Sounds simple, right? Kind of basic? But also really hard? It’s all these things. But to break it down a little more, you have two options.

  1. Spend less
  2. Earn more

We will go over each in detail, and then gather more ideas and more ideas. Both need a pretty constant source of inspiration to achieve. And both can be fine-tuned to the smallest level to give you greater and greater efficacy. Let’s start from the top.

To spend less, start from the top. Your biggest expenses will give you the most dramatic results. They may, however, be some of the most painful cuts. And will likely have the most social and psychological pressure to overcome. Sounds fun, right? Let’s look at them anyway.

  1. Your housing situation
  2. Your transportation situation

Notice we didn’t say “house” or “car.” This advice is meant to be as inclusive as possible, both of where readers are at now and also where they could end up. We aim not to rule out any situation, which will become even more apparent as we dive into “prepare for the unexpected” and “maximize what you have.”

We will go through the average American budget and tackle each expenditure from greatest impact down. We start with housing expenses, let’s go!