Savers_Mindset
00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:03.460 | Hello, everybody.
00:00:09.160 | It's Sam and Sydney from the Financial Samurai podcast.
00:00:11.920 | And in this episode, we want to talk about the savers mindset,
00:00:16.640 | whether we can all have it or whether it's just
00:00:20.600 | inherent or not.
00:00:22.460 | So guess where we just came back from, Sydney?
00:00:25.280 | Where did we come back from?
00:00:26.440 | The mall?
00:00:27.360 | Actually, we did come back from the mall.
00:00:29.100 | We went to some Panda Express.
00:00:30.920 | I bought some sides, some sweet shrimp, and some Kung Pao
00:00:36.200 | chicken and all that.
00:00:37.320 | And the funny thing is, I had never gone to Panda Express
00:00:40.480 | until about eight months ago.
00:00:42.720 | And now, every time I go, there are long lines.
00:00:45.320 | And I'm thinking to myself, wow, this place is good business.
00:00:48.760 | And the owners are billionaires, by the way.
00:00:51.040 | And it's a private company.
00:00:52.240 | And I realize, wow, the food tastes pretty good.
00:00:55.500 | And I'm an Asian person.
00:00:57.080 | I've grown up-- I grew up in Asia.
00:00:58.960 | I like good Asian food, great Asian food.
00:01:01.200 | So I would think, ah, Panda Express, whatever.
00:01:03.400 | But I tried it.
00:01:04.020 | I was like, eh, it's not bad.
00:01:05.320 | It's probably full of sugar and stuff like that.
00:01:07.760 | But the main thing is that it's so cheap.
00:01:10.800 | I basically bought enough to feed four of us for $38
00:01:15.300 | after tip and tax.
00:01:16.360 | And I thought that was pretty good.
00:01:17.860 | What do you think?
00:01:18.600 | That's good pricing.
00:01:19.480 | Food is crazy expensive today.
00:01:21.600 | Crazy expensive.
00:01:22.680 | You were asking me to go buy some of the Korean barbecue
00:01:26.000 | stuff.
00:01:26.560 | Because it's so good.
00:01:27.680 | I mean, it's so good.
00:01:29.280 | But it's so expensive.
00:01:30.320 | It's like $18 to $20 for an entree, right, for one.
00:01:33.720 | So if you multiply that by four, that's $80 versus $38
00:01:36.880 | I spent for four.
00:01:38.120 | And luckily, it was closed.
00:01:39.280 | Because that means I didn't have to spend the $18, $20
00:01:41.480 | to buy your entree.
00:01:42.200 | You're going to have to eat Panda Express.
00:01:43.940 | Ha, ha, ha.
00:01:44.440 | It's all good.
00:01:45.240 | So on the way home, guess where we also stopped by.
00:01:48.960 | Oh, that's right.
00:01:49.680 | We made a pit stop at the gas station.
00:01:53.460 | The gas station.
00:01:54.160 | Not any gas station.
00:01:55.080 | Not the Shell gas station.
00:01:56.360 | Not the Chevron gas station.
00:01:58.680 | But the Speedway Express gas station.
00:02:02.240 | Which, for folks who don't know, at least I didn't really know,
00:02:05.000 | it's just the non-top-tier gasoline that's way cheaper.
00:02:10.160 | So on our car, it's a Range Rover Sport 2015.
00:02:14.280 | When you open up the lid to fill up the gas,
00:02:17.080 | it says premium recommended.
00:02:18.720 | So since we bought it in 2016, December,
00:02:22.520 | I had always thought that premium meant anything
00:02:25.840 | above 87 octane.
00:02:27.240 | So 89 octane or 91 octane in California.
00:02:31.240 | So given I want to save money, I was like, OK.
00:02:33.760 | I'm just going to add 89 octane sometime.
00:02:36.240 | Because it's more expensive than 87 octane.
00:02:38.080 | And what I didn't realize until 2024,
00:02:41.880 | when I started on this kick to save as much money as possible,
00:02:46.320 | is that premium actually really means 91 octane or greater.
00:02:50.960 | And there are parts of the country that have 93 octane.
00:02:53.600 | Did you know that?
00:02:54.360 | 93 in some place.
00:02:55.720 | I did not know that.
