So what did you sacrifice?

Uhm, not being able to see positive balance in my bank account?

I don't drink
I don't go to pubs
I don't go partying
I go holiday within means
I eat out within means
I choose area I can afford to live


None of the above considered sacrifice though. Just common sense.

Try telling that to the young 'uns ;)
 
Yeah, some 'sacrifices' are easy to make (change lifestyle expectations), and others just not worth it (losing marriages).

Sometimes I read this forum and think about how much money we've blown taking our kids on holidays (it's about the only thing we 'blow' money on) but it's been worth every careless cent :D
 
Oh, where do I begin.....?
Lived in one room, being married, with my parents to save for a deposit. Practiced delayed gratification for at least 10 years, or at least the time while accumulating IPs, so holidays with parents, our first holiday on our own was with our child when he turned 18 months. So we delayed starting a family, no holidays, no eating out so taking sandwiches to work for number of years, lived in partly furnished house for 7 years, had to share and make do with one old car, lived further away from the CBD, around 40kms, so spent ours commuting to work, no expensive presents, no expensive clothes, worked sometimes 7 days a week, yet basically lived very plainly.
Today our live is so different, if not to exaggerate totally opposite of above, I sometimes think about those humble beginnings and have to pinch myself to remind myself from where we came from.
I think some people never change if they were humble they continue to live that way later on even knowing that they can now enjoy their fruit of their labour their life yet they are unable to do so. I am glad I had grown and now am able to spend and live my life the way I like. I think that's part of my growing and shifting the mindset realizing that it is not what we earn but what we do with what we earn!
IMHO if your wealth isn't 20 or 30 times your earning capacity then you haven't sacrificed enough or thought trough you financial plan for your life!!!
 
I am not old enough to complain about sacrifices yet... I am only two years into my sacrificing! Biggest sacrifice will probably always be time with loved ones as I work as much over time as possible! In general though, all the usual culprits... Lots of packed lunches, minimal take out, no cinema, very minimal major holidays, driving an old car and living in the cheapest place possible! My accommodation has an outside loo!!!! Yep, I sometimes get rained on when I need to pee! Too much info?

Thankfully it makes you be creative as you seek out free and very cheap things! I now know of a pub that does $7 dinners on Monday! With lots of choices and no extra for gravy! ;) It also means holidays involves visiting friends (who are all budgeters too so that makes it easier).
 
Wealth is a mindset

It was February 1997 and I had just left a co-dependent relationship in my late 20s with an 8 month old and 2 year old....no money...i repeat no money...entirely my responsibility as to choices made in life partner. No one deserves to be abused. He prescribed to the "i will quit my job before i pay you any child support" club
Centrelink benefit was $350 per week plus $60 per fortnight austudy - i went back to uni to finish my degree
i paid $140 in weekly rent...i logged all my expenses in a red exercise book. i called my bank account General Ledger...i figured out weekly, fortnightly and annual bills and divided by 26 weeks. each category in that book equated to an expense eg phone $16, insurance $18, petrol $40 etc
I fed my daughters and myself on $60 per week...it was cloth nappies, mince, powdered milk, Clothes were from op shop. i decided if someone offered to help me i would gratefully accept whatever their gift was - I remember an acquaintance gifted me with beautiful clothes her grand daughters had outgrown
i mention above because you see, I was (believe it or not) a property investor. The marital home was a cedar house on 3 acres which I got in the property settlement in the country. With no income other than Centrelink I managed to convince the Uni Credit Union to refinance the $60k loan - I had to pay my ex out. I put a tenant in that property as I had to move back to city to go to uni. The $270 fortnight rent covered my loan and the LVR was under 70 percent.
I rented a squalid villa about 10 km's from the uni because it was in a good suburb and meant I could access quality childcare - heavily subsidised by Jet sole parent childcare assistance. No heating or cooling - my rural tenant reported the air con not working and I had to find the money in my budget to fix it - while my children and i made do with one of those portable evap coolers you put ice in. It was really noisy.
The simple budget I adhered to quickly gave me dividends - it is very very simple. Make your expenses less than your income. After 7 years existing in poverty during the marriage, I actually had money in the bank.
Today, with a solid property portfolio and my own business I adhere to the same principles. I did it very tough at that time, I almost can't believe it. I was driving a 1978 200B Datsun in the late 90's. My first teaching prac (I became a high school teacher) I can remember my students drove better cars LOL.
My first teaching job in 2000 was a 4 hour drive from the city. It took me 8 hours because the car kept over heating - I figured when I got to the country town I could drive 30 km's no problem - enough to drop girls off at daycare and drive to the high school. Car would cool down and i could repeat the process in reverse.
I bought my first brand new car at the age of 40 - all cash
I own and run my own business today with 3 fulltime staff
My property portfolio today is cash flow neutral and I am excited to start a new business venture
To this day my daughters prefer mince to steak!
 
Sacrifice is an interesting word. It's kind of negative.

I like 'choice' rather than sacrifice - I 'chose' to live in the outback while I my kids were small, and chose to live simply and chose to build a property portfolio. I chose spend my spare time self-educating - listening to podcasts, seminars, and reading books that expanded my knowledge.

I also chose to not go to Europe, and not fly interstate every year, and not eat out very much, and not buy designer gear, and not watch Big Brother. (Some choices were easier than others! ;))

None of it was sacrifice, just choices. If I chose differently, I would have 'sacrificed' my business, my properties, my knowledge, my waistline. You're always sacrificing something in every choice you make - problem is that most people don't think about exactly what it is they're sacrificing when making decisions.
 
