A high savings rate
Bank a large share of income by spending well below what the income allows
Keeping expenses far under what you could afford and banking the difference. The arithmetic is what makes it work. Wealth is the leftovers, so the gap you create matters more than the return you earn on it or the salary you started from, and spending less also shrinks the pile you need. Writers on the subject tend to describe the obstacle as social, because spending past basic comfort tracks status more than need. A raise changes nothing if the spending rises with it. What it buys is room to maneuver: cash on hand lets you wait out a bad market, turn down work, or take a lower-paying job that suits you better.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Morgan HouselRecommends
Writer · The Psychology of Money
Wealth is whatever is left after you spend, on his framing, so the savings rate does more work than income or returns do. Saving, as he describes it, raises your humility rather than your salary. The return he cares about is flexibility. Time to think, and the option to wait rather than take whatever comes at you.
Source: Collaborative Fund: Let Me Convince You To Save Money
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under stress or productivity.
- HabitFREE, no cost
Journaling
Writing to unload the mind, usually first thing or last thing
On record from 14 of 62 tracked people: 13 do it, 1 recommends it - HabitFREE, no cost
Deliberate discomfort
Choosing the thing you do not want to do, daily, as its own training
On record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it, 2 recommend it - HabitFREE, no cost
Accountability mirror
Telling yourself the blunt truth in the mirror every day, then fixing it
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - HabitFREE, no cost
Act on the thing causing stress
Make the first call or send the first email on whatever is nagging at you
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - HabitFREE, no cost
Asking for help
Four words, can you help me, used on purpose rather than as a last resort
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - HabitFREE, no cost
Extended sabbatical
A month or more entirely off work, announced well in advance
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Habit entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.