Some of the basic concepts of personal finance needs to repeat as often as possible. One of them is to live below your means as written by Jonathan Chevreau of Financial Post. Live below your means is considered as an eternal truth of personal finance. “This is the granddaddy Truth of personal finance. Without it, there’s little point talking about the rest. The only way to become financially independent is to be consistent about spending less than you earn, year in and year out, decade in and decade out.” The formula for happiness, attributed to Charles Dickens, is based on living below your means. If translated into today’s world, in David Copperfield the character Micawber would say: “Annual income $50,000, annual expenses $40,000, result happiness. Annual income $50,000, annual expenses $60,000, result misery.”