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I used to be so frugal I DIYed everything — and ended up totally burnt out. Now, I spend $725 a month on lawn care, housecleaning, and meal kits, and I wish I'd done it sooner. Money is not our only resource — our time and energy are, too, and I love having more of both.
My parents taught me some basic lessons on personal finance that served me very well in my first years as an independent adult. They taught me that you don't spend money you don't have, a rule I took so seriously that I never had a single cent of consumer debt to my name (not even student loans ). They helped me understand that I had to live well below my means and prioritize saving above all else, an idea that helped me start investing at 21 and encouraged me to save almost half my income through my early 20s.
And they told me that the only way to make it in life was to be independent, get a practical, stable job, and work as hard as I possibly could for as long as I could. These ideas did give me a huge leg up on my peers through my early 20s. I worked hard, I saved a lot, and I developed a strong financial foundation that allowed me to build up a lot of assets in a short amount of time.
But by.