Good morning! I am pleased to present a guest post today from The Outlier Model, where they talk about their financial choices, who are definitely not the norm. Head over there to check my guest post about cheap holidays on the US West coast!
The Outlier Model is a personal finance/lifestyle blog based on the pillars of “living life a little bit differently”. Based on the belief that success follows those who choose to do something other than the normal, posts at The Outlier Model discuss topics such as budgeting, life hacking, and smart shopping. Using a combination of personal anecdotes, how-to tips and commentary, readers are introduced to the small steps that can help them become something more than average.
When Brian and I go to visit family, my mother will sometimes remark, “Oh, now that you guys are making good money, you can start saving up for a house and a car.” Or Brian’s dad might say, “Now that you have a good job, you’ll never have to do a job interview again!” Certainly these are normal sentiments. People grow up, get jobs, get promoted, and buy stuff with their new found wealth. All part of the average North American life right? After all, no one wants to be constantly switching jobs, catching the bus or watching the grocery sales.
Well, that’s part of the problem. Brian and I don’t want to just live an average life because an average life means average outcomes. And the outcomes are not so good. According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian retired at age 62 – and that number’s rising. We also have, on average, less than $100,000 saved up by the time we’re ready to retire. And that’s assuming we’re happy to work for more than 30 years of our lives. Yikes.
But what happens when you’re not average? Suddenly you’re outside of that bell shaped curve and to many people, that means one of two things – you’re mediocre… or you’re extraordinary. A lot of the distinction only lies in the way you look at it. And that can be hard to deal with.
For example, Brian and I don’t own a car. To many people, it can be seen as a sign of mediocrity – we can’t afford it or we are too cheap or we would rather mooch rides off of friends. To us, it is an achievement – we have less impact on the environment and we save money. Over $200 each month, in fact. And that’s not including unexpected maintenance or repairs!
As another example, we only spend $200 a month on groceries. My own family thinks that Brian and I are needlessly depriving ourselves – my mom in particular worries that we are not adequately fed. My co-workers wonder if I am paid a lower salary because I bring in my food every day. These are all impressions of mediocrity. But to us, we feel successful – we eat tasty, homemade food each day, we eat much healthier than if we ate out frequently, and again, we save money.
In the end, these are small things. Perhaps they are signs of failure or deprivation. It is true that using a car sharing service is not as convenient as owning a car and it is also true that spending $200 a month on groceries means we can’t always indulge in steak or lamb. However, the fact remains that we save a lot of money doing these things. And we save a lot of money doing other unconventional things, like living in a teeny condo and renting out our big condo. And we make a lot of money by aggressively chasing new jobs and promotions, taking on side gigs, and being just a bit entrepreneurial. And all of that money gets funneled into one goal – financial freedom.
Think back to those averages I quoted earlier. Working into your 60s. Having less than $100,000 to retire on. That’s the motivation that we carry and that’s what makes it worth it for us. To us, taking transit in the city or being a bit more careful with our grocery spending does not even compare to the sacrifices we’d have to make if we grew old and ended up lacking in “retirement”. Or worse, if we were not able to retire at all. We’d rather work hard now and save up our money – whether through frugality, job hopping or savvy real estate investments – so that we can retire “above average.”
So for now, we might be on the failing side of average when it comes to convenience or possessions. We probably won’t stay in any job for more than a few years and we probably won’t live in any one place for very long. We will eat a lot of rice. And that’s okay – I suspect that we will end up on the extraordinary side of early retirement.
Good post! We tend to get many of the same comments from family members who don’t understand our frugal choices. They don’t understand why we’re sacrificing now and looking for ways to improve income so we can live better once we choose to retire.
Very true! And for us, the sacrifices that we are making aren’t really big sacrifices for us because things like having a car are not important to us. It’s hard to people to relate when having a car may be important to them.
