Today we live in a society driven by the dollar. Forget keeping up with the Joneses…they have skyrocketed to success and are now living uptown with a country club membership, and their children are in private schools.

We see the stress for success placed on us by society, and it seems to always increase. Just when we feel we have met the expectations and are on par with the rest of society, someone goes and raises the bar.

If you are one of those people who has fallen into the well-meaning trap of living better, and have run yourself deep into debt trying to keep up, maybe it is time to stop trying to live richer and instead live smarter.

One basic rule that will almost certainly guarantee your financial success, thereby leading you to greater personal happiness, is the 90% rule. Simply put, you live on 90% of your income, and save the other ten percent.

Easy, right?

Unfortunately in our society, we have become accustomed to living on 100%, 110%, or even 130% of our incomes. We put ourselves into financial hock to make up the difference, telling ourselves we will catch up the next time we receive a raise, or we will just work overtime to cover the difference.

Regrettably, this widely accepted line of thinking is leading people to greater and greater stress. Working overtime increases your level of fatigue and decreases time spent with your family, making happiness and work family balance difficult to maintain. Rising debt brings on its own form of stress, which over time can have a detrimental effect on your health as well as on your happiness.

Try to make a few changes in your life that will allow you to live by the 90% rule, and see how much of a difference this positive change can make. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Unclutter Your Life: Clutter in and of itself is a major source of stress for most people. Luckily, you can not only rid yourself of unwanted clutter, but take a bite out of your debt at the same time.

Organize a garage sale or list your unwanted items on a sales site such as E-bay or Craig’s List. Not only can you get unwanted items out of your way, you can use the money you make to pay down some of those credit card bills. If you earn $400 over a weekend at a garage sale, you can make a substantial payment towards one of your bills.

2. Mind Your Utilities: Basic home utilities add up so much faster than we realize. Take stock of your cable bill, your Internet bill, and your phone bill. See if you can bundle services for greater savings, or get rid of services you are not using.

Watch your electricity usage as well. Especially with energy costs on the rise, turning off those extra lights or adjusting your thermostat can add up to hefty savings.

Any money you can save by doing away with unnecessary utility bills can be used towards paying off your debts.

3. Buy Used, Not New: For major purchases such as a car, consider finding a quality used car. Statistics repeatedly tell us that a new car loses 20% of its value the minute it is driven off of the lot. Why not opt for a car that is one or two years old? Most will still be under factory warranty, and your car payment will be greatly reduced.

By making a few small changes in your life, you can reduce your monthly expenses and get back to enjoying time with your family - rather than spending your extra time working, trying to make ends meet to support your lifestyle.

Not only will you find you have eliminated all or most of your debts in a short period of time, but as you continue the process of saving money and living on less than what you earn, you can take your newfound money and invest it. Interest-earning bank accounts, mutual funds, and IRA’s are all ways you can put your 10% to good use, secure in the knowledge you have something saved for a rainy day.

In the overall goal of achieving work-family balance and in the pursuit of greater happiness, giving up some of the little luxuries is very well worth it.

當今 我們生活在一個被金錢驅使的社會中。忘了趕上那些富鄰居們嗎？...他們飛黃騰達，住在小鎮的住宅區并且是鄉村俱樂部的會員，他們的孩子也在私立學校里學習。

社會給了我們成功的壓力，這種壓力也在逐步增大。正當我們覺得剛達到我們的期望值和其他人平起平坐時，又有人超越了我們并提高了標準。

那些人們落入了一個善意的圈套：為了使自己過的更好甚至欠債來和別人攀比。如果你也是其中的一員，或許是時候該停止這種富裕的生活了，取而代之的是一種精明的生活。

有一個基本的規則，它可以讓你完全在經濟上獲得成功，從而讓你更加快樂，那就是“90%規則”。這很簡單，用你90%的收入來生活，存入其余的10%。

很簡單，是吧？

很不幸的是我們已經習慣了用完100%的收入，110%甚至130%。為了能夠彌補和別人的差距我們欠債累累，并告訴自己下一次一定可以趕上，能長工資又或許只能加班來掩飾差距。

遺憾的是，這個被普遍接收的思維方式導致人們的壓力越來越大。加班會增加疲勞減少與家人在一起的時間，以至于很難保持快樂也難以平衡工作與家庭。日益增長的債務帶來了一種壓力會損害我們的健康和快樂。

試著讓你的生活做一些改變可以使你運用90%規則，并且瞧瞧這種積極的改變可以帶來多大的變化。下面是一些建議：

整理你的生活：對于大多數人來說，生活本身的混亂是壓力主要的來源之一。幸運的是，在擺脫多余的雜亂的同時你也可以減少你的債務。

在車庫里組織一場大甩賣或者在購物網上如易趣、克雷格上列出你不需要的東西。這樣你不僅可以打發那些不需要的物品還可以用賺來的錢支付一些信用卡賬單。如果你周末的車庫大甩賣上賺得了400美元，幾乎可以支付其中的一張賬單。

計算好必需品的開支：家庭的必需開支增長比我們想象中快很多。計算看看你的光纖費，網費，電話費。你是否可以取消一些服務存下更多的收入或者取消你沒有使用的服務。

同時也要注意你的用電習慣。由于能源花費的不斷上升，關掉多余的燈或者調整空調的溫度可以節省一大筆錢呢。

通過省下不必要的開支而存下來的錢都可以還清你的債務。

只買舊的不選新的：對于大的購買品來說，比如買一輛汽車，可以考慮買一輛質量不錯的二手車啊。統計的數據不斷告訴我們一輛新車在駕駛了很長一段時間后只會損失其價值的20%。為什么不選擇一輛開過一兩年的車呢？而且大多數都還在保修期呢，這樣你買車的費用就會減少很多。

在你的生活中做一些小小的改變就可以減少你每個月的花費讓你重新回到你的家庭中享受美好的時光——而不是用你多余的時間來工作，拼命達到收支平衡，僅僅因為你那生活方式。

你不僅可以在短時間內擺脫你全部或者大部分賬單，還可以持續這種省錢的方法用的比賺的少，然后用你新存下來的錢拿來投資。銀行里的利息，基金，個人退休帳戶都是你利用剩下10%的不錯辦法。有備無患。

我們總的目標就是達到工作與家庭的平衡，不斷追求快樂和幸福，放棄一些小的奢侈品是很值得的。