I sacrificed my dignity.

Always the 1st one in for extra OT at work. Pack leftovers for lunch. Drink "instant" coffee. Drive secondhand cars bought with cash. There was almost 10 years in the beginning where I was share house style living in my 2 previous PPOR's which helped me to get started.

Kids change everything. Still do all of the above except now the share housing help has been replaced with Equity. :D
 
Our choices were:

1 - to stop skiing when we started saving up for our first home. Have not been back on the slopes since.
2 - Our international holidays turned to into domestic holidays, which later become roadtrips and finally short half-day outings as our family grew from 1 kid to 3 children.
3 - I continue to bring lunch into work.

Continue to save as much as possible to buy IP3, which we should be in a position to do so once my wife gets back to full time work in a couple of months.
 
I love reading these type of threads.
Please keep the replies coming :D
Reading threads like this, keeps me on tracking knowing I am doing the right thing as painful as it is.
 
I bought my first brand new car at the age of 40 - all cash
I own and run my own business today with 3 fulltime staff
My property portfolio today is cash flow neutral and I am excited to start a new business venture
To this day my daughters prefer mince to steak!

since no one has replied to this yet. Wow. Just wow.
Good work! I bet you have a truckload of resilience and character from all you went through.
 
I sacrificed my dignity.

Pack leftovers for lunch. Drink "instant" coffee. Drive secondhand cars bought with cash. :D
none of those things are sacrificing dignity.

They are things that folks won't do so they think they look more successful etc to others.

Plenty of folk should do the above, know they should, but don't...they are living a facade to impress.

You are doing the things that you know should be done to achieve your goal, without worrying about what folks think.

I call that strength.

Just make sure you drink top-end instant though! ;)
 
I sacrified:
  • Overseas holiday
  • New or nice clothes - haven't bought any for at least 5 years
  • Dining out - only food court food no more than $30 for 2 people as a treat once a week
  • Full price food
  • Nice mobile phone, have been using the same one for years
  • Would buy a cheaper car then getting car loan
  • ...
 
Sacrifice is an interesting word. It's kind of negative.

I like 'choice' rather than sacrifice - I 'chose' to live in the outback while I my kids were small, and chose to live simply and chose to build a property portfolio. I chose spend my spare time self-educating - listening to podcasts, seminars, and reading books that expanded my knowledge.

I also chose to not go to Europe, and not fly interstate every year, and not eat out very much, and not buy designer gear, and not watch Big Brother. (Some choices were easier than others! ;))

None of it was sacrifice, just choices. If I chose differently, I would have 'sacrificed' my business, my properties, my knowledge, my waistline. You're always sacrificing something in every choice you make - problem is that most people don't think about exactly what it is they're sacrificing when making decisions.

spot on. Fantastic post and attitude IMO.

Leo
 
It was February 1997 and I had just left a co-dependent relationship in my late 20s with an 8 month old and 2 year old....no money...i repeat no money...entirely my responsibility as to choices made in life partner. No one deserves to be abused. He prescribed to the "i will quit my job before i pay you any child support" club
Centrelink benefit was $350 per week plus $60 per fortnight austudy - i went back to uni to finish my degree
i paid $140 in weekly rent...i logged all my expenses in a red exercise book. i called my bank account General Ledger...i figured out weekly, fortnightly and annual bills and divided by 26 weeks. each category in that book equated to an expense eg phone $16, insurance $18, petrol $40 etc
I fed my daughters and myself on $60 per week...it was cloth nappies, mince, powdered milk, Clothes were from op shop. i decided if someone offered to help me i would gratefully accept whatever their gift was - I remember an acquaintance gifted me with beautiful clothes her grand daughters had outgrown
i mention above because you see, I was (believe it or not) a property investor. The marital home was a cedar house on 3 acres which I got in the property settlement in the country. With no income other than Centrelink I managed to convince the Uni Credit Union to refinance the $60k loan - I had to pay my ex out. I put a tenant in that property as I had to move back to city to go to uni. The $270 fortnight rent covered my loan and the LVR was under 70 percent.
I rented a squalid villa about 10 km's from the uni because it was in a good suburb and meant I could access quality childcare - heavily subsidised by Jet sole parent childcare assistance. No heating or cooling - my rural tenant reported the air con not working and I had to find the money in my budget to fix it - while my children and i made do with one of those portable evap coolers you put ice in. It was really noisy.
The simple budget I adhered to quickly gave me dividends - it is very very simple. Make your expenses less than your income. After 7 years existing in poverty during the marriage, I actually had money in the bank.
Today, with a solid property portfolio and my own business I adhere to the same principles. I did it very tough at that time, I almost can't believe it. I was driving a 1978 200B Datsun in the late 90's. My first teaching prac (I became a high school teacher) I can remember my students drove better cars LOL.
My first teaching job in 2000 was a 4 hour drive from the city. It took me 8 hours because the car kept over heating - I figured when I got to the country town I could drive 30 km's no problem - enough to drop girls off at daycare and drive to the high school. Car would cool down and i could repeat the process in reverse.
I bought my first brand new car at the age of 40 - all cash
I own and run my own business today with 3 fulltime staff
My property portfolio today is cash flow neutral and I am excited to start a new business venture
To this day my daughters prefer mince to steak!

What a great investing story, and inspirational too! Live within your means!
 
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