1. Track expenses
I don't like budgets and we don't use it to control our spending. Instead, I've been tracking all our expenses with an excel spreadsheet since 2011. Tracking expenses allow us to see exactly where we spent our money and our spending habits. While tracking expenses doesn't necessarily prevent us from spending, just being aware of where our money is going keeps us accountable for every dollar we spend. Another main reason for tracking our expense is to get a ballpark of how much money we will need annually, which is important in determining how much passive income we will need to generate to be financially independent.


2. Gratitude and contentment
Practicing gratitude reminds us to appreciate and be happy with what we have. Even though we continuously strive to improve ourselves and work hard towards our goals, the mindset of contentment have enabled us to enjoy our current life, avoid lifestyle inflation, and not feel the need to keep up with the Joneses. In fact, observing others' lives around us made us appreciate our simple lifestyle even more.


3. Patience, discipline, and consistency
We live in an age of modern technology where we can easily get stuffs, information, entertainment, and communication with just a simple click all day, every day. The culture of instant gratification and FOMO (fear of missing out) are so deeply ingrained in our everyday lives that people lack the patience and discipline needed to build wealth and a fulfilling life. Fortunately, ​our many years of long distance relationship  taught us the value of delayed gratification, and our marriage is built on a strong foundation of patience, discipline, and consistency. These are all important traits on our path to financial independence because it takes years of consistently spending below our means, saving and investing to reach this goal.

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4. Focus on happiness
We consciously choose to spend on things and experiences that we value, and cut out things that we don't care about. It certainly helps that we are clear on what's important to us and what makes us happy, and we are consistent about it. By sticking to just one or two hobbies that we've persistently enjoyed over the years (e.g. video games, traveling, and blogging), we avoid wasting money on short-term fads. 


5. Be aware and pay attention
It pays to pay attention and be aware of all options available. For groceries, we compare prices and find the best deals available. As for our hobbies, we've also found ways to do things slightly differently to cut our costs significantly. For instance, hubby finds cheaper ways to get more video games for less by delaying purchases, buying used games, and actively look out for deals. As for my 'expensive' travel hobby, I spend time reading blogs to learn about points and miles, and use travel hacking strategies to travel cheaply.


6. K-I-S-S and KonMari our life
These two principles basically sums up the lifestyle we choose - keep it simple, stupid, and focus our time and energy only on things that sparks joy. Work is already taking up enough of our energy during the week and we don't want to complicate our lives and spend more energy maintaining and keeping up with more stuffs and activities outside of work. Less is more. In a way, this 'laziness' helps limit our current spending and prioritize on saving/investing for the long-term. 


7. Minimize waste
​One of the ways we reduce spending is by not being wasteful, which can be directly reflected from the amount of waste we have. It usually takes 2-3 days for us to fill up a supermarket-size plastic bag with waste. A few other examples of how we minimize waste in our daily life includes finishing all the food we buy and cook, use reusable containers and water bottles, never buy bottled water, rarely do take-outs, use reusable cloth towels instead of paper towels, cut toothpaste (or anything in tubes) in half to use up the last bit, and recycle all we can.