Achieving a Low Cost of Living: How to Know Your Expenses Are as Low as They Can Go

By Rocco Pendola

It’s a common refrain in the world of personal finance: “Live within your means.” And it’s good advice. But how we go about “living within our means” can vary dramatically depending on the person giving the advice. Some people think calculating a certain percentage of income for spending each month is sufficient… but a low cost of living is about more than a fixed number or percentage. We’re all different and have different relationships with money. How can we live within our means while still considering our unique financial situation?

In Achieving a Low Cost of Living, an audio course from Scribd Coach, personal finance writer Rocco Pendola explains everything you need to know to look at your finances in a new way — as a unique part of your life that requires personalized solutions. Drawing from the field of psychology as much as finance, Pendola explains what it really means to live within your means; the importance of reducing big expenses; and an alternative budgeting method to help you carve out a personalized budget. He also shares exercises along the way to help you put what you’ve learned into practice.

We all want a lower cost of living; how we get there depends on who we are. Rocco Pendola’s personalized approach could be a game changer for future budgeters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribd Coach
• Release date: Mar 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781094438191

Rocco Pendola

Rocco Pendola writes about doing life and personal finance, focusing on the psychology of our relationship with money. Find him on Medium, @RoccoPendola; at his Never Retire Newsletter on Substack at http://roccopendola.substack.com; The Balance at http://thebalance.com/rocco-pendola-5087572; or on Twitter, @rocco_pendola.

Book preview

Achieving a Low Cost of Living

ACHIEVING A LOW COST OF LIVING

How to Know Your Expenses Are as Low as They Can Go

ROCCO PENDOLA

SCRIBD COACH

Copyright © 2022 by Rocco Pendola

All rights reserved

ISBN: 9781094438191

First e-book edition: March 2022

Scribd, Inc.

San Francisco, California

Scribd.com

For more, visit www.scribd.com and follow @Scribd on Twitter and Facebook.

About Scribd Coach

This ebook is brought to you by Scribd Coach, a new imprint from Scribd dedicated to short-form, inclusive, and insightful personal and professional growth courses written by recognized experts.

Each Scribd Coach course is available in audiobook format or as an ebook transcribed from the audio course — like the book you’re about to read. If you’re interested in the audio edition of this course, or if you’d like to read more personal growth content from Scribd Coach, check out the Scribd Coach imprint page. 

You can share your thoughts on this title by rating and leaving a review on the book page. Thanks for reading — enjoy!

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the course Achieving a Low Cost of Living: How to Know Your Expenses Are as Low as They Can Go, a course from Scribd. My name is Rocco Pendola.

When it comes to personal finances, we often hear the adage to live within your means. However, there are a lot of ideas out there about how to live within your means. Some people think that the answer is to decide on a certain percentage of their income to spend each month, using calculators to determine their perfect range.

But a low cost of living is about more than a fixed number or a percentage of what you make. There's no formula because we're all different. We all earn differently, and we have different needs. Rather, a low cost of living is about getting your expenses to the point where you're not overpaying for your major necessities, especially housing and transportation. It’s also about having considerable wiggle room, or financial flexibility, at the end of each month.

The purpose of this course is to get you to look at your finances in a new way. We are going to break out of cookie-cutter thinking, with its prescriptive solutions. Instead, you’re going to view your finances as a unique part of your life that requires personalized solutions.

The first unit of this course will set up several key points. You’ll find out what it really means to live within your means. You’ll discover why saving money on cups of coffee is not the answer everyone wants it to be. You’ll be reminded of the importance of your wellbeing, and you’ll ultimately learn why nickel-and-diming doesn’t work.

In the next unit, we’ll discuss why it’s much more important to reduce your big expenses. We’ll talk about the fallacy that renting is more expensive than buying a house. You’ll figure out how much money you actually need to live. You’ll also recognize the areas of your life where you can make sacrifices to benefit