Living with Parents to Save Money

When most people try to save money, they look at small expenses such as coffee. According to David Bach’s “latte factor” concept, by skipping your daily coffee, you save about $4 per day, and this adds up to about $1000 per year.

While I do not disagree that skipping your daily coffee can help you save, I’d rather put my effort into actions that have a bigger impact. The biggest expense that most people face is accommodation, i.e. putting a roof over your head.

My recommendation for those who want to save money on accommodation is to live with other people. Either buy a house and rent out spare bedrooms to others (e.g. via Airbnb) or rent with others. Another simple way to live with others is to live with your parents. By living with others, costs are spread out.

However, living with others is not easy. That being said, if someone wants to pay more money to live by himself, I have nothing against this because I know how bad it can be to live with other people. For example, today is a Sunday, and I live with my parents. Today I was at home in my bedroom on my computer. My mother was in the living room. She is screaming something to my grandmother, arguing about food. I could not concentrate at all.

My recommendation to those who live with others to save money is not necessarily to move out. Rather, the answer can be as simple as buying noise cancelling headphones or simply temporarily getting out of the house if your roommates, parents or spouse start making noise.

For example, I was so annoyed that my family were making too much noise that I had a shower, got dressed, grabbed my laptop, hopped into the car, and drove to the local library. I am typing this blog post right now in the local library.

Like I said, living by yourself is fine. It makes sense to have some privacy. However, living with others can save you a considerable amount of money. It can be annoying to live with others, but the annoyance can be mitigated e.g. with noise cancelling headphones or with a visit to the local library or park.

Driving out of the home when the family goes crazy, in my opinion, highlights a fundamental law that everyone must be aware of: always have an exit plan. No matter where you are, no matter what relationship you have with anyone, be it a professional relationship or an intimate relationship, you must always have a way of getting out when things go wrong.

Even better than a plan is an exit plan.

The Tech Lead

There is a YouTuber named “The Tech Lead” who is a millionaire who lives with his parents. While I definitely do not agree with his political views or his arrogance, he makes very good points about the benefits of living with parents in many of his videos, which I share below.