Having said all that, I’m trying to live like no one else so I can live like no one else.

I have a co-worker who is tall, handsome, smart and athletic. He was born to upper-middle class parents, went to the best schools, and an excellent private college. He married a woman who’s father has a great number of connections that help him in his chosen profession.

Yes, he worked hard, really hard, to achieve this level of success. But he never acknowledges or even UNDERSTANDS that he had advantages most people just don’t have. Just being a white male in America is a huge advantage – and please don’t rag on me and call me racist. You don’t have to be racist to make the observation.

The obvious thing that’s wrong with the advice is that it’s always “now.” It’s never “later.” So if you keep following the advice, you’re always sacrificing, and you’re never reaping the benefits of your sacrifices.

That’s why people are saying that you’ve got to get some pleasure out of the journey as well. If you love to play the piano, then practicing for an hour each day is not a sacrifice – it’s a pleasure. And if you don’t love to play the piano, maybe you’d be better off working on some different skill in something you do love. Then, if that skill leads to you doing something truly great, that’s awesome, but even if it doesn’t, you’ve still spent your life doing what you love.

Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else.

Sacrifice now, so you can do what you want later.

Maybe that means money. Maybe that means donating 100% of your time to your favorite charity. Maybe it means starting a non-profit.

Why do people assume it has to be about money?

What do people do now that hurts them? They live beyond their means. They fall for the “save two months salary for an engagement ring” line. “Everyone gets student loans, you should too.” So, live like no one else; i.e. live below your income, don’t get student loans when you can simply work through school, don’t do all the stupid stuff that everyone else does. Everyone else leaves early on Friday. Why are you? “Average” and “normal” are “broke and stupid.” Don’t be average and normal.

Later, you can live like no one else. Travel. Go on a Greenpeace whale-watching expedition. Spend time with your grandkids without worrying about whether your social security check is gonna arrive or not.

Guess who didn’t have any problems during this recession? People with no debt and an emergency fund. People with paid for houses. People who sacrificed in the past, so today’s troubles are mere speedbumps.

I just have to add a comment that me personally, I don’t want to live super cheap today for a wealthier someday years from now. I rather have nice things and opportunities now then when i am 45 or 50. Life is half over for me then and I won’t have as much energy to drive a nice car long distance with the top down or wear nice clothes taylored becasue i don’t plan to look like a 20year old when i am 45/50. This is not an insult to others who look good at that age, i am talking me personally. So for me it’s working hard right now to live responsibly and not take on unnecessary debt but if you do to make your choices more carefully and buy nice things so it will last long and you won’t have to save up for the same thing year after year. My savings is growing tremendously with this effort becasue i am more conscious of my spending and i spend on nice things that last a long time.

Successful people put a lot of time and effort at something that they clearly love, it is not sacrifice to them.

In my younger years, I put thousands of hours of piano, flute and oboe practice. I did not sacrifice anything, I couldn’t wait to get back to my instruments. And what brings me back to exercise everyday is the way it makes me feel: strong and clear-minded.

Life is so short, I just hope that Trent finds a little pleasure in reading, practicing and making laundry detergent !!

Ramsay was talking about eliminating wasteful spending now – so that you aren’t drowning in debt in the future.

When it comes to personal life and goals – things Trent describes as “improving my piano playing skills, reading challenging books, and getting into better shape” – the idea of sacrifice just doesn’t work for me. These are all things where the journey should NOT be considered a sacrifice. They’re all good things, but the act of getting there should be rewarding in and of itself.

This reads like you don’t actually get anything OUT of reading challenging books, except the fact that you check them off a list. (And that’s the one goal you’re on track with, if I remember, you’re actually not making your other goals at all – but do you want to just magically be able to play the piano or are you actively enjoying the learning and the music? The healthy one, ok, I think a lot of people would just like to be healthy without effort, but – are you not ENJOYING feeling stronger every day you work out? A lot of people do exercise for the love of it.)

