@Ryan Fox I wanted to follow-up with you, because I finished reading Set for Life. Now, it was a little brutal, but I took it with stride. :)
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUGGESTING THIS TO ME!
I learned I was doing some things already that were helping my situation.
1) I don't watch much TV, with the occasional "Mom, you gotta watch this with me!" moments with my kids. The kids know I don't watch TV much, and this was a lesson I learned when I was 13 years old. I learned that if I spent less time watching TV that I could spend more time getting better at the things that were important to me--- at that time, I played the clarinet. I was a professional clarinetist in the military band straight out of high school because of it. Fast forward some years later, here I am trying to utilize that time on being "financially woke", lol.
2) I drive a Prius (and I just paid that MoFo off! :D). I've always thought it was impractical to buy a fancy-schmancy car, especially if it was a gas-guzzler or something that looked pretty but required more trips to the mechanic than necessary. Anyway, my car takes me from Point A to B, and then some. However, I made the mistake of buying my car brand new some years ago. Guess I won't make that mistake again.
3) I don't spend money on sports. But I think it's easier for me since I never got into it-- except surfing. Ok, maybe that's the only sport I will spend on, but these days I'm only buying surf wax now that I have all the equipment I need-- and that is something that fulfills my soul, and Scott Trench did say that you shouldn't have to skimp on the things that bring meaning to your life. Without going into too many details, surfing has saved my life.
Here are some things I need to work on...
1) Eating out. I've actually started making meals to take with me on work nights (which is where I spend the bulk of my eating out). I'm also making the kids clean out the fridge before I buy more food. Oh, and I've been eating healthier as a result. :)
2) Being a pedestrian around town. It's not possible for me to not commute to work because I live in Lompoc (an hour from Santa Barbara), which is much more affordable than living in Santa Barbara. The jobs offered for my specialty profession in Lompoc pay significantly less and have less benefits than what I make doing the same job in Santa Barbara, so it's worth the commute. However, I think it is fair to say that when I am not using my car to get to work, I should be getting around locally using a bike or walking. Like you said in a private conversation though Ryan, maybe I ought to look outside of living in CA someday.
3) Living below my means. I'm not sure if I can live off of 50% of my income, as recommended in the book, because I have 2 kids (BTW, I played Cash Flow the other day, and I was SO pissed when I landed on the BABY spot multiple times. My monthly expenses were SO drained! Luckily, my real kids are a little older than babies now, lol). However, I am learning how to live off of 80% of my income. I've been saving the other 20% in a high-yield savings account with 0.7% APY. In the last month and a half, I've saved nearly $1K. This has been the most I have been able to save in my entire life! If you have other ideas of where to put that money I'm stashing away so that it can work for me (I'm thinking Index Funds in the near future?), I am certainly open to suggestions.
Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my wins and opportunities for growth in this book. Thank you again for suggesting this.