What I’ve found is that it’s possible to make small changes that add up to big significant ones. We have a lovely house – but it’s half the size (or smaller) than many newer homes. We go out to networking lunches with colleagues, but it’s a couple times a month instead of every day. We buy things that last instead of things that will just get used up and thrown away quickly. Our lifestyle doesn’t look *that* different from many others where we live, but we are still able to live on a fraction of our take-home pay by doing little things differently.
I think going to a few networking lunches a month is a good compromise. I do the same myself a few times a month.
Not having a car can save a lot money. The Vancouver mayor and city councilors are pretty green-minded. I think the trend is more people will be taking public transit or going by foot in the future. $100K won’t be worth as much when we’re all 62 some day so it’s even more important to live a relatively frugal lifestyle and save for financial freedom. Nothing wrong with cheap food like rice, or even potatoes. They can be pretty tasty if you know how to prepare them :0)
I love rice… for me, NOT having rice is a sacrifice! I’m really happy with the Vancouver mayor and city council, for the most part. I agree with their green changes. Not so much with their insistence on using prime Vancouver real estate for subsidized housing, but eh… can’t have everything.
Love seeing the guest post! That’s pretty incredible you can live without a car, but I can also see how it’s doable. We also only spend $200 (or less) on groceries a month, but still have plenty of food because we make use of coupons (we’ve saved over $1k this year on groceries alone).
Coupons are harder to come by here but we’re fortunate to have many ethnic stores, many of which are affiliated with local farms, which makes it easy to shop local and cheaply.
I see your point- average sucks! What’s that saying? Shoot for the stars and land on the moon? Whatever. Anyway, good for you for wanting to become more than average and for working for a secure financial future!!!
I figure aiming high, even if it turns out to be too high, will still leave me in a good position. 🙂
Breaking the mold on the way your family expects you to behave can be difficult. Lots of folks never even think to try it.
It is incredibly difficult, I agree. I’m lucky – my parents are accepting of my strange decisions, even when they may not necessarily agree.
I terribly admire the fact you gave up a car. The boy and I are considering moving close to his work and foregoing our vehicle, to the chagrin of friends and family. Unnecessary money pit, harmful to the environment, etc. Good riddance, I say!
It’s always the family that seems to object the most doesn’t it? 🙂 Good for you guys – walking to work or taking transit is much more relaxing than sitting in a car.
I appreciate this strategy for living, and commend the families that choose to focus on personal long-term financial goals rather than worry about the mainstream. My only comment is to wonder about a balance. As I read the piece, I wondered if such a lifestyle sells the present life short for a perceived future life. I hope this family will allow themselves a thoroughly rich (experiential, not financial) life today, next month, and next year, enjoying the present as much as they intend to enjoy the future. No one knows how many years they will be here, so balancing all aspects of our lives is vitally important. It does not sound as if this couple feels deprived–but I do hope they are not sacrificing too much now for an unknown distant future.
I think balance is hard to achieve for a lot of people, regardless or whether or not they aspire to retire early. I think that the things we sacrifice – cars or living space for example – are generally things that are not as important to us, so they don’t feel like a huge sacrifice.
Screw what people think. People can be so dumb. They think brinign your own food into work is a sign of a poor salary? When I see that I always think it’s a sign of good financial planning, good health, and a kind wife (my wife packs most my lunches). No car? If you can gt around on yoru own in other ways, I think it’s great! It’s a sign to me of someone with less problems to deal with. Next time your family mentions these things, you could agree with the sentiment, but then try to explain why you disagree with the reality of it.
Thanks for the encouragement! I think my family keeps hoping that once we “settle down” we’ll eventually come around to buying the house, the car, and making babies. lols…
I can’t believe you get by on $200/mo on groceries… But it’s ridiculous that your co-workers think you’re making less because you bring your own food?! What??! What’s wrong with cooking at home, lol. I do it every day. It’s been almost a year now and lunches purchased at work = 0. I’ve saved enough for a vacation.
