My favorite book on finance is “Your Money Or Your Life” — it’s an older book, but it’s all about changing the way you look at money so that being responsible about it comes naturally. Reading it made a *huge* difference for me, with hardly any actual “effort” at all.

Bravo on your 22%! That is fantastic. Thanks to the wonders of direct deposit, I’m at 36% right now, but that’s temporary due to saving for a house — once I *have* the house, I’m sure that number’ll have to come down! Still, it’s a lot easier than it seems once you just buckle down and do it, that’s for sure.

Thanks for your comment!

Starting this year, I’ve been doing just this: intending to keep permanently (invest) 50% of my gross income. A heroic goal on a truly average income. Naturally, I failed. The result – The first 4 months, I achieved 22.3% – and without struggling.

Hey -that’s pretty good.
For me, the mere act of tracking income and spending has been vastly enlightening. Seeing day-to-day that every dollar I spend frivilously is gone forever, dead without issue – whereas every dollar I keep will keep on working indefinately.
The relationship to money, how I think about it, has changed. I used to see it as ‘stuff to spend’, and now I see it as a remarkable substance which reproduces itself as it is conserved. Of course, one must spend a little, now and then…
I have little discipline, but have found that when your thinking changes, your actions change effortlessly.

one further thought:
My pet theory:
All Interest Rates Are (subconciously) Predicated On The Average Persons Life Span.

Think about it. Imagine what interest rates would be like if humans lived 150 years – or 20 years. Would current interest rates (i.e. between 4-24%) make any economic sense?
As part of being wealthy, therefore, beat interest rates by investing genuinely in long-term health and longevity. It is possible. It’s the twenty-first century, you know.

See y’all downstream.

Foggy