That makes sense until you start thinking about transportation or housing. Continuing to take the bus until you can buy two cheap cars and then buying one cheap car which itself quickly becomes a money dump is not good practice. There is nothing wrong with buying a car in need of repair. The problem is when you need to keep repairing the car constantly to keep it on the road.
Housing is a little more complicated, but the same basic concept is here. It is difficult if not impossible for many people to ever afford to.buy a house outright. Even more so when considering buying two houses. You should strive to be able to put down 20% and your mortgage+insurance+property taxes+ (all other housing related costs. HOA fee, lot rent) should not be more than a third your income. Ideally less than that if you want to save. I would aim for a forth your total income, but I wouldn't allow a 27% total to be a deal breaker. However, I am far from an expert.
But even that gets more complicated. Sure, don't get fancy, luxury items when you can't afford them. But you still may want to buy a more expensive option if it will be warmer or last longer.
You also need to consider not just "Can I buy two of these things literally right this minute?" But rather "Can I really afford this within the realm of everything I need to buy and the income available to me?"
My experience has been that people find themselves struggling to pay for things not because they didn't have enough money to buy something luxury, but rather because they didn't think far enough ahead and couldn't afford a bill they only pay annually or their rent was due before their next payday rather than after.
The simplest way to prevent these things from happening is to add up all your recurring bills, figure out how much of each paycheck needs to cover those bills, and set that much of each paycheck aside each payday, only to be used to pay billls.
Obviously this doesn't do anything for unexpected expenses, and its definitely ideal to have an extra savings for unexpected expenses. Unexpected expenses are the other thing I've seen create real financial hardship. Obviously you should save and take care of your car and your health, pay your insurance consistently. But if you fail to do so and you end up with needing to take your car into a mechanic or yourself into the doctor you just sort of have to figure that out. You probably need your car in order to keep your job, and you definitely need to be in good enough health or you'll die.
Housing is a little more complicated, but the same basic concept is here. It is difficult if not impossible for many people to ever afford to.buy a house outright. Even more so when considering buying two houses. You should strive to be able to put down 20% and your mortgage+insurance+property taxes+ (all other housing related costs. HOA fee, lot rent) should not be more than a third your income. Ideally less than that if you want to save. I would aim for a forth your total income, but I wouldn't allow a 27% total to be a deal breaker. However, I am far from an expert.
You also need to consider not just "Can I buy two of these things literally right this minute?" But rather "Can I really afford this within the realm of everything I need to buy and the income available to me?"
My experience has been that people find themselves struggling to pay for things not because they didn't have enough money to buy something luxury, but rather because they didn't think far enough ahead and couldn't afford a bill they only pay annually or their rent was due before their next payday rather than after.
The simplest way to prevent these things from happening is to add up all your recurring bills, figure out how much of each paycheck needs to cover those bills, and set that much of each paycheck aside each payday, only to be used to pay billls.