00:02:56.680 | Anyway, so for all this time, since December 2016,
00:03:00.280 | I've been filling up Moose, our Range Rover Sport,
00:03:03.040 | with premium 89 octane or 87 octane.
00:03:07.640 | And all this time, the car has run just fine.
00:03:11.320 | No knocking noises.
00:03:12.600 | No nothing.
00:03:13.600 | And so I went on this deep dive.
00:03:15.880 | And I thought, uh-oh.
00:03:16.760 | Maybe this has been bad.
00:03:18.560 | This is because my check engine light did go on.
00:03:21.160 | But it went on for a completely different reason.
00:03:23.400 | Because a PVC valve was cracked and broken.
00:03:26.280 | And it was allowing more air to flow into the engine
00:03:29.440 | than it was supposed to be.
00:03:30.800 | So I went down this deep dive rabbit hole.
00:03:33.480 | And so there are top-tier gasolines
00:03:35.720 | with supposedly twice the amount of, quote,
00:03:38.520 | "detergents and additives" to clean up the fuel injectors
00:03:42.440 | and carbon deposits in your engine.
00:03:45.640 | And then there are the non-top-tier gasoline,
00:03:48.920 | such as Speedway Express.
00:03:51.640 | And I've been adding non-top-tier gasoline
00:03:54.000 | and 87 octane gasoline to a premium-recommended car
00:03:57.640 | for a long time.
00:03:59.480 | And nothing has happened.
00:04:00.560 | But the funny thing is, as I started to research
00:04:03.080 | more and more about how these top-tier gasolines
00:04:06.560 | have more additives, I started experiencing FOMO
00:04:09.960 | and the desire, thanks to, I think,
00:04:12.160 | what is really mostly marketing,
00:04:13.720 | to add more premium gasoline.
00:04:16.480 | But I'm proud to say that I didn't.
00:04:18.800 | Once again, I started to add the 87 octane Speedway Express
00:04:24.600 | gasoline, fill it up the tank, 23 gallons.
00:04:27.200 | And I saved myself $0.70 a gallon
00:04:30.840 | had I had gone to Chevron and paid for Supreme.
00:04:33.520 | And that's like $15, folks.
00:04:35.680 | $15 on a tank of gas?
00:04:37.720 | I think that's worth the savings.
00:04:39.120 | What do you think?
00:04:39.880 | I think so.
00:04:40.640 | It seems like you've found a good compromise.
00:04:43.600 | And how you have decided to manage the car,
00:04:47.360 | it's been doing great since we had it.
00:04:50.200 | Very few problems overall.
00:04:52.280 | So hey, it's a great, simple way to get some savings.
00:04:56.800 | Yeah, and the funny thing is, when
00:04:58.200 | I wrote this in my post on the three sneaky ways
00:05:01.440 | our expenses catch up to us, I had so much backlash
00:05:05.120 | from people who were ardently supporters
00:05:07.560 | of fueling top-tier gas, from mechanics to just enthusiasts.
00:05:12.160 | But really, none of us, unless we're driving F1 car racers,
00:05:16.600 | or we have like, I don't know, 911 Turbo or a Lamborghini,
00:05:19.720 | none of us really need this super high octane gas,
00:05:23.320 | premium gas.
00:05:24.320 | I don't think the vast majority of us can tell the difference.
00:05:27.400 | Can you tell the difference?
00:05:28.560 | I can't tell the difference.
00:05:29.760 | But again, you do most of the driving.
00:05:31.880 | Maybe some of these car enthusiasts,
00:05:33.560 | they're driving a lot of mileage per year
00:05:36.560 | and being on the highway a lot.
00:05:38.120 | So maybe they can tell a little bit.
00:05:40.520 | But I think based on the type and amount of driving
00:05:44.040 | that we do as a family, I think it's fine.
00:05:46.560 | Yeah, I mean, in the city, the speed limit
00:05:48.360 | is like 25 to 35 miles per hour.
00:05:50.840 | So maybe you drive 30 to 40 miles an hour max in the city.
00:05:55.560 | You don't need high-performance gas.
00:05:57.440 | And the thing is, if you really, really
00:05:59.160 | are concerned about carbon deposits building up,
00:06:01.720 | you can just buy a bottle of Tecron on Amazon for like $18
00:06:05.040 | and then dump it in your tank with up to, what,
00:06:07.760 | 20 gallons of fuel.
