One of the smartest moves in your twenties is keeping your life cheap enough to take chances.

Low costs buy freedom, which is an odd thing to notice about money. Every fixed payment you take on removes a future option, because the job you cannot leave and the chance you cannot take both come down to what you owe each month. People talk about earning more as the route to choices, and the other side of the ledger works faster. Cheap does not mean miserable, it means unpledged.

While your costs are naturally low, notice what that is worth and try not to raise them automatically as you start earning. Keep one number in your head: what a month of your life actually requires.