Reply #33: Save as much money as you can. Spend the extra money on things of quality. Don't buy fads. [View All]

[Rabrrrrrr]

Don't go out and fill your house with cheap furniture in one cheap shopping spree - learn to live with not so much at a time, and slowly fill your house with quality, well-built, non-faddish stuff that will last for generations.

Consider how well the Queen Ann and older furniture styles still work.

Consider how utterly unwell turqoise shag carpeting and bright orange cradenzas don't work any more.

Consider how a basic black suit with white shirt and conservative tie and good cufflinks has been in style for a hundred years, and always looks good whether one is at a funeral, wedding, or work.

Consider how utterly when you think of white suits, powder blue leisure suits, or beehive hairdos, you think of a very small range of years, way in the past.


Don't buy fads. Don't buy crappily made shit. That $40 vacuum cleaner might seem attractive, but not when it falls apart in 9 months. Buy the $150 vacuum, and have one that will last you decades (a span of time in which you might have bought 15 of the $40 ones).

And for God's sake, men, buy at least one good black or gray suit (not blue, not red, not brown, not green), well-tailored, with a French Cuff white dress shirt and a conservative tie and nice silver cufflinks and a pair of black leather shoes that cost twice what you think you should pay for a pair of shoes (and then take care of them! They'll still be around when your grandson needs them for his wedding). AND - wear the damned thing when you go out to eat, to weddings, to funerals, to your class reunions, and when you're shopping for a car.