Monday, May 14, 2018
The Frugal Mindset Will Make Your Life Better
We live in a very materialistic world. I know I myself have battled with the wants of this world versus the needs of a basic life. It is a constant struggle to not waste money on unnecessary junk, but there is a way out. The Frugal Mindset is a way to maximize your happiness through minimizing your expenditures. The truth is, it works. The happiest clients I have are always the ones who are frugal minded. They focus on the simple things that make their lives better as opposed to the material things that cost them money. Today I will show you 12 reasons why the Frugal Mindset will transform your life and make it better. Oh yes, and by the way, you will be richer as well.
1) It promotes health
There are two ways you can be entertained. You can pay someone to entertain you or you can entertain yourself. When you choose to entertain yourself, you have automatically chosen a healthier lifestyle. Frugality promotes being outdoors, an active lifestyle, and healthier choices. The convenience of speed often leads to expensive, unhealthy choices. A prime example is fast food. You have traded time for money and health. Frugality allows you to not have to make that choice.
2) It’s better for the environment
Being frugal is automatically better for the environment. The fewer things you buy means the less packaging needed to acquire them. Most of that ends up in a landfill or the ocean somewhere. Being frugal also promotes the use of things that would have been discarded. This means less energy used to produce items and less fuel used to move them around the planet. Frugality, in essence, is environmentalism at its core. Wasting less and saving more is as green as it gets.
3) Escape vanity
Vanity is one of the 7 deadly sins for a reason. It is one of the least desirable qualities that exist. You can never win when you are vain. There will always be something or someone just out of your reach. You are on top of all the latest trends because you have to be. I personally would prefer to wear blue jeans for the rest of my life. Is that acceptable at a wedding? When you are frugal you care less about what anyone thinks and care more about what betters your life. I have never bought one item ever that significantly bettered my life. Life gets better with actions, not items.
4) It’s less stressful
Staying on top of trends is a stressful business. Constantly trying to look good or impress the next person is all consuming. Being frugal is about as little stress as it gets. The acquisition of items takes brain power. In fact, it can consume your whole day/week/month if you let it. When you are frugal, as mentioned in the last paragraph, you are more focused on tasks that will better your life instead of things that will better your life. This is automatically less stressful and of course, less stress is better for your overall health.
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5) Promotes intelligence
When you live frugally there is not much you can do that doesn’t make you at least a little bit smarter. You read more, interact more, go on more adventures, test yourself more and achieve more. Life is spent on betterment through activity, not through the acquisition of goods. Your body and mind will become more balanced and that is a very good thing. Buying a new item rarely makes you smarter and in fact most of the time it makes you less smart. Unless that new item is a book.
6) Promote crisis management
When you live the frugal lifestyle, there is really nothing that shakes you to your core. In the real world, there is always something happening every day that take us for a loop. We seem to bounce from crisis to crisis when in all reality, none of it really means much. When you accept frugality, you have accepted a minimalist life. This allows you to breeze through life’s mini-crises with ease. You are more in tune with what’s actually important, so the drama of the day rarely matters. Every day someone is making a bigger deal out of something than it should be. Being frugal allows you to put that all into perspective.
7) Opportunities
Blowing through crises without losing a step is largely in part to the excess money you have from being frugal. Small ordeals don’t faze you. You just cash flow them. The same is true when it comes to opportunities. I recently had a business opportunity come my way. This opportunity would generate income for me immediately as well as allow me to expand my practice. The sad thing is that it cost me a good amount of money to do it. Having cash flow savings allowed me to jump on this opportunity instead of letting it pass me by. The wealthy are wealthy because they take advantage of opportunities. Being frugal is what allows you to do that with ease.
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8) Better relationships
When you have the frugal mindset, you pursue relationships that make your time more enjoyable. This is in complete opposition to a vanity mindset. You have more free time and you want to spend it with people that make you feel better or intrigue you. Spending time doing expensive things is a superficial way of sustaining a relationship. Frugality promotes activities that allow you to make a deeper connection with the people that matter most to you. We often equate spending more money with having a better time. This really couldn’t be further from the truth.
9) Zero in on priorities
As mentioned earlier, being frugal helps you see what is actually important in making your life better. One of them is obviously spending time with the ones you love, as just mentioned. When you do not have the pursuit of money to buy things as a life goal, you can focus on the more important things like family and friends. Another big one is education. Learning more will infinitely make your life better and the good thing about it is that it is often free. It costs nothing to read a book or study online. Most college courses are far cheaper than trips to the local watering hole on a weekly basis. A better life for yourself and those around you will make more sense and come more naturally with this type of lifestyle.
10) Less choice is better for you
Remember when there was one type of bread? Then they introduced whole wheat and it got a little worse but still manageable. Now walking down the bread aisle is extremely confusing. The more choices you have, the more confusing life can be. Choice is good in certain cases, but with your money, it often isn’t. You usually gravitate to the more expensive product because you assume is it better. When you are frugal, your choice is limited. You often do not even have to make a choice because you have skipped that part of the equation. Your choices are made for you by the lifestyle you lead. Don’t believe me? Walk into your closet and see how good having choices have been for you.
11) Money makes sense
When you are frugal, money is strictly utilitarian for you. It is used to accomplish a goal or generate more money. When you are not frugal, money is often confusing. We need to understand that money is just a tool. It is a tool to get us things that we need. When it is used strictly for acquiring things, inanimate money tasks lose meaning. What is an inanimate money task? Saving for the future is one. Protecting your family is another. You can’t hold those in your hand. You get no immediate physical satisfaction from them. They only exist in our minds, sort of like money. Despite this, they are far more valuable than any object you can buy. Being frugal allows you to prioritize your money and therefore it make far more sense. When I meet young people that have this down I am always blown away. It is truly the bedrock of any successful financial plan.
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12) Gratitude becomes the attitude
When you desire less to acquire things, you start to appreciate the things you have. I know this one has escaped me many times in my life. We must understand that we are very lucky to be where we are in this world. This era is the literally the best time that this planet has ever experienced. We have so much going for us, yet we often fall into the trap of not realizing that. When you choose frugality, having fewer things makes you understand the importance of everything you do have. A warm house to live in, food in your belly, people who love you, a community around you, safety and security are all taken for granted. I know I have done it before. Being frugal allows you to be extremely thankful for the little things you do have in life.
Many people equate frugality with cheapness. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Frugality is the proper use of your money on things that make your life better, not the withholding of money. You distribute your money with a purpose as opposed to throwing it away. Cheapness means you do not pay true value for what you acquire. Frugality means you only seek things with value and then use your money to acquire them. This means you spend less as you have prioritized what matters most. It is truly a lifestyle worth living.
“Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality.” – John Tyler
Email – joe@budgetboss.ca
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