Living with Parents for Financial Success

I will admit that I have a personal bias with this blog post because I do indeed live with my parents in order to save money. I pay my parents approximately $300 per month. I consider this to be a win-win situation as my parents get some money to help pay the bills while I get a roof over my head for very little cost. This allows me to invest more money into shares, ETFs, property, etc.

In my opinion, living with your parents helps considerably with financial success. Many people focus on small expenses when trying to live frugally e.g. they will stop buying $5 coffee each day, which will save $1300 per year. But if you don't move out of the family home, you will save about $25,000 per year (whether you rent or buy your own place).

In the Economic Explained video below on YouTube where there is a discussion about a K-shaped COVID-19 recovery, the economic benefits of living with your parents is highlighted towards the end of the video (starts at 15:20):

    

This video is interesting because it discusses lifestyle inflation, but it also discusses how most people in Western culture aspire to a three bedroom house, two cars, and travelling every year. Basically Western culture aspires to a nuclear family lifestyle. 

The nuclear family is the ultimate consumerist status symbol. 

The nuclear family is much more expensive and wasteful than most other consumerist status symbols that are demonised e.g. the $5 per day coffee or even Ferraris. Moving out of home costs about $25k per year, but you can rent or buy a Ferrari on finance for less than this.

Most people say that moving out from the family home is natural and that everyone does it, but the video highlights this is not true. Cultures in China, Korea, and Singapore live in multigenerational family arrnagement and have the highest savings rates in the world. Adults live with grandparents and their kids. There is division of labour and in-built childcare, which allows for fast wealth building.

Living with your family does not need to be a parasitic relationship but one where you contribute to the family. You can help to pay your parents' bills so that you have a win-win arrangement.

Cultural bias against living with parents

Within Western culture there is a considerable bias for the nuclear family arrangement and against a multigenerational or extended family arrangement. Anyone over 25 (especially men) who still live with their parents are considered losers, but this in my opinion, is an unfair assumption that goes against economic logic. 

An example of this cultural bias against the extended family can be seen with "household wealth" calculation. Western culture views a nuclear family to be a proper household but multigeneral households are not. For example, I live with my parents, but if someone asked me for my net worth, people would not expect me to aggregate my net worth with my parents' net worth as well. However, when someone is living with his spouse, they often aggregate not just their own wealth but the wealth of their spouse as well. 

The benefit of living with your parents is that you can split costs e.g. heating costs. You can benefit from splitting costs living in a nuclear family as well, but the gains will not be as great because you are splitting costs with only one other person (assuming they work and are not staying at home doing domestic duties). Another problem with the nuclear family is the threat of divorce. If you live with a spouse, even if you're not married (due to common law marriage), there is a risk of divorce. There is a probability of about 40% that you will be divorced. However, if you live with your parents, there is zero probability of divorce and having your assets seized by the courts.

Multigenerational and childfree living

To conclude, living with parents in multigenerational living arrnagements is a great way to get ahead financially. You are able to build wealth up faster by lowering expenses. In my opinion, living with your parents is not enough. To really build your wealth, you should not just live with your parents but also not have children i.e. become childfree. The benefit of the multigenerational household is being able to split costs e.g. the cost of heating is divided by everyone in the household. However, not everyone in the household may contribute. If you have a baby, the baby will not obviously not contribute to the cost of the household. As such, it is best to not have any children and live childfree. This is not a problem for me because I am an antinatalist and believe that is immoral to have children because it increases suffering. However, regardless of my philosophical views, economically it makes sense to not just live with parents but also live childfree.

Nature's Cuppa Rich Roast - Better than Decaf

Woolworths now sell Nature's Cuppa Rich Roast, which tastes like instant coffee but is actually made from barley, chicory root and other plant ingredients. It is significantly cheaper than the real decaf coffees. What I like about it is I can drink it at night and not worry about my sleep.

Bad Tasting Almond Milk

When it comes to veganism, I believe in replacement. Veganism should not be a sacrifice. You simply take an animal product (such as cows milk) and simply replace it with a plant products (such as soy milk or almond milk).

Lately I have noticed many cafes in Melbourne, Australia giving customers the option of using almond milk in their coffee. However, a few days ago I tried an almond latte at a cafe that has only recently offered almond milk (after I unsuccessfully tried to order one), and it tasted bad. To be honest, it tasted like dairy milk. Just to be sure, I ordered another almond latte from them and watched them make it. They definitely used almond milk. The almond milk brand they used was Almond Breeze Barista Blend.