00:06:08.960 | That's what they recommend.
00:06:09.920 | And then do that every single oil change, every 5,000
00:06:12.920 | to maybe 10,000 miles, and you're probably good to go.
00:06:15.760 | That's a great compromise.
00:06:17.200 | Yeah, it's a decent compromise.
00:06:18.920 | So it is interesting that once I started
00:06:21.640 | doing the deep dive on, quote, "the better quality fuels,"
00:06:25.480 | I was like, oh, I should do that too.
00:06:28.440 | And it just really, I think, shows what marketing and FOMO
00:06:32.720 | can do to your budget.
00:06:35.000 | And this realization also made me
00:06:37.440 | want to get into this saver's mindset, the frugal mindset,
00:06:41.600 | I think, that many of us who are practicing saving and investing
00:06:45.720 | and trying to achieve financial independence sooner rather
00:06:48.440 | than later have been doing or adopting for a while.
00:06:52.520 | Do you have the frugal mindset?
00:06:53.840 | I do.
00:06:54.520 | And I think especially this year, with us moving and having
00:06:59.800 | a big lifestyle change and a shift in how our finances are
00:07:03.480 | structured, I think we've both been really looking at ways
00:07:07.840 | to save money again, and we feel great about it.
00:07:11.360 | Why don't you tell the listeners about your recent experience
00:07:15.600 | with your jacket?
00:07:17.400 | My jacket.
00:07:18.240 | Tell them the jacket story.
00:07:19.640 | Well, it's not a big story, but the point
00:07:21.760 | is I had not been thinking from a "safe first"
00:07:25.800 | mentality for a while until we bought this house.
00:07:28.280 | Because after we bought the house in 2023,
00:07:30.280 | cash flow became tight.
00:07:31.840 | And with all these capital calls from the private investment
00:07:34.800 | funds that we do in artificial intelligence, venture capital,
00:07:37.880 | and so forth, we were really short on--
00:07:40.200 | I think we were literally living paycheck to paycheck,
00:07:42.480 | counting our dollars and wondering
00:07:44.520 | how we're going to allocate money to these capital calls
00:07:47.040 | and pay for our higher expenses now.
00:07:49.360 | And so the saver's mindset really kicked in.
00:07:52.240 | And it hadn't kicked in before because we've always
00:07:54.640 | adopted this pay yourself first, where you take money out
00:07:58.360 | of your paycheck first before you can even see your money
00:08:01.360 | and just invest it in your solo 401(k), 401(k), IRA,
00:08:05.320 | taxable investments, and so forth.
00:08:06.880 | So with the saver's mindset, suddenly everything
00:08:10.680 | started looking like a savings opportunity to me.
00:08:14.160 | So one was gas, right?
00:08:15.880 | Second was this Nike jacket that I've
00:08:18.960 | owned for two years, maybe three years.
00:08:22.160 | I wear it almost every other day.
00:08:24.200 | The parents at my school probably
00:08:25.680 | see me wearing the same thing every other--
00:08:27.480 | it's almost like a uniform, but it's just warm, long sleeve.
00:08:30.280 | It's got zipper pockets, which I need.
00:08:32.520 | And the zipper finally broke.
00:08:33.960 | It was like a two-way zipper that just finally
00:08:36.160 | stopped working.
00:08:37.160 | And I was like, OK, let's go online
00:08:39.160 | and see how much these jackets cost.
00:08:41.320 | And they cost like $110 to $120 after tax.
00:08:44.520 | And because I have the saver's mindset now,
00:08:46.320 | I was thinking, well, is there a better way
00:08:48.480 | to do this to save money?
00:08:49.920 | And we did find a way.
00:08:50.840 | We went to the local dry cleaning store.
00:08:52.560 | Then they said they could fix it.
00:08:53.920 | I was hoping they would fix it for like $18,
00:08:55.760 | but I guess due to inflation and labor, they said $28.
00:08:58.520 | And since I dropped you off to go investigate,
00:09:00.600 | I just said, well--
00:09:01.360 | I texted you back, said, OK, fine, let's do it for $28.
00:09:04.400 | So there you go.
