I’ve been lucky most of my life. For me, saving money is the easy part of wealth building. The formula is simple. For the most part, we made good income and lived a moderate lifestyle.Cognitive learning games this combination enabled us to save 30-50% of our income for 20+ years. Both of these factors are important, but being frugal is the first step.Cognitive learning games luckily, mrs. RB40 and I are both naturally frugal. We don’t like spending money. Now that we have a son, I wonder if our frugal trait will pass down to rb40jr.Cognitive learning games let’s take a look at our saving history and then see how our son is turning out. Joe’s saving habit

Was I frugal as a kid? I don’t really remember.Cognitive learning games I lived in chiang mai, thailand until I was 12. In thailand, I didn’t feel the need to spend my own money because my parents provided for us.Cognitive learning games I had an allowance, but there wasn’t much to spend on. I remember buying some lemon preserves, coke, and other snacks. That was it. Kids just ran around outside and invented games to play.Cognitive learning games

After we moved to the US, my parent started over and struggled financially for many years. Money was tight. During my teenage years, I rarely purchased anything and became very frugal.Cognitive learning games this habit stuck even after my parents’ finances improved. My parent remained frugal as well. After all, they had to save for college educations for their three sons.Cognitive learning games

After I graduated from college, I became a computer hardware engineer. I had a stable job and generated good income in my 20s and 30s. Over the years, I relaxed a bit and lived a more moderate lifestyle.Cognitive learning games I didn’t watch every little purchase anymore, but I knew I had to save for the rainy days. Saving a large portion of my income was never that hard for me.Cognitive learning games I knew the savings would come in handy someday. Mrs. RB40’s saving habit

What about my wife, mrs. RB40? She was a very frugal kid. As her grandmother used to say, “she’s the tightest kid I know.” her family struggled financially when she was young too.Cognitive learning games her dad has a degree in agriculture, but he struggled to find a good job in that field that provided some kind of work-life balance. Eventually, he found work with the county and their finances stabilized.Cognitive learning games her mom was a stay-at-home mom, but she went back to school and became a teacher. (the law degree she earned overseas was essentially useless here.) that helped their household finance as well, though there always seemed to be one more major expense (car broke down, heater needed fixing, roof leaked, etc).Cognitive learning games her parents were also DIY-ers and that helped a lot as well.

So, her financial history is similar to mine. She was cheap when she was a kid and the habit stuck.Cognitive learning games after college, her income started low as she found her way in the world. In 2006, she earned a master’s degree. This opened doors and her income has been good since.Cognitive learning games while she has loosened up in recent years, she is still relatively frugal. This is probably due to my FIRE journey. FIRE journey

In 2010, I discovered the FIRE concept and got us onboard pretty quickly.Cognitive learning games my engineering career was starting to implode and I needed to get out. I retired from engineering in 2012 and became a stay-at-home dad/blogger.Cognitive learning games in theory, we were financially independent, but mrs. RB40 doesn’t trust theory. She needs more security than that. It’s understandable because our AGI dropped 75% from 2012 to 2013.Cognitive learning games that’s not very reassuring. We made enough to support our moderate lifestyle. That was mainly due to mrs. RB40’s job. We could withdraw 3% of our investment portfolio and it would cover our cost of living.Cognitive learning games however, mrs. RB40 doesn’t like drawing down. She’d rather work a bit longer and put off withdrawal for a while.

It took a few years, but our finance improved tremendously since I retired from engineering.Cognitive learning games I made more money online and worked to increase our passive income. Now, mrs. RB40 doesn’t have to work anymore. She could retire tomorrow and we’d be fine financially.Cognitive learning games our passive income + my online income are enough to cover our living expenses as long as we continue living a moderate lifestyle. If we live it up and increase our spending, the numbers wouldn’t work out.Cognitive learning games currently, we spend about $60,000 per year. That’s a comfortable level for us.

