How To Save Over $100,000 Without Giving Anything Up

How can you save over $100,000 without giving anything up?  At school, my two kids get to pick a prize from the prize box if they are good or otherwise helpful.  Both of them are so motivated by this that when I pick them up, they excitedly make me wait while they pick their prize.  They earn one on most days.  A finger trap, a top, a plastic hand clapper thing, etc.  They spend several minutes picking the “best” one every day and then bring it home.  Within minutes the trinket is forgotten.  I used to wait for a couple of days but now I often throw these things away after they go to bed the same day.  Neither boy has ever asked me what happened to the trinket, not even once yet.  I keep wondering when they are going to grow weary of doing extra tasks for empty prizes that they only think they want in the moment.  I like to hope that this prize thing might inoculate them over time and yes this is a thin metaphor for our American lives. 

How To Stretch a Dollar

I remember at some point when I was young and got an allowance that I started saving it.  I worked at using discretion when spending it asking myself if I really pictured me wanting that thing over time, I never paid retail, and I would buy Christmas candy the week after Christmas for 70% off (haha).  More generally, I was lucky enough to have a realization at a young age that spending more cash often did not help me to feel better or live better and lots of those wall walkers, paper Chinese yo yos, sticky hands, and super balls just ended up in the trash without me caring.  Lots of those RVs and sailboats end up in storage and lots of that exercise equipment, shoes, and crafty specialty decor ends up sitting in a closet.  The short of all of this is that I would like to quickly and informally share the dark inner workings of my brain when it comes to how I view the spending of money.  I thought it was fairly normal but finding myself where I ended up in my 30s has made me revise that assessment and believe it worth a share.  It is conservative to say that I have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars over my lifetime so far and probably into the 7 figures if you extend these beliefs that I have operated under into buying houses, career choices, etc.    

Luxury Is Bull%#*$…

…unless it is excess capacity, past its premium, or ridiculously currency advantaged in your favor.

When a handbag or a watch or perfume costs $X to make, there is no way that it has an intrinsic value of $10X-$100X.  I have however bought all kinds of luxury meals, lodgings, and services in India, the Czech Republic, or Thailand for example where things were ridiculously currency advantaged to my dollar.  To me, this then tipped the scale toward being an opportunity. I got to experience the luxury at a value that I could not normally get.  I have bought last year’s luxury goods for pennies on the dollar and enjoyed the luxury of them despite the fading of sheen. I have flown or stayed in the fancy class when capacity was excess and someone was glad to take 5% more money than the non-luxury choice because otherwise the excess capacity would go to waste.

Never Buy What Is Free.  

I have a library card and I use it even today when I could be Amazon priming every book I want to read. Why, because I like value and don’t like waste. I can’t bring myself to buy a bottled water no matter how thirsty I am without a faucet around. Instead, I buy a gatorade or something if I have to because somehow that makes it a better value (weird right)? I have never paid for cable and if you think that the savings is only the cost of the monthly bill, google “opportunity cost.” In a pinch, I have an antenna and network stations are still free. I also enjoyed many years of Netflix grandfathered in at $4.99 per month as an early supporter (until they ended that party).

Never Pay Retail.  

What is retail anyway?  It simply means with overhead and mark up added.  Why wouldn’t I buy the same stuff online or at a place like Ross or TJ Maxx, at sizable discounts?  Also, if a site has a promo or coupon code I google that and this 1-3 minutes of time usually saves me at least an additional 10%.  It used to be that convenience drove many retail purchases but that gap is closing for me.  I use my Amazon prime account to its fullest and it is not often that I just can’t wait 2 days for something to arrive with prime shipping.  Over my life to date, not paying retail alone has probably saved me a lifetime average of over 20% on clothing, home goods, groceries, etc.  This easily amounts to six figures in savings alone.

Don’t Waste Stuff.  

I don’t view this as a money thing but a survival instinct and an envirnomental conservation way of thinking.  I take my leftovers at the restaurant or eat them and then don’t have to eat as much at next meal.  I try to buy only the grocery amounts that I need so that I save a bit at checkout and then also don’t have a pantry and fridge full of remnants that I have to spend more time finding out how to use or throw away.  I turn down the heat if I am leaving town.  This is a mindset for efficiency not penny pinching to me.

