"honda civic $43,000 or OBO"

check out edmunds.com true cost to own to get an idea what you thought was your cheap car, you might be surprised.

I am reading a book now called 'live well on less than you think' and he hits on this. He does not advocate going totally carless, but dropping down to one car per household, while a burden, will save you a tonne of cash!

he also talks about generation xer's and their views, "...the Xer's have developed the art of the short career. they do something for five years and then go onto something else. That kind of flexibility his how Xers work. They don't believe in long-term commitments because their experiences growing up included watching mom and dad get a divorce, dad getting laid off [i watched this with my dad]...things don't last and you can't depend on them...they want to be flexible and reinvent themselves when they have to."

Well said! that about sums me up!

Some other books i got at the library are: 'don't spend your raise', 'when you lose your job' (just in case....sticking with my generation x programming), 'six months off' (for if the last one happens..)...

and this one looks interesting: 'will work for food' about a 60 year old guy that gets fired from his job and is now homeless...takes place in contra costa county. he went there from San Francisco so people wouldn't recognize him as he panhandles...

at my last job i became friends with a guy that was homeless in Oakland for some time, about a year. He had a great saying, "keep it real". Meaning, don't get lost in all the BS that is out there. Great guy. He said, while he wouldn't want to be homeless again, that it was a great learning experience. I bet it was...