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Iowa | Insurance is huge. Stash some $$ and go to high deductibles on everything (vehicle and health)--you'll save a ton.
Sometimes the balance between enjoy now and save for later is a tough deal. Everyone's comfort level is different--personally, I decided to loosen up a bit after 35 years of farming, glad I waited, helped me get ahead.No way I would EVER borrow $$ for a car or a trip, I've seen it become a habit that's hard to break.... My situation is different than most as neither my wife or I wants a new car or a trip to Hawaii-- we'd rather have the $$ or at least put it toward what we feel is more productive, I know many are different.
Put $1000/month in a Roth IRA (Or any savings acct, I prefer a Roth because its harder to get to than a normal savings acct) as soon as you possibly can. We were too hard up for the first 13 yrs we were married; we were in a rented house and just didn't have the $$--but we started the $1000/month as soon as we could and it was a great move.
I watched our friends "live it up" w new cars, trips abroad, etc while we enjoyed ourselves a bit cheaper and saved the $1000/month. Now some of them are STILL making car payments, etc, and have nothing saved.
Many, many times we did the $1000/month Roth instead of making a larger farm payment or paying off something early, and very glad we did, but as soon as the livestock or grain was sold, we then made extra payments--still do on some land.
Bottom line for us was to never try to keep up w anybody or live like anybody else, and to NEVER say, "we deserve it". No we don't, we only deserve what we can pay for, and if we can't pay for it, either do without or develop another income stream.
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Living expense
