Personal finance is a topic I’ve always enjoyed studying.
How can people, individuals, manage their finances in the most efficient way while also satisfying the economical unlimited wants and desires of being human?
How about we do some incredibly rudimentary examples of personal finance:
$1000 apartment or $800 shared with your college friends
$15 UBER ride or walking OR $2 subway train
$15 lunch at Pret a Manger OR making your own lunch for $5
$5 Starbucks coffee vs. no coffee
And the biggest one that I’ve been trying to cut out for my living expenses:
Haircuts.
Yes.
I get a haircut quite regularly, around every 3-weeks.
Nothing fancy. I’ve been trying to grow out the top of my hair so I’ve just been asking for my sides and back to be shaved and cleaned up. It takes less than 10-minutes, really, and it’s really not worth my money.
The opportunity cost of getting my sides fixed is roughly $30. $20 for the haircut, $10 for my time spent commuting to and from.
Now, because of how simple of a haircut I need every 3 weeks, I can very much do it myself.
$30 shaver on Amazon and learn how to be self-sufficient.
That’s 17 fewer haircuts I’d need every year, 17*25=$425 minus the initial $30 for the shaver = I’d save $395 in the first year, and then $425 every year after.
It doesn’t seem like much at first, but it adds up.
Invest that $395 into the stock market, and expect even just an average of 7% annual interest compounded over 20 years, I’d have $16,193
Do it for 40 years and I’d have $78,855.
Just by cutting my own hair.
How’s that for self-sufficient?
Read more finance stuff on my Down to Finance website:
Jeff Wang Blog 
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