00:09:05.240 | I saved about $90.
00:09:07.720 | And I plan to wear this jacket for years
00:09:10.200 | to come because I decided to save.
00:09:12.960 | Yeah, I think that was a great idea because even before we
00:09:15.520 | moved, I remember you were thinking
00:09:17.080 | about replacing your jacket because the zipper was always
00:09:19.560 | starting to fray at that point.
00:09:21.080 | And you were getting a little frustrated with it.
00:09:23.160 | And then you said, well, I'll wait.
00:09:25.600 | I'll think about it after we move.
00:09:27.860 | And then, yeah, the zipper finally just completely
00:09:30.520 | fell apart and wouldn't work at all.
00:09:32.380 | And then you came up with the idea, hey,
00:09:34.040 | let's see if we can have someone just replace the zipper
00:09:37.360 | because the rest of the jacket was fine.
00:09:39.000 | And it worked out quite well.
00:09:40.640 | When you got it, it was just as good, wouldn't you say?
00:09:43.320 | Looks good enough.
00:09:44.400 | I mean, it's good enough, in my opinion.
00:09:47.200 | And the other thing is I made a promise
00:09:49.080 | not to buy anything for the remainder of 2023
00:09:52.360 | after we purchased the house.
00:09:53.640 | And I didn't buy anything.
00:09:54.720 | So I was like, OK, well, yeah, I was tempted to buy,
00:09:57.400 | but I didn't buy it.
00:09:58.240 | And I made another promise for 2024
00:10:00.760 | not to buy anything as well.
00:10:02.560 | So one of the things that I buy most frequently,
00:10:05.600 | like a material item, are shoes.
00:10:08.160 | Because I go through tennis shoes, pickleball shoes,
00:10:11.440 | I would say every four to six months where the tread just
00:10:14.240 | wears flat and it becomes slippery and, frankly,
00:10:17.720 | not that safe to play in, especially if the court is
00:10:20.700 | a little bit wet, right?
00:10:22.520 | And so shoes are $100--
00:10:24.560 | well, they're probably like $80 to $160.
00:10:27.520 | And that's just the way it is, right?
00:10:29.640 | That's the cost of playing a sport often.
00:10:31.880 | And so I was going to go buy shoes.
00:10:33.340 | I love shoes, by the way.
00:10:35.440 | And they're not that expensive.
00:10:36.720 | I remember growing up as a kid, I'd
00:10:38.480 | love all the Michael Jordan shoes.
00:10:41.120 | My favorite version is, I think, the Jordan 4s, the Fires.
00:10:45.840 | I love the Agassi shoes from Nike.
00:10:47.620 | But they were always too expensive.
00:10:49.080 | So I always got hand-me-down shoes.
00:10:50.900 | And I realized, OK, I'm trying to save money.
00:10:54.280 | I promise not to buy anything.
00:10:56.880 | Well, I actually do have these old shoes
00:10:58.760 | that I bought two, three, five, six, seven years ago that I
00:11:02.240 | just kept as collector's items in my boxes, frankly.
00:11:06.880 | And I thought, you know what?
00:11:08.040 | I'm finally going to wear these shoes because I have a reason.
00:11:10.240 | I want to save money.
00:11:11.000 | And I want to declutter.
00:11:12.000 | So I thought that was pretty positive.
00:11:13.560 | Definitely.
00:11:14.280 | There's so many ways to simplify and save
00:11:17.640 | if you have the motivation to do it.
00:11:20.200 | And for example, one thing I started doing differently
00:11:24.440 | with all of our kids' stuff-- because as parents,
00:11:27.360 | you go through a lot of things with kids--
00:11:29.320 | toys, books, clothes, shoes.
00:11:32.660 | I used to take all of the items that our son had grown up,
00:11:36.680 | that our daughter wouldn't use, and that she'd outgrown
00:11:39.040 | and wouldn't use, and I would just donate everything
00:11:41.320 | to charity.
00:11:43.120 | But what I realized is I could try and sell a lot of it
00:11:46.360 | instead.
00:11:47.200 | So now I have a local store where
00:11:50.560 | I go, and I bring one or two bags of things
00:11:53.560 | every couple months.
