You don't think about it expliclity, but if you are making $100/hr, is spending 20+ minutes to save $20 really worth both the time AND hassle? I mean maybe. At $200/hr is it still worth it? Probably not.
I think this is only true if you'd otherwise be working and making that $200/hr. For most of us, the opportunity cost of our time is nowhere near our working wage. If I would otherwise be horsing around watching TV or playing video games, then the opportunity cost of my time is zero and it's worth it to spend time on these things.
If I can show that my credit card was charged $1.50 more than the check said (maybe they transposed some number on the tip or whatever), I lose nothing by bringing it up with the restaurant and getting it corrected. Especially if I was already planning on eating there again--just bring the previous bill along next time I go--I'm not even wasting gas because I'm already going there. I mean, sure, I could just ignore it but $1.50 is $1.50.
That threshold must be VERY high!
Over half my income is disposable. My wife (who also works) and I end up eating out way too much and still manage to put 40% of my after-tax salary into savings each month.
I still log into my bank and credit card accounts every week to make sure nothing suspicious has appeared, and I manually pay off my credit card with every paycheck on the 1st and 15th of every month.
> Oddly, poor people make similar choices for almost opposite reasons. They don’t want to check because it causes anxiety and they feel like they don’t have control anyway.
An utterly dangerous action to take based on that mindset. I've been poor (though not really destitute, just could only budget ~$3 per meal), and I watched my finances like a HAWK. I even had a Post-It note stuck to the side of my monitor with the due dates of all my bills as well as the typical range (ie, Electric $30-100 depending on season), so I always knew what was coming.