Next weeks paycheck is already spent
Edit- I am very frugal and the money goes toward bills and rent
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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3 years for my wife and I.
Probably 6-7 if we take money out of retirement accounts.
We have been very fortunate in circumstances. Spend about 2.5k a month. In mid twenties.
3 months
About a year.
I just ran the numbers for the first time ever, and it adds up to 34 months - which I realize is a pretty privileged place to be. However, I’m by no means rich; I just live well below my means and invest all my savings.
Dude, you are rich.
He's rich in spirit.
In reality, he's about seven orders of magnitude from rich, and your perspective needs a good tinkering.
Depends on who I compare myself to and how one defines “rich.” To me, it means someone whose passive income exceeds their spending - and I’m nowhere even close to that… yet.
Yeah I think that's where the distinction between rich and wealthy comes in. You still have to work for a living and are closer to homelessness than renting out Venice for a wedding (for instance).
This exact question from this thread is how rich are you and 34 months is quite wealthy.
It’s an important distinction where I’m a potential counter example. I admit it. I earn what ought to be a comfortable living but poor choices in the past (and probably still) mean that I’m only a couple months from financial disaster. And since it would affect my kids education and my old age, the affects would be major. I am clearly not wealthy, mostly due to my own choices
Surely it depends how you live though. A guy spending just £15 a week on food and living in a tent is not wealthy just because they have £2k in the bank which will cover them for a few years.
That’s a bit of an edge case but why not? If they earn enough to live the way they want, are secure from immediate financial catastrophe, and can afford some luxuries, then maybe they are wealthy, despite being subsistence
Meanwhile someone can earn a nice fat six figure salary but be over mortgaged for house and car, not living comfortably, and paycheck to paycheck on the edge of financial disaster. They’re poor, despite it being by their poor choices
Wealth is freedom from want and financial anxiety
I used to rent a single bedroom in an overcrowded house share, didn't learn to drive because I couldn't afford it.
Had over a year of expenses saved, hardly makes you rich.
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I'm in my mid 40's.
It's not particularly uncommon for people in regional Australia to own their own house with no mortgage by my age.
It's pretty tough to find a family home that costs less than 10x average wage.
So, as a kind of line in the sand I'd say maybe a third of 45 year olds living in regional Australia could "survive" for 10 years with no income.
How do you know how to invest? Asking for a friend.
I don’t. I do it the boring way - buying cheap, highly diversified ETF index funds.
That's way more than most people know... Also, wtf is an ETF?
Exchange Traded Funds, basically these funds pool money from a lot of small investors and give you diversified portfolio. Basically if you try to mirror S&P 500 yourself, it'll require about a few hundred thousand dollars to manage, but by pooling with other people you can have S&P 500 level diversification for 100$
- Open a Vanguard account.
- Buy as much of the thing called VOO as you can each month.
- Come back at retirement age to oodles of money.
Mutual funds and ETFs are both types of investments that represent a group of individual stocks and are generally managed in some way, either by a person or by a fixed algorithm. Mutual funds have some tax implications that can by annoying for people so ETFs tend to be preferred for taxable accounts (in the US at least).
Buy into a broad market tracking ETF (something that tracks s&P 500 or 1000 or similar). That way you're not betting on individual companies, your betting on the collective largest companies in the world doing well. Over a long period of time, which for over a century has averaged ~7% inflation adjusted return yearly.
About a month should be covered
Right now, until next month's mortgage payment comes due. Every time I get something in the emergency fund either an emergency happens or a maintenance that will be an emergency if ignored. Just ordered a new set of car tires about an hour ago, as it happens.
I’m still recovering from the mistakes I made 8 years ago, for another 3 years maximum, so no savings,
1-2 years before I need to look at selling the house, although hoping that the mortgage will drop when our 2 year fix ends which could push that time up a bit as that is by far my largest expense.
The rest of this month.
