Set for Life Quotes

“a first step, most Americans earning median incomes will find that serious progress is made at first through the intelligent and intentional application of frugal living and preservation of earned income.”
― Scott Trench, Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream

“Replace these habits with time spent working out, learning to make and enjoy healthy and delicious meals, hanging out with close friends and family, working on your goals, developing quality new connections, volunteering, and finding mentors.”
― Scott Trench, Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream

“pursue a degree that places you at some advantage in the marketplace.”
― Scott Trench, Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream

“Building an emergency fund is perhaps the single best investment available. The first $1000 to $2000 in the bank results in a state of mind unavailable to the guy who has bad debt and lacks emergency funds. The person with a small cash cushion gets to sleep at night, knowing they can afford next month’s rent and their next meal.”
― Scott Trench, Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream

“Chapter 3 What to Do with Money as You Save It Chapters 1 and 2 should have helped you understand the theory behind frugality and develop a practical plan to live on less than half your take-home pay; all in the context of building up your first $25,000. After reading those two chapters, you should understand what you need to do to put yourself in position to save thousands of dollars per month on a middle class income. Now, it’s time to deploy those savings in such a way as to develop your first year of financial runway. Your goal is stockpile a reserve capable of funding your frugal lifestyle for around a full year. Unlike many Americans who struggle to make ends meet, you now face a new problem. A good problem. You now have to decide how to deploy your rapidly expanding savings so that they extend your financial runway as much as possible. There are three initial steps that should be completed, in order, for the seeker of early financial freedom to build up that one-year stockpile. These three steps are (1) to build up an emergency fund of $1000 to $2000; (2) to pay off all “bad debts” (we define this term below) and build strong credit; and then (3) to build up one year of financial runway in the form of cash or equivalents By completing these three steps, readers will set themselves up for the next phase of wealth generation, discussed in part II. They will have the cash and credit they need to buy a home with ease, and will have the financial runway they need to pursue career opportunities with little risk of financial ruin. Central to the discussion in this chapter will be the concepts of debt—both good and bad debt—and credit. We must pay off our bad debts immediately, and treat them as a financial crisis. Good debts can still delay financial freedom, but may not need to be paid off early if money can be put to higher and better use in the meantime. While paying off bad debts and managing other debts, readers will want to focus on improving their credit scores as much as possible, and increase their access to credit.”
― Scott Trench, Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream