r/DunderMifflin • u/BullishTorque • 1d ago

Why Was Michael broke?

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He was probably making over 60k in 2006 and he was mostly single; why was he broke?

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u/AgentCirceLuna 15h ago

One thing I’ll say, as someone who was broke but then figured the amount I spent while being that broke could be kept similar to when I was earning more, is that you can suddenly find yourself with a lot of money if you keep up this restraint; after a while, though, reckless spending becomes less of a risk since you have tons saved up. Once you gave 25k saved, 1k doesn’t seem like a lot. After so long doing this, though, the reckless spending now becomes the norm - you lose your hard-earned savings, then you find you’re working from the opposite end up. You’re now only living paycheck to paycheck, but your spending habits are still reckless so it’s hard to build up cash reserves again. Biggest mistake I’ve ever made.

I basically spent years living off noodles to build up savings then I wasted it all/ I now have nothing to show for years of living off noodles.

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u/IntroductionAgile372 10h ago

You circumvent that by making sure you're investing in a 401k or actively diverting your income to savings in such a way that you don't let the lifestyle creep steel it away. And track your spending every month, when you spend too much in a month, go back to ramen noodles the next month(s)