If I was more devoted to my saving, I could probably last a good long while. Like, maybe a couple years worth of just savings, leaving my job and just living worry free. My expenses are moderately low so it'd be stupid easy.
If im lucky its about 2 months.
3 months at the absolute most, likely significantly less, even after cutting out all "luxuries" like paying for internet/phone/electricity/water.
70% of that would go on rent for my 1-bed flat. And no - I don't live in a big city. The UK is fucked and it will get d lot worse soon.
I earn less than average (£26k), live in the south, most of my hobbies are cheap though. Fair bit of outdoor stuff - touching grass is free.
The media really is pushing reform though, it's crazy how much press they get. The party that wants to remove your human rights..
I earn almost double and I can't say I have any hobbies that require spending money anymore, unless upskilling for work counts as a hobby.
Almost all of my hobbies are centered around spending less money, e.g. building an offline music collection to move off Spotify, homelab stuff to host navidrome & jellyfin to move off having any subscription services.
I did buy an acoustic guitar I've been absolutely in love with lately. Was pretty cheap for a guitar (£200) but that's something I suppose.
I was saving for a house but by the time I could afford even the shittiest mortgage I might have to flee the country and as such lose all the gains in my LISA. Might as well live a little I guess.
Bought a house a couple of years ago, just as Truss fucked up the economy so my mortgage sucks. 2 year fix ends soon though so hopefully the rate will drop. Tempting to keep paying the same amount though as I know I am able to and then cut many years off it. Or perhaps even aim to pay a bit more and cut over a decade off. Reducing the size of the debt faster also should mean I can extend the payback period if I have financial issues and its not as much of a problem as there would be more time to work with.
Cash only, about 6 months. Selling assets, 20 years.
13 years ago I had to walk 2 hours after work to get home because I didn't have a pounds to rent a bike (it was a bank holiday and salary was delayed for a day). My family helped me expanding my education and since things skyrocketed.
A couple months, but
Basically I’ve been saving up for years to redo a leaky moldy bathroom. That wouldn’t get done. Maybe ever
I’ve saved what I could to pay for my kids college. I could ruin their entire future to stay alive
I’m coming up in retirement age with way too little savings. I’ve finally able to put aside enough to catch up a little bit I guess that would go pretty quickly too
A month?
Many years technically, but I doubt the stability of… well, everything, too much to say that with much conviction.
A month, maybe. I'd probably get arrested for squatting at work sooner, tbh. If I cut and run to the woods tonight, I could probably make it further, but I'll run out of food money faster than I could get a reliable food source going before winter hits
A month on current funds and maybe a couple more if I started selling off longer term assets.
I don't use my car much anymore, so would consider that liquid, and could make the kids pay some rent now they are working (not much), if I sold that and nothing in the house needed repaired or maintained (ha ha ha) I am at almost 3 years. So I guess if I had some fatal illness and was willing to run out all of both my &my husband's retirement money I could stop working. Well, no, nevermind, I couldn't, because the medical care would bankrupt us. But we would not immediately starve anymore. It only took half a century to get here!
Buddy I live deep in the Appalachia mountains. I don't need money at all. All this technology and civilization bullshit is just a bonus for me, not a need.
Without cutting back at all, even my frivolous spending and holidays, about six months.
If i cut holidays and frivolous stuff, about twelve months.
If i cut back essentials, sold some stuff, eighteen to twenty four months. If on top i downsized the house, probably five years.
If i could make it to seven years then my private pension would kick in and I can retire. If the government hasn't already moved the age you can draw a private pension i could be retired already.
About three fiddy.
Aye, me too. I can no longer work but I also don't get benefits because according to the rules I can actually work. I have post exertional malaise, chronic fatigue and chronic brain fog. I'm an editor and proofreader.
I'm one of the lucky few who have a pension. I do not have enough savings to last until the pension kicks in, and in any case the pension is less than my current income, but I could live off my pension and social security alone.
Next week.
About 30 months without any cutback on spending. Pure living costs is about 60 months.
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