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I spend $725 a month on chores I could do myself, and it’s one of the best money decisions I’ve ever made
Writer Kali Roberge spent her 20s being so frugal she ended up burnt out. Now, spending money on chores is something she wishes she’d done sooner.
By Kali Roberge
My parents taught me some basic lessons on personal finance that served me very well in my first years as an independent adult.
They taught me that you don’t spend money you don’t have, a rule I took so seriously I never had a single cent of consumer debt to my name (not even student loans).
They helped me understand that I had to live well below my means and prioritize saving above all else, an idea that helped me start investing at 21 and encouraged me to save almost half my income through my early 20s.
And they told me that the only way to make it in life was to be independent, get a practical, stable job, and work as hard as I possibly could for as long as I could.
These ideas did give me a huge leg up on my peers through my early 20s. I worked hard, I saved a lot, and I developed a strong financial foundation that allowed me to build up a lot of assets in a short amount of time.