00:11:54.620 | And they'll look through it, and they'll
00:11:56.240 | decide what they're going to try to consign for me
00:11:59.000 | and what they're not going to take.
00:12:01.320 | And anything they don't take, I just go ahead and donate it
00:12:04.020 | straight away.
00:12:05.000 | But it's been a great way to just earn some extra money
00:12:07.860 | for new things that the kids need or groceries.
00:12:11.080 | So just little things do add up over time.
00:12:14.240 | Yeah, it's a two-for-one special.
00:12:15.680 | You declutter, you sell stuff, and you make money.
00:12:20.720 | And that's great.
00:12:21.960 | And the other thing is we're using our son's old clothes,
00:12:26.280 | I've noticed, often now.
00:12:28.280 | And our daughter is using it now.
00:12:29.880 | Our younger daughter is using it, the pajamas especially,
00:12:33.320 | right, and just like the long-sleeve shirts.
00:12:35.240 | Yeah, we've been able to reuse a lot of stuff.
00:12:37.480 | Yeah, and clothing for kids, growing young kids,
00:12:41.040 | is probably one of the most common recurring expenses
00:12:44.640 | because they grow so fast, especially shoes, right?
00:12:47.680 | I don't know, how are we going to make his shoes last longer?
00:12:50.360 | He seems to burn through them every two to three months.
00:12:52.720 | Yeah, he goes through shoes quickly because he runs a lot.
00:12:58.520 | And I think maybe it's just the shoe itself that just
00:13:03.080 | can't last that long.
00:13:04.440 | I don't know, he's definitely gone through shoes quickly
00:13:08.600 | that I can't hand down because they'll end up
00:13:10.800 | with holes in them and there's no tread left whatsoever.
00:13:14.600 | But at least we're maximizing it too.
00:13:17.680 | It's full potential, put it that way.
00:13:19.840 | Yeah, for sure.
00:13:21.000 | So another sneaky expense was the subscription expenses,
00:13:24.440 | right?
00:13:25.480 | I had signed up a couple of years ago for Apple TV
00:13:28.800 | because there was a promotion and then I
00:13:30.480 | wanted to watch Severance.
00:13:32.320 | It was a great show, it's like dystopian future.
00:13:35.200 | I love dystopian crazy stuff, Handmaid's Tale, all that stuff.
00:13:39.120 | And I loved watching it for the first season
00:13:41.280 | and I was expecting the second season to come out,
00:13:43.960 | but it never came out, partially due to the writer's strike,
00:13:47.320 | possibly because Ben Stiller, the producer,
00:13:50.480 | decided to take a break, I don't know.
00:13:52.520 | So I went for one whole year in 2023
00:13:55.480 | paying for Apple TV subscription without ever watching
00:13:59.840 | a single show.
00:14:01.640 | And so once that Savers mindset kicked in, I said,
00:14:04.180 | you know what, I'm going to cancel
00:14:05.600 | that subscription, $9.99, right?
00:14:09.000 | And save $10 a month.
00:14:10.800 | And I canceled it too late.
00:14:12.360 | I canceled it, I guess, at the beginning of March 2024,
00:14:16.360 | so I had another full month to watch Apple TV.
00:14:20.400 | And the funny thing that happened
00:14:21.680 | was I decided to maximize my Apple TV usage
00:14:25.920 | and watch something.
00:14:27.400 | And I ended up watching For All Mankind all four seasons.
00:14:30.960 | And it was an incredible show that I
00:14:34.760 | think everybody should watch.
00:14:35.920 | Unbelievable family story, full of drama.
00:14:38.640 | You cheer for people.
00:14:40.520 | Wonderful, wonderful show.
00:14:42.240 | And now I'm going to finish watching Ted Lasso,
00:14:44.760 | I guess, the three seasons.
00:14:45.880 | It's pretty good, it's pretty funny.
00:14:47.040 | So I'm trying to get my money's worth
00:14:49.400 | after not using it at all in 2023,
00:14:52.120 | but that subscription is going to be canceled as well.
00:14:54.440 | Do you have any subscriptions that you forgot about
00:14:57.200 | that you should cancel?
00:14:58.800 | - Yes, those auto renewal subscriptions are so sneaky.