I have come to realize that people often think about what they want now and then just buy it. What if you thought about what you want more wholistically and made decisions based on the opportunities at hand. For example, if you look at my list of adventures you will see going to Bali on there. I want to go, I have the money, and I have the time. So why not just go? The answer is that Bali is not the only thing on my list and it is on the other side of the world. With my wife presently working (by choice not out of necessity), and my kids in school, I could go to Bali now but I want them with me and currently they could get at most 1-2 weeks of vacation. We would lose 28 hours to travel time on each end of the trip as well as the jet lag recovery period of a 15 hour time change. This means real time in Bali of only 3-10 days and airfare is likely the majority expense of this trip. If I wait until a time when we can go for 1 month or more I may save 30% or more per day average on this trip. If you want jambalaya but you are in China for the weekend, maybe you have an opportunity to eat the best seafood fried rice you’ve ever had instead. If I go to the grocery store with some meals in mind but then see that salmon is half price, how might I embrace that opportunity? My point is that one can live a great life full of awesome experiences and do some form of everything one wants to do. Embracing strengths and opportunities of the situation can make this happen at a huge discount. I am not a football fan (at all) but I always wanted to see an NFL game sometime to see what it is all about. I just didn’t want to pay those hefty ticket prices. Since the opportunity was not going away, I simply waited for an opportunity. Eventually in my 30s, I was offered company tickets and saw one for free.

Money, Relationships, Time, And Timing Are All Currencies That Can Be Applied.

Money and time are obvious but can be wasted if the other currencies are not even considered.  Timing is huge and often overlooked.  What if you went to the beach on Christmas and then you flew home to see family on spring break?  You’d be changing from a time of peak demand for each to a time when excess inventory is available right?  My brothers helped me with some real estate stuff and I wanted to thank them.  Since they own a business with flexible schedules and I too have flexibility right now I am flying all of us to Vegas Monday to Thursday mid week and in early April when it is still the slow season.  With all that excess capacity, I am saving over 70% compared to weekend high season rates on hotel and airfare.  Shows will be easy to get tickets for and there will be discounts everywhere.  Timing is a currency. 

I confess to being a foodie.  I have eaten at the best restaurants in Denver for $10-15.  How?  I simply eat there for lunch when everyone else has to work and have little time for great food.  If I returned on Friday for dinner, I’d get a table at 8pm and pay over $50 with drinks.  Sometimes the dinner dish is literally identical to the lunch one except for a 2X price markup. 

Creative flexibility is similar to timing.  Where I live, I can get to the mountains on a Saturday morning to ski in an hour if I leave by 5:45-5:50am.  If I wait until 6am, the highway starts to fill up and by 6:30am it is a 2 hour drive to go skiing (or more with accidents). Sleeping an extra 15-30 minutes = an extra hour of drive time. By knowing this and being willing to do something slightly unacceptable I win.  6am sounds early but ok to most, while 5:45 is just too damn early.  By being willing to accept the slightly unacceptable, you break out of peak demand.  Think red eye flights or celebrating your valentine on the day after.  I just took an awesome trip to see a friend and visit a rain forest in the middle of the rainy season.  Many facilities were literally closed, and we had this magical super green national park all to ourselves for awhile.  Late this month, it will be sunny but less vibrant and it will fill with people. 

The Giza Plateau may be one of the most visited tourist sites in the world and has been a tourist destination since the 1800s when european tourists would literally take mummies home as souvenirs.  

It is still amazing and definitely worth the pilgrimage but it is usually photographed from the other side.  I’m looking at the buildings of downtown Cairo in the background and 14.7 million tourists visit these pyramids every year.

But how many people have been to the largest pyramid in the world, the Great Cholula Pyramid? It is the largest monument ever constructed on earth and is located right here in North America:

Much of it is covered with dirt and the Spanish built a church on the top of it in the 1500s so it may not be as visually stunning as Giza, however, we took in the history and explored miles of tunnels through this pyramid and saw not a single tourist until we emerged.  Even then, we saw only a handful of tourists over a few hours of visiting.  On a separate trip, I once had a local bus drop me off a mile from Xochicalco and walked to this historic Mayan city.  It was a surreal and spiritual experience for me.  I walked in through the open gates and respectfully toured the entire site for about an hour and a half before I saw anyone else.  It was a caretaker who told me that I was welcome to enjoy the history and that most staff is not there and they don’t bother collecting admission on days when tourist busses are not scheduled to come because there are so few other visitors.  How much would one of those tourists from the bus have paid to have the ancient city all to herself for a few hours?  I have battled crowds and paid premiums to experience some of the worlds greatest hits but sometimes, a less loved treasure can be more beautiful and hold a priceless experience. 

There are many forms of currency and one can save thousands of dollars without giving anything up. Avoiding waste, shunning luxury, never paying for what you can get for free, and finding alternatives to retail can save one even thousands of dollars more. Over time this mindset adds up into the six figures and can change one’s trajectory toward financial independence.  I hope that this weird trip inside of my brain and some of the way that I view spending money was insightful and I would love to hear your views and reactions in the comments as well.

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to stay in the loop. Subscribe in the toolbar at right or footer of this page.