Several of the dividend bloggers write about their frugal lifestyle. I think they sometimes take it too far. It makes sense to live within your means. What's the point of investing if you keep spending money on stuff you don't need. You'd be better of putting the extra money into your portfolio. Being frugal means that your portfolio returns can covers your expenses sooner, since your expenses are lower than they would be for a non-frugal person. And for many investors that's the goal -- cover expenses with dividends, and retire. For me this is not the case. I love my job, and I love the income it generates. My dividend income is used to build up my portfolio. When it reaches a decent size, then yes, I will use it to cover non-discretionary expenses like mortgage, insurance and utilities. But only if I no longer want to grow the portfolio, which I think I will want for a long time to come.
