Ok, don't stop spending, invest in yourself, not stocks.

Lets look at the numbers on the cycling example in my last post. Say your bike costs £100. This is probably pretty reasonable for a commuting bike, and say it lasts 2 years. Over that 24 months, your bus pass would have cost you £40 a month, coming to a total of £960. You've therefore saved £860. If we look at the cost of a bike as an investment, you've turned £100 into £860, equivalent to a growth rate of more than 800% over 2 years. What investment opportunity can give you a return like that? And those figures assume that your bus pass stays the same price, over 2 years, which is pretty unlikely.

Even better, the government run a Bike-to-Work scheme, which many businesses support. This is where the company you work for buys a bike, and you pay them back for it out of your monthly pay. The key is that the take the deduction for the bike out of your wages before you pay tax and national insurance. This means that when they take £80 from you, the actual cash in your hand pay is only reduced by £50. Over the course of the year that you pay off the bike, this can mean that you get £1000 worth of bike for £500 or so. Bargain!!! If your business doesn't operate this scheme, it's dead easy to set up. Try these links for more info.

Wiggle
Cyclescheme


The key to adopting a happier, healthier lifestyle is to make small changes like this. As you save more and more money, you'll find that you need to work less and less, leaving you free to spend time with your family, or do whatever you please! Pretty soon you'll be healthier and wealthier.