Your life or your lifestyle: a short thread.

2009 (High income):

1. I was a professor at the University of Georgia.
2. We lived in a 4-bedroom house in a suburb of Atlanta called Buford.
3. We had two cars.
4. We had all the paraphernalia of successful middle-class professionals.
5. We lived beyond our means.

2010 - 2011 (Low Income):

1. I was an MBA student at Oxford University in the UK.
2. We downgraded to a one-bedroom apartment smaller than our Kitchen in Atlanta.
3. We had a second-hand bicycle.
4. We lived a sparse, austere lifestyle.
5. Our lifestyle matched our income.

2012 (Higher income):

1. I was an executive director at a big firm.
2. We lived 2-minutes from work in a nice estate in Lagos, Nigeria.
3. We had a couple of really nice cars.
4. We spent less than we did in 2009 even though I was making a lot more.
5. We lived below our means.

Lessons.

1. Your lifestyle should be commensurate to your income.
2. You sometimes have to let go of good opportunities to pursue better ones.
3. Save a huge percentage of your salary increases.
4. Your life is yours; you don't have to impress anybody.
5. Life is in phase.

6. Invest into your life, not your lifestyle.
7. Seek to live below your means.

Investing into your life = spending on things that move you forward.
- Books.
- Courses.
- Good diet
- Family etc.

Investing into your lifestyle = spending on things that make you LOOK GOOD.
- Designer apparel
- Flashy cars
- Popping bottles.
- Making it rain

Choose your life