Two Frustrating Truths About Making More Money. And How To Use Minimalism To Get Ahead (Because More Money Doesn’t Always Help).
I want to share with you Two Truths I’ve experienced firsthand about money and how minimalism will help you financially.
1 — It doesn’t necessarily matter how much money you make. It matters how much of it you spend.
Sounds logical. You’d think people who make more money use this to really get ahead in life. Like, you know, paying off all debts.
Instead, more money usually means buying more things, or more expensive things. When once a $20,000 car would’ve sufficed — now a $50,000 car is in order.
One’s spending amounts usually correlate directly with one’s earnings.
Not me, though. I’m strong.
I know it happens to a lot of people, but I can handle it better.
That’s what I said too…
Until I fell into the same trap.
2 — And, the more money you make, the more you’ll want.
Ha! Too true.
I work in financial years. So when I made 50,000 one year, I wanted 100,000. When I made that, I wanted to make 120,000. The next year I wanted 150,000. When I did that, I wanted 200,000.
I was satisfied for 5 minutes.
And then I wasn’t.
What Does This Money Talk Have To Do With Minimalism?
My view:
The worst part about working your butt off and making a lot of money is that if you don’t employ the mindset and practices of minimalism, you’re not going to get that far ahead financially.
The money will disappear.
And you won’t have much to show for it.
Take it from my experiences. Now that’s really disappointing.
Having a Minimalist mindset will help you make smarter buying decisions.
For me, being a minimalist doesn’t mean I don’t buy anything.
It just means I consider everything.
I question why I’m looking at an item.
- Why I need it.
- When I’m going to use it.
- How often I will use it.
- What will owning it mean?
- What will owning it require?
As soon as you run any purchase through a series of questions like these, it will help you determine if you really need the item.
Rather than the simple, consumption mindset thought process of “Do I like it? Do I want it? Yes! Mine!”
You’ll be less prone to spur of the moment buying decisions.
And I’d be surprised if you didn’t stop yourself from buying half of the stuff you would’ve normally.
So. What do you do with all that disposable income?
Don’t dispose of it!
I hate the term “disposable income”.
What a way to make it sound like it’s extra and you can do without it.
Ha!
What a lie.
- Do you have debts?
- Student loans?
- Car loans?
- A home mortgage?
Well damn, that’s where the money should be going!
Not buying more crap you don’t really need to impress people you don’t really know.
The money you make that you spend on buying more stuff is most likely wasted money.
You’ll never get that back. (Okay, okay.. you could sell some of it — still, almost certainly at a loss.)
And it’s gone!
But the money you make which you then use to pay down debts. Now that money has really helped you.
Because it’s getting you ahead.
It’s getting you out of negative.
Help yourself out!
No-one else is going to pay your debts off for you.
Unless you’ve got some trust fund brewing or a Nigerian Prince’s inheritance coming your way.
And whatever money you put towards it is not lost.
It won’t get wasted.
Thrown away.
It will help you for the long term.
Employ a Minimalists mindset to help yourself.
Stop buying things you don’t need.
Stop spending money on things that aren’t helping you grow or get ahead.
Don’t kiss your money goodbye.
Those debts and loans won’t go away by themselves.
They’ll sit there quietly barely being paid off… or worse, growing in interest.
Minimalism isn’t about having less.
It can really be about having more.
Because when you have a whole bunch of stuff on credit card debts or loans… is it really even yours? Kinda. But no (if it was, the repo business wouldn’t exist).
And most importantly you can’t put enough value on being debt free.
It’s not a mystical dream. It’s a real possibility.
But only if you stop believing the disposable income lie and cut down spending your money on things that die, break, rust and waste away.
Break the mindset strongholds of consumption.
And you can do it.
Thanks to Minimalism.
