We are brought up thinking that money can buy happiness, but freedom of time is what really leads to happiness. Yes, having money can give you the ability to choose how you spend your time, but this has more to do with your cost of living than it has to do with how much you make. If you can reduce your cost of living to the point that you are living substantially within your means, can stay as debt free as possible, can build savings and wealth, and can find ways to earn money that either doesn't require your time (like residual income) or is time you would be spending doing what you love to do anyway, then that will lead to true security, personal freedom, and happiness. Think of it kind of like a business. In business, you want to generate profits and invest those profits to build more profits. Here you want to generate time savings and invest that time to generate even more time savings. To generate that savings, you need to first consume less than you produce, then s
I really procrastinate when it comes to major household projects. I try to extract as much useful life out of things that I can. But eventually the looks, safety, condition, or performance of things finally require replacing. After being in our 32 year-old home for 13 years, it was time to replace the old metal framed windows. We now have two windows where the seal broke causing condensation, two others that won't open due to the frames shifting, discolored and chipped frames from decades of sun exposure and hail damage, and really poor heating/cooling efficiencies. I didn't do the most in-depth shopping but picked up learnings about materials and features through engaging in the process of having different companies and reps come out to provide quotes. I'm also no window expert and won't go into technical mumbo-jumbo in this post, but wanted to share a few things I learned in case they help others going through the same process. Here is a summary of my findings: Frame