I think in these times - the decline of unions, the decline of wages, a constant barrage of new fees, inflation and increased healthcare and transportation costs, continued government service cutbacks - basically causing the decline of the middle class; what it takes is a comprehensive long term strategy to maintain your standard of living (and still be able to put something away for retirement and emergencies). That means:
Not buying unless you need to
When you do need to buy something, finding the absolute best bargain
Reducing your cost of living; and
Finding sources of extra income For me this is a push-pull strategy. On the one hand you are pushing down your expenses and on the other hand you are increasing your income. I've been doing this for over ten years (although I am much better at it now than at the beginning, especially on the spending side) and I find I am lightyears ahead of my peers. So many of them constantly buy the latest vehicle, wii, just released DVD, etc. Then they constantly complain how they'll always have a house payment and a car payment. As a herd, they all went to huge gas trucks, then they all sold them and went to diesel trucks, then some of them went back to gas trucks when diesel got to be more expensive than gas. And now they all want to buy econo cars or motorcycles. If I thought this would be a permanent switch for them I'd say "great, this will cut your transportation costs." But I'm sure it will only last 1 - 3 years and then they'll buy something else again. Meanwhile, they're constantly upside down on what they owe.
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