[JGW]

Doing it yourself can be a good way to be frugal, but that depends on two things:

1) Are you actually capable of doing a good job (be honest), and,

2) Is your time more valuably spent doing something else?

With respect to 1), I cannot even count the number of houses I’ve seen where ‘Do-it-yourselfer’ projects have significantly hurt the value of the house. Unless your craftsmanship is good and you know building practices well, home DIY projects will take money off the value of your house. This is a long way of saying: If you’re going to do it yourself, make damn sure you do it right and don’t cut corners or you won’t be saving yourself any money.

With point 2), you should always ask yourself what the most valuable expenditure of your time is. For instance, if your typical pay rate is $8 an hour and it costs $15 to have someone else wash your car, then do it yourself. On the other hand, if you could spend that hour working to improve your marketability toward getting a higher-paying job, or already get paid more, or could develop a business lead to bring in a big sale, then pay someone else to do the grunt task and focus your energy and efforts on the things that yield bigger gains. That’s what rich people do, and that’s part of the reason they’re rich. It’s not a ‘looking down’ so much as asking the question: is what you’re doing really the most effective use of your time?

User Detail :  

Name : JGW, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Disability : Deaf, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 35, City : Seattle, State : WA, Country : United States, Occupation : Architect / Real Estate Developer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[JGW]

I also come from a family with a long history of wealth. My father also lost much of his legacy through a bad investing decision, so I’m now doing my own work to rebuild it. There’s an old saying: ‘Rags to riches to rags in three generations.’ What that means is this: no matter how high up the ladder you start, if you don’t have the skill and guts to succeed on your own, the family money won’t do you any good at all. The only people who succeed with inherited money are people who could have succeeded anyway. So, I would work at what I had to do to make end meet and get ahead. If I’m down so far that this would mean flipping burgers, then I would flip burgers. So far, I’ve been able to make a better life for myself than that.

User Detail :  

Name : JGW, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Disability : Deaf, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 35, City : Seattle, State : WA, Country : United States, Occupation : Architect / Real Estate Developer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[JGW]

Money won’t make you happy, but it can set you free. I have known many, many very wealthy people, and one thing I can say is that while their wealth did not make them happy, it did allow them to be more purely themselves. Those who were kind and gentle became the nicest people you would ever meet. Those who were aggressive became the biggest assholes in the universe. The money didn’t make them change, it just allowed them to act with less inhibition according to their personalities. So, people who are naturally happy will be happy rich or poor. Also, while money can’t buy you love, it does improve your bargaining position.

User Detail :  

Name : JGW, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Disability : Deaf, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 35, City : Seattle, State : WA, Country : United States, Occupation : Architect / Real Estate Developer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[JGW]

It’s the probabilities. Learning to sign requires a large investment of time and energy. Most people aren’t deaf, and the vast majority of deaf people don’t know sign language either. For instance, I don’t (but then, I’m not profoundly deaf). I don’t think it’s reasonable to demand that other people spend enormous amounts of their time and energy to accommodate you.

User Detail :  

Name : JGW, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Disability : Deaf, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 35, City : Seattle, State : WA, Country : United States, Occupation : Architect / Real Estate Developer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

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