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The crisis on Wall Street has humbled even the most savvy financial advisor. What should you do? Get out of the stock
market? Stay the course? Invest overseas? At this point it's anyone's guess. While I don't give investment advice, what I'm
doing is not panicking and moving slowly. The other thing I'm doing is focusing on the things I can control, and that's
spending. Sure, I'm probably more frugal than most, but there is still some fat to cut. For example, I've been looking at my
fixed cost and tried to cut them where I can. These are few of the things I've come up with to save money:
- II've raised the deductibles on my health insurance policies, hopefully saving hundreds of dollars, assuming that I don't
get sick.
- I've changed the plan for my cell phone to lower the bill, which requires me to talk less on it. However, I've added a
VoIP (voice over internet protocol) phone on my computer (I use Yahoo Phone) to take up the slack. It costs only
pennies per minute.
- I've cancelled my Internet service. Now I rely on whatever WiFi hotspots are available wherever I am.
- I'm eating out less. When I do eat out, I insist on going to cheaper places. To me the food tastes better if I'm not
paying a fortune for it.
- I make half a pot of coffee. This sounds really cheap, but I used to make a whole pot and I would end up throwing
half of it away more often than not. This is something my grandmother might do, but hey she lived though a
depression. There's probably a lot I could learn from her. Of course, my Grandma reused her cooking oil too (over and
over), but I'm not quite there yet.
- I drive less, buy less, eat less, walk more, and take time to smell the roses. In fact, I've succeeded in making the 10
gallon tank of gas in my Toyota Echo last for over a month.
- I've joined a Spanish conversation group that meets once a week. It's free and fun and doing something new keeps me
from feeling like I'm depriving myself.
- My wife and I have decided to spend a lot more time in Mexico this year. We've got ourselves set up in a simple, low
cost RV park in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where we plan to hang out until things start to improve north of the
border. With the strength of the U.S.dollar improving almost daily, Mexico is cheaper than it has been in years. We
can't think of a better place to ride out a financial crisis than sunny Mexico. Can you?
That's all I've come up with so far. But I'm looking at everything, even (heaven forbid) skimping on Christmas presents
and looking for new ways to cook beans and rice! The key to keeping your retirement going during financial turmoil is to keep
your fixed costs low.
Want to learn more about retirement and retirement strategies? Then order Who Said You Need Millions? -
Retirement Strategies for the Rest of Us.
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(c) 2008 by Jonathan D. Edelfelt. All rights reserved.
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