Anyway, saving money hasn’t been too difficult. We are used to this moderate lifestyle now and I don’t really need to spend more.Cognitive learning games mrs. RB40 has relaxed a bit recently. She told me she’ll keep working longer so she can buy nicer clothes and eat out at nice restaurants. I think that’s fine.Cognitive learning games she’ll need to cut back once she retires, though. Maybe she can figure out a way to make some spending money after her retirement. We’ll see how it goes.Cognitive learning games rb40jr’s saving habit

Now, let’s look at rb40jr’s saving habit. Our son is 7 years old and he is already frugal. He loves counting his stash of money.Cognitive learning games his grandparents send him cash for his birthday and various special occasions. Now, he has $392 and he doesn’t want to touch it. The only thing he thinks about spending money on is lego.Cognitive learning games occasionally, I’d bribe him with a 50% match to buy a small lego set. Other than that, he doesn’t want to part with his savings. He is like his mom was when she was young.Cognitive learning games

This year, I told rb40jr he can do whatever he wants with it. Surprisingly, he wants to make it last until next halloween. Wow, that’s ambitious!Cognitive learning games I don’t know if he can do it, though. He got a nice haul, but I don’t see how it will last a whole year. However, I forgot that he’ll get more candy.Cognitive learning games christmas, valentine’s, and easter are all opportunities to add to his treasure hoard. Last week, he picked up some candy at his friend’s birthday party when the kids broke open a piñata.Cognitive learning games he also gets chocolate from trader joe’s occasionally when I need to bribe him.

Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s easier for some. Saving money has never been a big issue for me.Cognitive learning games the pain of making money eclipses the pleasure of spending. I’d rather save than spend if I have a choice. I have a lot more problem with overeating than overspending.Cognitive learning games most of this is probably genetic, but the environment plays a big part too. If we grew up in a typical middle-class family that bought whatever they wanted, mrs.Cognitive learning games RB40 and I probably wouldn’t be as frugal.

It has been relatively easy for me since like the rb40jr, I used to love getting brand new notes from my dad for whatever event / occasion, and he knew my passion very quickly and worked hard to get me new notes from the bank.Cognitive learning games THAT helped a LOT. I kept stashing the new notes, laying them flat in my secret place and TO-DATE, I still love collecting new notes. My kids and my wife does not get, and I would have stacks of the $1, $5, $10, $20 and $100.Cognitive learning games I have finally learned to keep just $100o to $3000 in cash and give away the rest to a savings / bank account.

Back to the point……it is the learning of sacrifice that makes the ‘collection easier’ and once it is done a few times as a child, it grows on you.Cognitive learning games I believe in this. It is of course, a little harder with the millenials today and the next gen that comes after that like rb40jr. Even with those habits, the attraction of a $1000 phone is going to wipe away months of savings as a teenager.Cognitive learning games but, if that desire continues and the teenager works while getting great grades, then it will work great. But, working without getting great grades is NOT worth it, since you are just giving up the earning potential of the future, unless the child is a genius, which is not common in most families.Cognitive learning games

My dad used to say I was tighter than a sharks backside and that was water tight. I blamed my mother! I remember an early argument in my early twenties with a good friend over credit card debt when such cards were fairly new inventions.Cognitive learning games he just could not see the logic of paying the full balance off every month. We remained friends but agreed to differ on how to use credit cards.Cognitive learning games

My teenage daughter told me 5 years ago she needed an iphone. Had to be an iphone as all her friends had one. My reply to her “need” was that she would have to ask for money for birthday and christmas from all the family and friends if she really wanted one.Cognitive learning games to be fair to her she did exactly that. Three years later a replacement iphone was needed. Again I said she would have to fund it herself and again she did.Cognitive learning games that second iphone just fell apart and guess what she just used her weekend job to fund? Yet another iphone! I tried and failed to explain that if she bought a £1,000 iphone every two years from now on then that was about £40,000 over her lifetime so why not get a much cheaper phone and then have use of all that saved money.Cognitive learning games whatever dad – its my money and I use the phone lots so it is worth it to me…