I Can't Afford It

07/31/15

So, as I've mentioned several times, I've been reading Mr. Money Mustache, and overall the blog really speaks to me.

One very powerful idea I like quite a bit is his definition of affordability: if you aren't retired, you can't afford it. Any superflous act of life that is net-losing you money is delaying you from having enough money to live on for forever.

I have had decent experience applying this logic to purchasing decisions. I have avoided spending even "trivial" amounts of money using this thinking.

In a post I recently read, Understand the Marginal Utility of Booze and Drugs, he expands this idea of affordance also to other life-goals you might have. Are you as fit as you want to be? Then you can't afford that beer.

Now, this seems really powerful. I could apply this to my rather bad candy and soda habit. I can also apply this to my reddit habit. I have so many things I could be reading instead that would help towards achieving my goals. I could work on other things instead. I could write higher quality blog posts. At my current output of quality stuff, I can't afford reddit.

Let's see how well this thinking convinces lazy me to not peruse reddit and other equally expensive sites.