What would the perfect personal finance book consist of?

[Mounds]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Why all this quibbling?

One can try to cut expenses, while at the same time trying to increase income.

Neither necessarily has to happen, before the other one. You can work on both at the same time.

Come on ALG, everyone knows there's only ONE way to do things in personal finances

It really depends on how big your outflow is. If it's very big, it should be easy enough to find things to cut. If it's not so big, then it's difficult.

That's true. It's also your own mental blocks. Someone who smokes might think that they are unable to live without cigarettes ($300/month). Someone else might think that there's no way they could possibly cook every night of the week ($____/month).

[Acting Like Godot]

I should add that it is much easier to keep increasing your income over an extended period of time (eg years), than to keep cutting your expenses over an extended period of time (eg years).

This is because the economy will pay for your work experience - whereas for expenses, you can't cut below your subsistence needs.

To put it in more concrete terms, if you sit down in a certain job for five years, there's a good chance your income will increase. Because from an employee with zero years of relevant experience, you've become an employee with five years of relevant experience.

In contrast, consistently cutting down the absolute value of your expenses year after year, for five years straight, is very challenging.