It helps that we have a lot of good ethnic grocery stores which tend to price fresh produce cheaper than places like Safeway or even Walmart. 🙂 Plus, we don’t tend to eat a lot of meat – we have meat or other protein with most meals, but we eat smaller amounts than people tend to.
Good for you for not owning a car. Mr. Money Mustache would be so proud. The status quo is for chumps. Way to be extraordinary!
You and I are alike. I have zero interest in working until I’m 60. We are always looking for places we can cut expenses back without cutting our level of satisfaction. Currently 24% of our family expenses go to food. We’re working to lower that!
Exactly. We try to find ways to cut areas that are not important to us. Since we do almost all of our own cooking, a pricey grocery bill each month is not necessary.
iHeartBrian&CF.com is going to be my new URL. LoL.
Great post. Average is so difficult to overcome and the society we live in makes it challenging to get ahead and reach financial independence. What you’re doing is amazing and I love following people that “live like no one else!”
Damn it, I was going to grab that URL! 😀
I can say that several of our family members and friends raised their eyebrows at our simplistic approach and lifestyle and both of us being self-employed because it is not conventional. They have no idea of how much we make or what are our expenses or whether we have debt so that fuels the rumour mills more lol.
I love this interview — I love reading the Outlier Model because (I think unlike CF and Brian’s real-life peers) I’m fascinated by the path they are taking.
Wow, another lesson that I learn today about frugal living. It is really necessity to work hard in saving more money especially on groceries items. We make it a habit to save money every time we go for grocery shopping. We want to use the savings to invest on retirement funds or on precious metal.
I think that brings up the question of are you cheap or frugal? Cheap would be mooching off your friends for rides in their car (which I have had friends do this and I HATED!), but frugal is accepting that this saves you money and you are responsible for your own transportation like walking, biking, or taking a bus. Cheap would be eating someone else’s food or showing up to a party empty-handed, frugal is bringing your lunch to work every day. It’s a slippery slope, so hopefully you aren’t mooching off your friends for rides. lol! But I’m all for frugal!
Most of our friends don’t have cars, so it’s hard to mooch even if we wanted to, haha. Usually when we drive, it’s with car sharing programs.
I think what the article doesn’t capture is that we spend money where it’s important to us. Wine is a good example. Brian doesn’t hesitate to drop $40 on a good bottle of wine, because it’s something he’s really into. But that comes out of his budgeted spending money. 😉
Another wonderful post Sydney! There’s nothing wrong with challenging the status quo and rattling a few cages!
Average would seem to get you not very far if you’re in your 60’s and have less than $100, 000 to your name. Maybe bingo on Tuesdays and a sandwich off the dollar menu if you’re lucky. I have never been as focused as you guys, so will see later results and it gets harder with a child, but we’ll get there way before 62 hopefully.
It’s all about perspective isn’t it. I really like your life choices and don’t think that others should judge you on them without understanding why you choose to do what you do.
FYI – I bring my lunch to work every day too 🙂
I see so many parallels in this post with how I’m living at the moment. $200 per month on groceries is awesome, congrats.
I’m aspiring to live without a car in the near future. If I could I’d bike everywhere!
Way to keep your eye on the ball! I think you are definitely on the right track to reach your goals, and good for you for not succumbing to the pressure of normalcy.
Society plays such a weird role in these things, like the pressure to buy things and whatnot. I wish it was possible to easily exist without vehicles where we live. It is doable, yes, but most who do it only live here for six months, not for years.
Still astounded that you can do all your groceries that affordably!
Thanks for this post, it speaks a lot towards being outside the “norm” and how others view people that chose to lead frugal lives in order to gain financial well being. “Marching to the beat of your own drum” is one way to describe it. Unfortunately many of us don’t learn to march this way until we’re much older. I’m glad to see that Pauline and Brian have the discipline and the determination to stick with it.
I feel better after reading this. It is a motivation to those of us who spend less but conscious of our thrifty ways. This is the kind of post which does a lot of good among readers and gives hope of self improvement.