Action
Save most of your income, instead of spending most of it.
Discussion
Conventional personal finance advice is to save 10% of your income, and spend the rest. This advice comes from within the paradigm of consumerism, which is the fundamental idea that quality of life scales linearly with consumption as measured in dollars spent. If you choose not to agree with this assumption, even provisionally, you can explore other approaches to stewarding your income.
Your savings rate is your income divided by your expenses, (income-COL)/COL.
If you make $50,000/yr and spend $45,000/yr, your savings rate is (50k-45k)/50k = 5k/50k = 10%
If you make 50k and spend 25k, your savings rate is 25k/50k = 50%.
If you make 50k and spend 10k, your savings rate is 40k/50k = 80%.
[Either discuss briefly or link to another pattern discussing the relationship between SR and number of years required to work assuming basic FIRE math.]
There are two things you can do to increase your savings rate: earn more, or spend less. For most people, it is easiest to spend less. A very low cost of living is magic.
Having a high savings rate leads inevitably to building a cash buffer and ultimately to cultivating personal autonomy.
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