00:15:03.080 | I had one for a photo app that I used
00:15:06.640 | when our son was young and I had more time,
00:15:09.560 | where it was called something like one second a day,
00:15:13.600 | where you'd go through your photo library
00:15:16.400 | and you'd pick a photo or a video each day
00:15:19.280 | and capture one or two seconds from that day.
00:15:21.560 | And then it all gets stitched together
00:15:23.160 | into a big video file at the end of the year
00:15:26.640 | or whatever timeline you want for your project.
00:15:30.440 | And I was so addicted to this in the beginning
00:15:33.400 | and I did it for at least two,
00:15:35.800 | maybe two and a half, three years.
00:15:38.400 | And then I just forgot about it because life got busy.
00:15:41.440 | And initially it was free,
00:15:43.000 | but then they started charging for it.
00:15:44.880 | And I forgot about it.
00:15:47.080 | And then one day I was going through my subscript,
00:15:49.160 | my list of subscriptions on my phone.
00:15:50.740 | And I said, oh my gosh, why do I still,
00:15:53.200 | why am I still paying for this
00:15:54.360 | when I'm not using it anymore?
00:15:55.840 | I don't have any time.
00:15:57.060 | So I quickly canceled that, turned off the auto renew,
00:16:00.280 | but yes, auto renewal subscriptions are sneaky.
00:16:03.480 | So definitely check them regularly
00:16:06.660 | and see what you're paying for
00:16:08.200 | that you aren't using anymore
00:16:09.560 | and just cancel it, get rid of it.
00:16:11.280 | - Yeah, yeah, right.
00:16:12.520 | I think one of the final sneaky expenses
00:16:14.960 | that we all go through is just food.
00:16:17.960 | We have to eat every single day, right?
00:16:20.320 | I remember the CEO of some, I think cereal company.
00:16:23.800 | He said, well, stop complaining about inflation
00:16:26.160 | and food costs and start eating cereal for dinner instead.
00:16:29.780 | And then that was, everybody was pissed off about that.
00:16:32.400 | But it's interesting because every time we go
00:16:34.840 | to the grocery store, I'm always negatively surprised,
00:16:38.400 | like shocked in a bad way about the bill at the end.
00:16:41.420 | 'Cause I remember in the past we'd buy groceries
00:16:43.520 | for under $100 per trip.
00:16:46.080 | And now it's like 160, I don't know, sometimes 200,
00:16:50.400 | but that $200 bill was because we bought some Toro sashimi
00:16:53.400 | from the Japanese supermarket, which was on sale
00:16:57.000 | for like, I don't know, $50 pounds, something like that.
00:17:00.140 | I don't remember.
00:17:01.640 | But food, food is interesting because personally
00:17:05.580 | I have always struggled with my weight.
00:17:07.820 | I play a lot of sports.
00:17:09.220 | So every single pound that I pack on is really noticeable
00:17:12.900 | in terms of performance because it just slows me down
00:17:15.180 | or it weighs on my knees and stuff.
00:17:17.140 | And so I'm trying to stay in shape
00:17:19.820 | and I'm trying to get down to that 155
00:17:22.380 | to 158 pound ideal weight for someone 5'10.
00:17:26.440 | But no matter how hard I try, I can't.
00:17:28.160 | I'm always stuck at like 168 and I got to like 170,
00:17:32.860 | maybe like five during the pandemic.
00:17:34.900 | It was pretty tough.
00:17:36.660 | So food expenses.
00:17:38.740 | The good thing about rising food expenses
00:17:40.740 | is I am definitely eating less food.
00:17:44.020 | I would say 15%, maybe 20% less food.
00:17:48.500 | Well, what do you think?
00:17:49.460 | - Yes, food is expensive.
00:17:51.400 | I've been doing most of the grocery shopping for us
00:17:54.200 | for a while and yes, I've seen prices get higher and higher
00:17:58.580 | over the last several years, especially.
00:18:00.900 | And it's frustrating,
00:18:02.900 | but you just have to find better ways to save.
00:18:06.740 | And during the pandemic, we heavily relied on food delivery
00:18:11.740 | to the point where we were just spending
00:18:13.700 | way, way, way too much.
00:18:15.460 | And we've really cut back on that
00:18:18.620 | and I've increased my contributions to cooking.
