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Welcome, reader!

I founded Mr. Clever Fox to showcase creative money-saving ideas that you can apply every day to reach financial independence. 

Traditionally, saving money is treated as a dull chore and framed as giving something up. The standard advice is to save a portion of your income and feel free to spend the rest. Then, someday far into the future, after many years of unnecessary work, you hope you’ve paid off your debts and have enough to retire. The standard advice is lousy.

I’m a follower of the FIRE movement, which stands for “Financial Independence, Retire Early”. Wherever you are in your financial journey, I believe you should save as much as possible. Doing so will help you meet your goals, whether that’s a down payment, education, retirement, or even a round-the-world trip.

Spending and saving are in a tug-of-war for your money. Each dollar will go to one side or the other. We need to spend money on life’s necessities, and we like to spend money on life’s pleasures, but we often don’t spend skillfully. Spending money efficiently – getting what we want but paying less for it – is where this blog comes in.

I started Mr. Clever Fox to share my tips, experiences, and philosophy around clever spending and saving money. Saving money is a skill and a habit. It takes time and effort, but it’s the highest-paying job you’ll ever find.

I don’t advocate for living a bleak, spartan life in which you give up all your wants (although wanting less is a great money-saving skill). I’m passionate about enjoying satisfying experiences and sometimes even having nice things. But in our modern economy, there is almost always a way to pay less for what you want. You can squeeze money out of every purchase you make, and it adds up fast. 

Here are a few of the themes that come up repeatedly in the blog:

• Getting the exact same thing for less (like buying generics)
  
• Getting virtually the same thing for less (like buying used or refurbished products)
• Saving by doing something yourself rather than hiring it out (like many home improvement projects)
• Saving by playing the games of our economy (like credit card bonuses)

I enjoy helping friends and family save money, and now I hope to reach a larger audience and hopefully make a difference in the lives of my readers.

I hope you enjoy the site, and I welcome your participation via comments, email, social media discussion, or sharing your tips back with me. Let’s all become more clever together.

To help new readers get the most out of this blog, I’m working on creating a newcomer’s challenge, some essential reading, and other tools to start re-shaping your relationship with money. So watch this space as I’ll be publishing more content very soon. In the meantime, feel free to check out one of the articles mentioned here or dive into the list of all posts and start exploring!