Live Below Your Means
The quiet part of building wealth
We live in a small house. My wife, our kid, a long-haired dachshund, and a cat named Walter. Walter contributes nothing financially.
We might upgrade eventually. But only when the slow bets cover it. That’s the rule. If the flywheel can’t pay for it, it’s not time yet.
That’s the whole game, really.
There are only two financial levers on the way to freedom.
How much you make.
How much you spend.
The gap between them is where wealth gets built.
Most of Slow Bets focuses on the first one. Building assets, compounding effort, letting time do the heavy lifting. But here’s the dirty little secret.
The less money it takes to sustain your life, the faster you get to the point where you don’t have to work anymore.
Don’t let early wins trick you into permanent expenses. That’s the line I keep coming back to. The first time a slow bet produces real income, the temptation is to spend it. Upgrade the house. Upgrade the car. Finally live as you’ve made it.
I didn’t.
Every dollar my slow bets produce after taxes gets reinvested. All of it. Usually into ETFs. I live off a portion of my day job. If I lost that job tomorrow, I could live off the slow bets.
The flywheel doesn’t work if you keep pulling money out of it.
I love my job. I love to work. I don’t actually want to stop. But knowing I could? That changes everything. You make different decisions when you choose to be somewhere rather than needing to be.
Flip it around for a second. If my lifestyle required a million dollars a year, I’d be nowhere near financial independence.
If you need to spend a ton of money just to feel normal, Slow Bets probably won’t work for you. You won’t be able to wait. You’ll need silver bullets, not patient wealth building.
I’ve never had a silver bullet. I’ve had a Honda Element.
This isn’t a call to live in poverty. I live very well. Nice house. Car. Too many bikes. And fly rods. We can buy healthy food. We can afford good medical care and our daughter’s education. That’s more than enough.
But the math is simple.
The lower your number, the sooner your assets cover it. The sooner your assets cover it, the sooner work becomes optional.
Most people raise their number every time their income goes up. That’s the treadmill. You make more, you spend more, and freedom stays the same distance away.
Live below your means.
Preferably way below them. My wife is on board. Mostly.
The margin isn’t deprivation.
It’s the quiet part of building wealth.