00:18:22.660 | Not something I love, but it's actually a good way
00:18:25.640 | to de-stress if I've planned it out properly
00:18:29.880 | and I have enough time
00:18:30.960 | and I have all the ingredients on hand.
00:18:32.800 | And one of the things that I've made
00:18:35.360 | that you might laugh about is lasagna,
00:18:37.600 | which is actually what I'm gonna cook tonight.
00:18:39.680 | And very simple, but it will feed us for four days sometimes
00:18:44.680 | if we stretch in salads or sandwiches
00:18:47.920 | or other things in between.
00:18:49.540 | But yeah, by that fourth day,
00:18:50.640 | I know you especially like, "I can't eat any more lasagna.
00:18:53.440 | I'm so sick of it."
00:18:54.680 | But hey, it's a great way to save making big meals
00:18:58.640 | that you can stretch.
00:18:59.480 | And if after the second day,
00:19:01.080 | you just can't take it anymore, freeze it.
00:19:03.720 | A lot of things do really great if you freeze them.
00:19:08.240 | - Yeah, someone was, I was just reading somewhere.
00:19:12.560 | The food is not supposed to taste good.
00:19:14.200 | If it tastes good, it's not good for you.
00:19:17.160 | And I thought about that for a little bit
00:19:18.720 | and it might be true because if it tastes so good,
00:19:20.880 | it's probably like processed food, sugar, all that,
00:19:24.800 | which we all know is bad for us
00:19:26.880 | and we should all try to cut down.
00:19:28.960 | And learning how to eat the same thing over and over again,
00:19:31.800 | like maybe like military
00:19:33.200 | or like a strict dorm room or something,
00:19:35.440 | I think that's a good discipline to have.
00:19:37.140 | And that's some discipline that I have failed
00:19:40.080 | to work at for decades now.
00:19:43.320 | We're spoiled here in San Francisco,
00:19:45.600 | which is I think one of the top three cities
00:19:48.460 | with the best food.
00:19:50.100 | And now with the invention of food delivery,
00:19:53.040 | grocery delivery,
00:19:54.340 | it just becomes so easy to order stuff that we want.
00:19:57.200 | I remember I was ordering like Bob's Donuts,
00:20:00.120 | but you know, the cronuts like once a week.
00:20:02.640 | And then I was ordering boba tea,
00:20:04.280 | which is like 1000 calories per large cup once a week.
00:20:08.340 | And then, you know, oh, I gained five pounds.
00:20:10.160 | Well, why do you think that is or was
00:20:12.800 | because I was so easily ordering food
00:20:16.040 | that I didn't need to consume.
00:20:18.620 | - I'll add to that.
00:20:19.460 | There is a fun reality show out there on Netflix
00:20:22.660 | that's all about making new things with leftovers.
00:20:27.540 | So if you like to cook, if you like reality TV,
00:20:30.620 | look it up on Netflix.
00:20:32.140 | Sorry, I forgot the name of it.
00:20:33.780 | But it's a fun way to see how creative you can be
00:20:37.180 | and how totally different you can make a dish
00:20:41.620 | just based on what you have leftover in the fridge.
00:20:43.980 | And that helps reduce waste
00:20:46.840 | and it gives you something fun to do at the same time.
00:20:49.840 | - Sounds like a good idea.
00:20:51.160 | In conclusion, do you think we're born
00:20:53.680 | with a saver's mindset
00:20:54.980 | or do we have to cultivate it and develop it?
00:20:56.800 | - I would say it's a bit of both
00:20:58.720 | just based on my own experience.
00:21:00.480 | What do you think?
00:21:01.320 | - I think it is more about how you're brought up,
00:21:06.320 | not so much genetic.
00:21:08.640 | I think it's more like 70% nurture, like your environment.
00:21:13.520 | Because I grew up with very frugal parents.
00:21:16.260 | My dad famously told me and I'll never forget it
00:21:19.540 | while I was in Malaysia in middle school,
00:21:22.400 | don't order that drink, order water with a lemon.
00:21:25.640 | Why do you wanna spend so much money on drink?
00:21:27.340 | High margin business or product, save money.
00:21:30.860 | And so ever since he taught me that,
00:21:33.140 | I have been pretty frugal since middle school.
