Excellent advice for your billionaire class.
this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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I mean, I live like I'm impoverished. Rarely ever go out to eat, most of my meals are cooked by myself and extremely cheap. I wear clothes with holes in them because I can't typically afford to buy more, and when I do have enough to shop I go thrifting. My days are spent working, and my nights are spent pirating media because I can't afford subscriptions, or playing free to play games. I'm absolutely miserable, and still, still am nowhere close to ever saving enough money to afford a downpayment on a house.
It's never an issue of us "living within our means." The issue is the billionaires at the top hoarding money like dragons.
Yeah it’s a very centrist mindset to think this is a problem of people’s spending habits and not the economic system of exploitation taking from us.
I mean there is some merit to it. Some people get a raise or promotion and immediately buy a new car or rent a new apartment or use up all that extra money somewhere else.
I recently bought a house. The previous owner had a tenant living in it whom was trying to save enough to buy the house. That renter owned and drove a Cadillac escalade. I drive a hatchback beater car. If i had her car and gas payments, i doubt I'd have saved enough for a down payment.
I watch my coworker go through the same problem every two weeks. He sits there refreshing his bank app waiting for that paycheck to hit so he can afford some Doordash. Like, dude, if you're going 24+ hours without food, maybe it's a good idea to start buying groceries instead of paying a double premium.
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This sounds shitty if you phrase it like that, but there is some profound truth behind that. Your financial health depends almost more than anything else on your ability to spend less than is available to you. Ideally, you will achieve that without hurting your quality of life by optimizing your expenses, and by mentally overcoming that widespread modern delusion that quality of life is measured in money spent.
But sometimes that isn't really possible, and at that point, even a minor reduction in standard of living can do wonders. Living as if you're just slightly poorer than your money says you are is a borderline financial superweapon. The peace of mind that comes from knowing a random life upset (Like suddenly rising gasoline prices because of another ill-advised military adventure in the middle east) is not going to ruin you tends to more than make up for the loss of luxury and convenience from living in a 10% smaller home, driving a 10% cheaper car, going to restaurants 10% less, and so on.
What's more, this is not a commentary on poverty. (Of course, poverty is a real problem. The growth in wages, especially on the lower end hasn't been keeping up with the cost of living for a while now, presenting serious systemic problems.) This applies on every income level short of ultra-rich. The stories from couples living on double six-figure incomes (USD) yet still getting deeper into debt every year just boggle my mind, but this a fairly common reality in some circles.
If you realize just how badly enslaved you are by your addictions to luxury, convenience and status, you can live a much more serene, and ultimately even much richer, life.
This is absolutely it. So many people simply were dealt a shitty hand and are struggling in this capitalist hellscape because of it. But the flip side is that there's also many people who are struggling because they are choosing not to live within their means. Through my friend group and family, I can see examples of individuals and families that are struggling because of bad luck, struggling because they choose to spend more on stuff they don't need than they can, and struggling because they choose not to pursue better jobs (or in a couple of cases, any job at all).
But as someone who is careful to live within my means, as my career has taken off, I'm now finding myself in a financial position I never thought I'd be in. But I'm also at the financial point where I could absolutely very easily spend everything I make on things that dont actually make me happy, like eating out or buying crap I don't actually want, or subscriptions I don't use. Spending within your means definitely can get crazy because one might simply not realize just how wealthy they truly are (or could be with better choices)
Yep, if you learn to live on lentils you won't have to serve the king. This is an anarchist space, and this is one of the cultural things I appreciate about anarchism. I'm too old to live like a crust punk, but I still buy used first, I live in a smaller home than I can afford, I drive a smaller car than I can afford, I make what I can, and I use community where possible.
I ain't going back to sleeping in my car. I ain't going back to skipping meals because I don't have money. I ain't going back to asking myself how far I can stretch a dollar or what I can trade for a bit of fun now and again. And to do that I live within my means and save the rest. And so when the government in my state got hostile to me I was able to bail without going hungry or sleeping in my car.
Some people ain't got more fat to cut from their budgets. They deserve to take what they need from those who deny them a decent life. But some folks live outside or up to their means and so they feel every difficulty and stress that comes their way really fucking hard.
I don't know who you think is living "at their means" in 2026. either they already live just below it to survive or just above it sucking on debt to keep up appearances at the office (so they are not fired as a result!)
groceries, rent, fuel, insurance, everything, has never been more expensive. worse it's not local to you, this is a world wide issue at the moment.
cost of living skyrocketed in mid 2024 and has only gone up since. what you are saying implies that people can "step down" from non-essentials, like we didn't already do that in 2020. I don't know anyone who has been able to live "at their means" since before covid.
I'm married to a engineer, our net income should be making us a nice cushion that makes sure neither of us have to worry. instead, we had to sell all of our cars, stop every hobby, go to leasing electric cars (as buying one is too expensive and cheap petrol cars like we had cost 4x what electric does per month...) and even after all of that...
still have to carefully decide what essential thing we are cutting out of the weekly food budget... I've eaten so much frozen chicken and imported fake honey & pb sandwiches in the last two years for most of my meals to feel nauseated every time I see a KFC... I still wonder how anyone below our income bracket can afford anything without litterally deciding they can never save any money... (and yes before saving 70% of our combined income is going to expenses.)
compared to 2018, when only 40% was going to expenses and we could enjoy life. this is just ridiculous. reality is far worse than people realise right now...
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I just want to comment it's awesome seeing paycheque spelled correctly.
Otherwise the world order sucks balls, I also think that's accurate beyond British spelling of cheque. If people made their demands known perhaps people could all enjoy a bit more of what our labour gives the higher classes. Mean that is bit short sighted given the population difference and all.
Wait I forgot which community this was, I hope it's appropriate. I kept forgetting to check out what mop was about but always seemed to jive with my thoughts.
They are Canadian eh, and we keep using the "u" in colour, and honour and neighbour as well!
I'm Canadian as well so works out too eh? I just thought it was silly they dumbed down the spelling usually and usually see check and I have to confirm from a quick reading if had pay in front but cheque is simple to know it's money related.
I keep forgetting the u in neighbour though now that I think of it. Though rarely type that one. Mostly my neighbours are nice enough I don't have to complain and type it heh.
But its not a neighbourhood without "u"!
I agree... People have too much pointless stuff. And many complain about not having money at the same time.
Hmmm. 2k a month for 700sq ft in a mid area. Not sure how much more I can reduce.
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