# Would it be easier for you to increase your earnings by 20% or cut your spending by 20%? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 6, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183 "2010-12-06T19:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/21 "2010-12-07T04:36:18Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > Note that if you’re in a position where cutting spending by 20% (with no increase in income) results in breakeven, then income would have to increase by 25% (with no decrease in spending) to reach breakeven. Similarly, increasing income by 20% would be on a par with decreasing spending by 16.67%. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/22 "2010-12-07T04:40:32Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Why? Say your spending is $120 and your income is $100 per month. (Just go with me here.) If you were to increase your income to match your spending, you’d have to increase it by $20, which is 20% of $100. But if you were to cut your spending to match your income, you’d have to decrease it by that same $20, which is 16.67% of $120. I’d judge it to be equally easy to increase earnings or cut spending by 20%, myself. Either find a weekend job or get half my debt paid off. Hell, I expect to do the latter in the next couple of months. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/23 "2010-12-07T04:47:12Z")
Increasing my earnings would be easier as I am currently a SAHM and don’t have any earnings. If me, getting a job was completely out of the question, I believe we could cut our spending by 20%, but it wouldn’t be any fun. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/24 "2010-12-07T04:57:16Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Why? To go **from 80** to 100, you add 25% **of 80** to 80: 80 + 20 = 100. To go **from 100** to 80, you subtract 20% **of 100** from 100: 100 - 20 = 80. In either case you’re making a change of 20, but that 20 is **25%** of 80, whereas it’s **20%** of 100. It makes a difference where you’re starting from. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/25 "2010-12-07T16:52:18Z")
Define “easy.” I mean, there’s little question that I COULD get a job earning 20% more than I make now, but it would involve moving to a different part of the country, doing some intensive job-searching, and, most likely, ditching the academic career altogether. Cutting spending by 20% would be simultaneously more painful and less troublesome. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/26 "2010-12-07T17:37:05Z")
Does spending include the money I currently have earmarked for saving? Right now we save about 30% of our net. It would be simple to cut that down 20%: it would be complicated to cut our bills/consumer purchases down 20% while still saving at the same rate. I think we’d have to take in a boarder. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/27 "2010-12-08T19:28:24Z")
Raises have been rare, hereabouts (though \*\*Typo Knig \*\*did get a bump in the 20% realm when he changed jobs last year, so…) but I know there’s a lot more fluff in our budget than we like to think. Dining out. Postponing some non-essential medical stuff. Cable TV. Groceries could be cut somewhat. Games and music are small but could be cut out entirely… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/28 "2010-12-08T20:33:42Z")
I’m scheduled to get a promotion in the next year, and I could work overtime if I wished. Increasing my income by 20% within the next year wouldn’t be hard at all. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/29 "2010-12-09T17:09:18Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Say your spending is $120 and your income is $100 per month. (Just go with me here.) If you were to increase your income to match your spending, you’d have to increase it by $20, which is 20% of $100. But if you were to cut your spending to match your income, you’d have to decrease it by that same $20, which is 16.67% of $120. > > I’d judge it to be equally easy to increase earnings or cut spending by 20%, myself. Either find a weekend job or get half my debt paid off. Hell, I expect to do the latter in the next couple of months. > [@Gary\_T](#): > > To go **from 80** to 100, you add 25% **of 80** to 80: 80 + 20 = 100. > > To go **from 100** to 80, you subtract 20% **of 100** from 100: 100 - 20 = 80. > > In either case you’re making a change of 20, but that 20 is **25%** of 80, whereas it’s **20%** of 100. It makes a difference where you’re starting from. Well you learn something new everyday. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/30 "2010-12-09T17:34:54Z")
My husband and I are both making pretty good money. I’m certain I couldn’t find someone to pay me more; while he might be able to, it would take some doing. Which leads us to cutting expenses. We do spend more on clothes, groceries, and entertainment than we actually have to. Also, we are trying to sell a house, and the monthly carrying cost is the biggest expenditure on our books… almost as big as everything else combined. Assuming we could get rid of that house in a year’s time (AND PLEASE OH PLEASE ASSUME WE CAN), cutting our expenses by 20% would be a piece of cake. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/31 "2010-12-10T22:22:04Z")
Retired and going to be 74 next month, I don’t see how I could increase my income by 20%. Maybe teach a couple sections of calculus to increase by 10%. Cutting expenses would be relatively easy. Don’t spend three weeks in Barbados in February (about $6000). Skip the convert tickets (at least $3000). Don’t eat out (maybe $2000). Buy cheaper food (maybe another $2000). But the biggest savings would come from selling the fully-paid house and moving to an apartment. We pay nearly $10,000 in real-estate and school taxes. We could get a small apartment for probably $500/month. And avoid all maintenance, snow clearing, sell the car, etc. I guess I could also lose the cable, the cable modem service and also the cell phone, to same about $100/month. Stop buying books that we have no room for anyway. Cancel magazine subscriptions. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183/32 "2010-12-11T02:44:36Z")
Either one would be quite feasible. I could fairly easily increase my income by a substantial amount by trading in my current stable corporate job for the consulting world (e.g. Accenture), at the expense of having to fly somewhere far from home on Sunday night and come home on Thursday night. We definitely don’t live a frugal life. I love eating out with family, my wife loves shopping, and I love geeky gadgetry. All of these consume lots of $$$ and could be quickly scaled back in an emergency. I don’t really have the desire to do either at the moment. Hope I don’t have to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-easier-for-you-to-increase-your-earnings-by-20-or-cut-your-spending-by-20/563183.md?page=1)