Update with Andrew: Saving $20 is More than Earning $20

This is my first post with some juicy info I've gotten from Andrew Tobias' book The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need. Here's what I learned: Saving more is better than earning more. Because of the amount of taxes that are taken out of your paycheck (especially for us lucky New Yorkers and our steep state tax) - you save more money by saving than uping your income. Here's how it works:

• Pretend that you're in the 50% tax bracket (Andrew assures us we are in a higher tax bracket than we think)- if you make $1000, you actually take home $500
• If you decided to stay home and make mac and cheese for $10 rather than see the Strokes for $50, you would have saved $40. To earn that $40, you would actually have to make $80.

Lesson: being lazy and anti-social pays!