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Comment by biggitybones | Hacker News Reader

Can't emphasize this enough. I've talked to countless people unhappy in their career that can't get out of it because of a family and an addiction to their current lifestyle. They continued to expand their spending as their income incremented, leaving them in a risk averse position.

The lesson I take from every conversation I have with these people is live simply and lean even as your income grows, and when you have that great idea or urge to try something radically different, you can.

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As someone who followed this advice excessively, I have to counter it a bit. Through most of my 20s I lived in the cheapest, shittiest apartment I could find, ate cheap (which in the US means extremely unhealthy) food, rarely went out partying with friends, never went on a vacation, never dated, etc. This kills your network and your health. Frugal is fine, but don't be so freaking cheap that when you're 30, you hate your 20s, and need to spend 2 years fixing your life.

Absolutely. Its always a balance.. I'm speaking more towards avoiding the lavish lifestyle of club bottle service, expensive cars and other luxuries. Its the expensive car payment and mortgage or rent that gets you in trouble.

I'm curious the specifics that you did in the last 2 years to fix your life. Specifically, how did you transition from your frugal ways to your current living? Expand your network and improve your health? This would be very helpful to the rest of us who are going through the same thing that you have accomplished.

I'm still only a couple weeks into actually fixing it. I've started going to the gym 3-4X/wk, and switched to a clean high protein/low carb diet.

> [...] ate cheap (which in the US means extremely unhealthy) food [...]

You're doing it wrong. You can cook your own food for dirt cheap and still have a very healthy menu.

There's a huge time cost to preparing your own food from raw ingredients. I agree it's worth it, but it's definitely more expensive than hitting Jack In The Box.

There seems to be a misconception in the USA that everything healthy must be fancy. Make rice and lentils, chop a tomato and an onion, fry an egg: congratulations, you just ate a full, healthy meal for less than $2. Time wasted: approximately 10 minutes.

Even better: take turns cooking for the team. 5 people, 20 minutes of work: you're down to 4 wasted minutes per person. That's less than you need to walk to Jack in the box.

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