Page 237 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

you need to earn or $5,475 a year that could go towards a house deposit. Then add all the lunches and dinners in – it adds up. I made my own lunch for the first twenty-five years of my working life.
And OK, you might think I am a tight-arse, but it enabled me to retire the week I turned 59 and when I wanted to.
Another example is renting when you could be paying a mortgage. Say you are paying $600 a week rent, which is $31,200 a year and means you must earn $44,500 a year in salary to pay the rent. That’s TOUGH. I just don’t know how some people live. If, somehow, they can buy a house, at least paying a mortgage they may be paying debt down and benefiting from capital gain over time.
Even today, when I may be able to afford things more easily than I did in my younger days, I always think: ‘What is this really costing me?’, and I don’t waste money on unnecessary things. Developing the mindset of ‘What is the true cost?’ may change the way some people think about wasted excesses and enable them to achieve more financially in life.