It feels as though my finances should be going in the other direction.
I thought the longer and harder you worked, the better your financial position.
My case has been almost the reverse. For the last 15 years or so, our budget has been pretty severely limited. Much of what we gave up in the last recession never came back to us. That includes that really nicely HVAC appointed office. Now, I am working from home in the HVAC comfort of my house. But that HVAC is important to me. That’s because I like to soak up as much HVAC as I do an additional gig online after my normal work hours. It’s as though I am sitting in front of the computer in the HVAC all day. The HVAC also became a target for cost cutting as well. The HVAC costs during the winter are nearly nothing as it is so mild here then. The rest of the time the HVAC costs can be considerable. The HVAC cooling is running from mid March until like November. Yet, it’s the four month stretch of summer that takes the largest bite out of our wallets. We try our hardest to be sure we aren’t over cooling our home. We even programmed the HVAC thermostat to rise as the heat builds during the worst heat of the day. I even installed solar drapes in order to stop the direct sunlight heating. My wife and I do draw the line at being sweaty or uncomfortable though. We’re happy to save as much as we can on HVAC costs. However, we will for sure not go to any extreme and sacrifice that HVAC comfort that we love.