Is "live below your means" really good advice?

[John Wijtenburg]

I think a lot of people have trouble reconciling an abundance mindset with the omnipresent, "live below your means," advice.

To achieve great success, we're told that we must take risks, act as if, and spend money to make money. The other side of the personal finance tells us to skip the daily coffee, never eat out, and live a life a step or two below our current status.

This is something I struggled with and still do.

Are these two sides of the same coin or different coins?

[Jim K.]

While I wait on John to clear up his thoughts on mindsets...

BP moderators, the following pie chart was released by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics in 2009. It is in the public record.

US household expenditures today are roughly the same. The main points to take away are that the three biggest categories are Housing (your house), Transportation (your car(s)), and Food.

There is a rather clear connection between people who live in too much house, drive too much car, stand in line to buy overpriced coffee, and complain about not having enough money.

If you plan on cutting out the coffee without doing anything about the house and the car, you're very likely not going to get anywhere in living below your means. Nobody who's shelling out a $2000/month in mortgage/rental costs and $650/month for their car payment/gas/insurance is going to get rich cutting out their occasional pumpkin-spice lattes.