Lifestyle

A study published by the Royal Society found that for many affording a good social life means not having kids. Keeping up with the Joneses has become more expensive as modern couples spend more to compete in real-life social ladder, which could explain why they’re having fewer kids. “The areas were we see the greatest declines in fertility are areas with modern labor markets that have intense competition for jobs and an overwhelming diversity of consumer goods available to signal well-being and social status,” says Paul Hooper, an anthropologist at Emory University and senior author of the study. “Our model shows that as competition becomes more focused on social climbing, as opposed to just putting food on the table, people invest more in material goods and achieving social status, and that affects how many children they have. The human species is highly social and, as a result, we appear to have an ingrained desire for social standing,” Hooper says. (thefiscaltimes.com)

Mr. Money Mustache prided himself of living happily and responsively without expensive lifestyle. During this April Fool occasion, he made a joke with his readers that with an abundance of money his family spending rises to $256,000.

“Remember how all this time I’ve been telling you that life is better if you aren’t focused on the pursuit of luxury? Yeah, well that turned out to be bullshit, ” Mr. Money Mustache joked. “I stumbled into a goldmine by starting this website. It has become a truly once-in-a-hundred-lifetimes situation, with over 18 million people stopping by so far and hundreds crawling around at any given moment. With this level of traffic, even the minimal level of advertising you see at the bottom is enough to make freight trains of cash. Enough money every month, for a family to live extremely well on for a year.”

Indeed, Peter Adeney, aka. Mr. Money Mustache, earns as much as $400,000 a year on his blog.  He plans to donate the money away some day. (mrmoneymustache.com)

Extreme frugality is the secret to early retirement, but to one billionaire frugality is the way of life. Frugal billionaire Ingvar Kamprad, founder of furniture chain Ikea, normally stocks up his wardrobe at flea markets to save money.  “I don’t think I’m wearing anything that wasn’t bought at a flea market,” Kamprad says in an upcoming documentary for Swedish television. He also prefers cheap haircuts as he told a Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan: “Normally, I try to get my haircut when I’m in a developing country. Last time it was in Vietnam.” Kamprad, who turns 90 on March 30, said penny-pinching helped Ikea’s success. It probably also helped him to amass a net worth of more than $40 billion, according to a Bloomberg estimate. (afp.com)

Not only moderate alcohol use can have important health benefits, but drinkers earn over 10 percent more money at their jobs than nondrinkers. A new survey shows that people that earns more tend to drink more often, perhaps to build relationship and contacts that result in bigger paychecks. In U.S. about 78% of those with an annual household income of $75,000 or more say they drink, compared to 45% of those with a household income of less than $30,000. Similarly, according to the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics, almost a quarter of Britons who earn over $57,000 are likely to drink at least five days a week, compare to 8% of whose who earn less than $14,200. In general, you are likely to have a drink in the past 24 hours if your household income top $75,000. Silvia Ascarelli writes: “In the U.S., richer drinkers also prefer wine over beer, but just barely. Beer is most popular with those earning between $30,000 and $74,999, according to Gallup. Wine is the preferred drink among college graduates, while those who have a high-school diploma or less prefer beer.” (marketwatch.com)

Financial planner Sammy Azzouz writes: “Why aren’t more people rich? All too frequently, sufficiently high income earners prefer to emulate the rich’s spending habits, spending more as their income grows. You can call it ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ or ‘lifestyle creep’, but whatever you call it, you should avoid this pitfall.” Lifestyle creep prevent you to save early on in your career to compound it later in your investment. To avoid the trap, Mr. Azzouz explains that you should be “thoughtful about where you live” as housing is one of the main ingredient that let you falling into the lifestyle creep. Furthermore, you should control your spending and live below your means. (linkedin.com)