
How to Refactor Your Finances – An Interview with a Programmer Who Retired at 34 - ammon
https://triplebyte.com/blog/refactor-your-finances
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charliewrites
I also liked these quotes from the original interview, but didn't include them
for the sake of brevity:

 _On favorite languages /frameworks:_ Ruby on Rails, definitely. I just fell
in love with it, it was so much easier to get something built that was
actually robust and it didn't feel like it was just gonna break, compared to
all the .NET stuff I was doing before. It just made me love programming again,
and I still use it to this day. I've built all my custom Mad Fientist stuff
with Ruby on Rails, and it's just so easy to put something together, deploy it
to Heroku, and then you've got something that's usable. That's exactly what I
did for the FI Laboratory. I just threw that together and threw it up on
Heroku over a couple of weekends. I always expected to make it nicer and
better, but I just never touched it and now it's got 60,000 users, and it's
just absolutely crazy, and I'm still hardly paying anything: $29 a month I
think.

 _On being extreme with finances:_ Personally, I'm pretty extreme. Every time
I spend money, it's like the worst case scenario. So much thought process has
gone into it beforehand. It's like, "Could I get it used? Could I borrow it?
Do I really need it? Do I really want it?" And then, if all those things
happen, then it's like, "Okay. I'll buy it." And then, I try to find it for
the best price.

 _On the new iPhone:_ You don't need a new iPhone every year because, guess
what? That iPhone 9 only made you happy for what, maybe a few weeks? And then,
it was just a phone again until the iPhone 10 came along and you were like,
"Oh, that's gonna make me happy." What's important is realizing that about
yourself and looking at past purchases, thinking, "Oh, I spent a lot of money
on that thing. Did it actually make me happy for very long? Could I have
gotten it used instead? Did I need it at all?"

~~~
marketgod
For the iPhone, if you want the newest, buy it. Enjoy life. Do everything that
makes you happy. We are only on this earth for so long. The best way is to buy
the newest iPhone and sell it after a year. Pay the extra $100 to upgrade each
year, so you have the latest if it makes you happy. The fire movement is cool,
but FATFire is better.

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expopinions
Being able to have a tight grip on one's budget is important. It helps you
secure your future and provide a better tomorrow not just for yourself but
your family, as well.

Check out some of these tips on how you can save more and manage your
finances:

 _Create a budget plan according to how much you earn. Your budget and
spending should be something that is in-line how much money that comes in
regularly. A budget helps you live and experience life to the fullest without
overspending. Under-budgeting yourself and your family is also no good since
that would mean you are actually lowering your standard of living in some
aspects.

_ Make sure that you are sticking to your budget plan. As I have said earlier,
a budget plan helps you live life to the fullest without breaking your bank
account, and in order for this to happen, you have to stick with your budget
as much as possible. Keep a close track of your spending and list down every
spending you make. Keep a tight leash to that madman inside you that screams
buy this and that that actually do not have any important use t you.

 _Make an itinerary of your daily activities the night before. Having a daily
to-do list helps curb your spending urges by reminding you that you are in a
saving mode. Having a set routine also helps you become more productive
because now, you have set tasks to do instead of thinking what other stuff you
can buy.

_ Plan and budget your meal plans. I am one of those people who spends too
much money on food. Having a set budget helps you limit your food choices. I
live in the Philippines so the currency rate here is like 50 pesos is to one
dollar, and that’s how much we spend on every meal excluding rice. It limits
our choices to veggies and a few slices of meat most of the time, and it
helped me curb my overspending habit when it comes to food. It also helped us
save a lot. You do not have to eat extravagant food in order to be healthy.

*Use processes when planning an outing. We all love going out, and that means shelling out some money. Planning your outing and sticking to a budget helps you enjoy the moment and affording yourself a relaxing day without going broke