Even with Bill Gates. Not only did he come from a wealthy family, but for him, spending “teen years, college years, and early adulthood glued to a computer” – that wasn’t a sacrifice! That was his passion, that’s what he loved. He just happened to be incredibly fortunate that his passion and timing happened to hit just at the right time. A difference of a few years would have changed his story completely.

I’m not going to sacrifice things I love now so that I might get some intangible reward in the future. I’m going to live and love my life now and by working on things that matter to me, I’ll continue to enrich my life and never stop doing things that matter to me. I don’t want to wait for some ‘later’.

Many people have different ideas of success. What Kevin describes here seems to make him happy. Therefore, I would consider it a success. I don’t see why anyone needs to judge their own success by someone else’s definition.

My goal is to save up enough money and reduce my costs enough that I can quit my corporate job and live off of approximately $1,000/month. Assuming I reach that goal, my life would seem like a colossal failure if judged based on most other people’s definitions of success. For me, however, it would be a great success. I’m working hard now so I can live the life of my choosing down the road. This is my understanding of the Ramsey quote. The sacrifices and end result will vary for everyone.

First, regarding Michelle’s (#8) suggestion – please do not stop using bold to highlight what you consider important points of the article. While I did read this article in its entirety, I do not always do so. The bold helps me to skim the article to get the key points without reading the whole thing. I often find myself immediately clicking the back button on other sites when I go to a lengthy article that does not use formatting to allow the reader to skim to see if they feel the article is relevant enough to read.

Second, the majority of comments to this article are kind of depressing. Trent writes what should be an inspirational article, but so many people are choosing to view it negatively. To all of the nay-sayers I just want to say that, Yes, you can succeed with sacrifice, hard work, and a positive attitude. If you prefer to keep your defeatist attitude instead, then there isn’t much anyone can do for you. That being the case, I’ll just offer my sympathy.

I am happy being complacent. I am happy working my 8-5 job. I am not going to spend 6 hours a day playing a musical instrument, pull all nighter’s to finish a key project, or make my own laundry detergent. I am happy with not being exceptional. This isn’t sarcasm, but this is how I feel about my life right now.

Sigh, I hope that was put in as a pun. To me Ramsey’s message is about finances, in that we all have to make something to live, and by exercising some restraint in our lives up front, we can better chose what to focus our resources on later in life (regardless of the size of those resources). That said, I think the most telling line in the above article is:

“The question is where you want to be and what you’re willing to do to get there.”

If you want more, plan out how you can get what you want and execute the plan. You may fail, you may have to sacrifice a lot, but if you don’t try, you sit there wanting more forever. If you aren’t willing to do what it takes, then give it up or pick another desire.

If you are generally where you want to be in life, then in many ways, you’re done and enjoy the dickens out of what you have. You might have small things you want to do, some goals to keep from getting bored, but otherwise enjoy what you have and are achieving.

What does “need” have to do with anything?

Are you saying that everybody should only ever spend their money on things they absolutely “need?” What should we do with the rest? Give it to you?

Of course Dave doesn’t “need” a house as big as the one he has. Neither do I. Neither do you. So what? As long as we pay our bills, and it’s not hurting anyone else, isn’t that all that matters?

And for what it’s worth, Dave’s house is paid-for. It doesn’t have a mortgage. The vast majority of his neighbors (and yours, and mine) do. So who’s got the bigger ego? The one who actually HAS the cash to pay for their home, or the one who buys a home bigger than they can afford (thus necessitating a mortgage)?

This is a false dichotomy. It ignores a third possibility: I’m happy being complacent, and I UNDERSTAND that that may preclude me from achieving the kind of success other people experience.

I make enough money. Why would I bust my rear pushing myself to some arbitrary benchmark of “success” if I’d rather just kick back and spend time with my family? That doesn’t mean I “wonder why other people are more successful than me.” I fully understand why. I just might not be willing to make the same sacrifice/reward value exchange that they are.

There’s such thing as having “enough.”