I kept trying different almond milk lattes from different cafes until I found one that was right for me.

The lesson here is rest almond milk is variable. There are many different types if almond milk on the market. If one type of almond milk or almond milk coffee doesn't taste right, simply try another. Don't give up on almond milk.

Review: Monk Bodhi Dharma Balaclava

Monk Bodhi Dharma is quite a small place. It’s important to look at the Monk Bodhi Dharma website as well as Google Maps first to see where it is. The website instructs you to park in a nearby Woolworths parking area, and from there it is a short walk to the cafe/deli. Thankfully you don’t need to pay anything at the Woolworths carpark. Driving and parking here is really easy.

Source: monkbodhidharma.com

When I arrived, it was a Sunday morning, so it was quite busy. A group of friends and I needed to wait fifteen minutes. Once inside, I noticed that the place is cramped and crowded. Everything on the menu is vegetarian and can be veganized. I ordered a veganized avocado on toast (called "The Avo"). This dish was recommended to me and I enjoyed it. The avocado was delicious because they mixed something into it (perhaps chilli) that enhanced the taste. I really liked it. If I had to give one criticism, it would be the bread, which was a little too hard for my liking. I also had a soy flat white with my meal. I was told that the coffee in this place is renowned all over Melbourne. I am not a coffee expert, so I cannot give my opinion. Most coffee for me is the same, so I end up judging a cafe by how extensive their vegan milk options are and how happy and nice the staff are.

All up I paid $19 for both the avocado on toast as well as the soy flat white. The place accepted Mastercard.


The Avo (Vegan) at Monk Bodhi Dharma Balaclava

Soy-Free Vegan Coffee in the Melbourne CBD

Melbourne is renowned for its coffee. In just about all coffee shops, vegans can pay about 50 cents extra for soymilk rather than dairy milk.

I personally avoid both soymilk and dairy milk as soymilk contains high concentrations of phytoestrogens and dairy milk contains high concentrations of estrone and estradiol, which are cow estrogens. In the study below, men who drank dairy milk regularly suffered from a significant drop in serum testosterone.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19496976

As easy way to avoid soy and dairy is to order pure espresso or a long black. A long black is similar to a latte except the espresso coffee is mixed with water rather than milk. The benefit or ordering a long black is you usually get double the amount of espresso coffee, which means double the amount of antioxidants.

The problem with the long black is that the taste of coffee by itself is strong. Another problem is that pure espresso or a long black has virtually zero calories (good for those losing weight but I personally want more calories).

This is when you need to get coffee mixed with a plant-based milk. My personal favourites are coconut milk and almond milk.

For lattes with coconut milk (that is, coconut lattes), I recommend Oli and Levi. There are two Oli and Levi cafes in Melbourne. There is an Oli and Levi on Coromandel Place and an Oli and Levi on Collins Street.

If you are concerned with the cost of coconut milk or the saturated fat content, I recommend almond milk. While just about any brand of coconut milk seems to taste good in coffee, coffee with almond milk only seems to taste good if certain brands are used. Personally I like to go to Little Bean Blue on Little Collins Street. The almond latte that this cafe prepares uses a brand of almond milk that is specially designed for coffee, meaning it tastes smooth and frothy.

My Experience with the eCoffeeCard App

I love my coffee. At some coffee stores I visit, there are loyalty cards where you can get a free coffee if you buy, say, 10 coffees. However, for one area I go to, they have encouraged their buyers to use eCoffeeCard, a smartphone app that keeps track of how much coffee you've had and notifies you when you're due for a free one.

I installed this app on my Android phone and used it for a while. My experiences have been negative.

Technology is supposed to make life simpler and easier. It is supposed to make you more productive. I have found that eCoffeeCard has done the opposite.

Normally when I pay for coffee, I use cash, and if there is a loyalty card, I hand this card with the cash and the barista signs the card or punches a hole in it. The barista then hands the change and card back to me. It's quite simple.

However, with eCoffeeCard, I have to pay separately with cash, then I have to take my phone out of my pocket, I have to turn it on, search for the app icon, wait for the app to load, and then I have to scan the QR barcode, and then wait for the app to recognise the barcode. Using the smartphone is significantly slower!

Normally when I buy coffee, there is a queue, and being slow means you hold everyone up.

I don't know what the solution is. Perhaps Google Glass will fix everything because you will only have to look at the barcode rather than bother with taking out your phone, etc.