00:21:37.200 | And I try to look at things
00:21:39.140 | and I try to figure out
00:21:40.960 | whether there's a better alternative on the cost.
00:21:44.080 | Or I like to go window shopping
00:21:46.040 | and then when I don't buy anything, I feel great actually.
00:21:49.200 | I feel great that I saved money by not buying anything
00:21:53.800 | even though I didn't spend anything in the first place.
00:21:56.560 | And so I grew up with this frugal mindset
00:21:59.720 | that has helped me.
00:22:01.040 | First apartment I got out of college
00:22:03.560 | was a studio apartment
00:22:04.760 | that was shared with my high school friend.
00:22:06.860 | And I think if I didn't have that frugal mindset
00:22:09.360 | since the beginning, I wouldn't have done that.
00:22:11.840 | I would have got a studio for myself
00:22:14.200 | or maybe got a one bedroom apartment or something.
00:22:16.960 | And so this frugality has stuck with me
00:22:19.320 | ever since middle school.
00:22:20.680 | So that's over 32 years now, 33 years.
00:22:25.680 | And I think it's gonna continue.
00:22:27.920 | And I think the good thing about that
00:22:29.880 | is that it spreads to you, our closest friends and family.
00:22:34.880 | And I hope it'll spread to our children
00:22:37.160 | who see that we don't waste our money as well.
00:22:39.560 | - For sure, definitely.
00:22:40.920 | - All right, well, for all of y'all who wanna save money,
00:22:45.120 | look at your expenses,
00:22:46.720 | have a sit down with your significant other every week
00:22:50.080 | or every month when you get those bills
00:22:52.240 | and go through line item by line item what you can cut
00:22:56.440 | because I'm sure, I'm sure there's something you can cut.
00:22:59.840 | Overtime is just a natural occurrence to buy more things,
00:23:03.040 | get more subscriptions
00:23:04.000 | and just to be a little bit more wasteful
00:23:05.520 | and not really as efficient as we can be with our money.
00:23:09.320 | And I'm really appreciative of a lot of the commenters
00:23:12.880 | who really criticized my budget that I had in,
00:23:16.960 | I thought, what was that post?
00:23:18.480 | There's one post that I'll link in the show notes
00:23:20.480 | where I put a fictitious but realistic,
00:23:23.800 | it's not exactly ours,
00:23:24.800 | but it's pretty close budget on a household
00:23:27.920 | that's spending $280,000 or thereabouts a year.
00:23:32.400 | And that's a lot of money.
00:23:34.080 | And I wanted to go through line item by line item
00:23:36.200 | and I got so much pushback as normal, right?
00:23:38.840 | Because anybody who doesn't spend that much money
00:23:41.520 | will find that amount of money
00:23:42.880 | to be a little bit ridiculous.
00:23:44.800 | And so I really appreciate that criticism and feedback
00:23:48.120 | because it helped motivate me to look at where we can cut.
00:23:51.080 | So I thank you.
00:23:51.920 | So keep that criticism coming,
00:23:53.840 | shine a light on things that I'm not doing
00:23:57.600 | that is congruent with my thoughts or actions.
00:24:00.800 | Just point these things out.
00:24:02.320 | I think it really helps me.
00:24:03.520 | And if you want me to point things out
00:24:06.000 | that you're doing that you could optimize,
00:24:08.080 | let me know as well.
00:24:08.920 | I think we can all learn from each other.
00:24:11.040 | So if you enjoy this podcast,
00:24:12.800 | we'd love a positive review, share and subscribe.
00:24:17.240 | These reviews, we read them all.
00:24:18.800 | They keep us going.
00:24:20.360 | You know, we don't make any money from these podcasts.
00:24:22.160 | We just do this out of the labor of love
00:24:24.000 | and it's really fun to do on occasion.
00:24:26.440 | And if you wanna subscribe
00:24:27.280 | to the Financial Samurai newsletter,
00:24:29.320 | go to financialsamurai.com/news.
00:24:32.520 | This way, I think it'll help you increase your probability
00:24:36.040 | of achieving financial independence sooner
00:24:38.440 | rather than later.
00:24:39.560 | Thanks so much.
00:24:40.400 | Bye everyone.
00:24:41.240 | (upbeat music)
00:24:44.080 | (upbeat music)
00:24:46.680 | you