Did I strike a nerve? I hope I haven’t offended you with my whimsical financial ramblings. :) Interesting how finances bring out a lot of passion in people… I hope this means that there’s something worth getting passionate about in finances.

Though my family isn’t exactly poverty stricken (my father saved a lot of money before he passed away… hopefully enough for my mother to survive on), I did spent my college years living on ~$400/month (not counting tuition). I paid $175 to share a room for rent in a house with 14 others, worked at Todo Loco and Pizza Hut for food, and ate Ramen 6 days a week (splurging once a week with Macaroni with “real cheese”). I would save up for a month to get a CD. And I couldn’t understand how anyone could just buy toothpaste and toilet paper willy nilly since they made such a dent in my cash pile.

When I was married we also kept a very tight budget and since then I’ve never had a balance on my credit card. When we were starting this company and didn’t know how we were going to finance it, I lowered my expenses (moved into a cheap studio, cancelled anything that had a monthly subscription including internet access, and sold about 80% of my possessions) so that I could live on minimum wage and my savings for about 1.5 years (about $1,500/month).

This last year I put away about 30% of my income into 401Ks, ROTHs and savings accounts. I just don’t have that many expenses… I don’t know where most people’s money goes. Should I start saving 50%? That might be a fun goal actually…

Caring about finances is my attempt to bootstrap bigger financial goals. I don’t yet even know what they could possibly be. I can’t start giving to charity until I care about finances, and I can’t start seriously planning for retirement until I care. Caring is what makes everything else possible…

Also, in addition to planning for retirement, I think it’s also important to plan for extreme wealth. Why is financial planning always so defensive?

PS. Thanks for kicking up the debate. :)