Is your wallet empty from your holiday shopping and impulse buys? Here are some ideas to start living with a mindset for financial minimalism.
A new year brings new goals, dreams, resolutions, hope, whatever you want to call it. My calendar is planned with financial goals for this year. I am not saving for a particular dollar amount, or trip, or big purchase. I am simply saving. Saving for the sake of saving.
You know I love listening to good TED talks (here, here and here) and I have been listening to some fabulous talks about saving money!
My No Spend Year
I was totally intrigued by the title: “My No Spend Year”. How is that even possible? Michelle McGagh explains that she did budget in necessary expenses such as her mortgage, utilities, and minimal groceries. Beyond that though, there was no budget. Not even for transportation! The reason for having a no spend year was based on the fact that she wanted to make the most of her money and stop the cycle of being a consumer.
The Takeaway: What will make me happy?
What would you love to do? What is your long term goal? Is your short term spending helping you reach that goal?
“Now I just ask my self one question before I hand over any money: Do I need this, or do I just want this? It’s a really simple question, but it has a big impact. It all comes down to your priorities.”
Unconventional Ways to Save Money
This TED talk starts off talking about collections. She had once tweeted “Don’t collect the whole set. Heck, don’t collect” and received a huge response with the various collections people have. Kerry encourages us to shift our focus from collecting stuff to collecting dollars. She gives a few examples of ways we can collect these dollars, but what it comes down to is changing our perspective and our lifestyle choices.
The Takeaway: It’s not about how much you make, it’s about how much you don’t spend.
“Stores are set up for savers to fail. Marketers are brilliant at getting us to spend the money we didn’t know we wanted to spend.”
My Financial Minimalism
While I don’t feel like I could go all out and become a zero waste individual or full-blown minimalist, I do have my own minimalist financial goals for this year. As I experiment and try them out, I hope to share my successes and failures with you throughout the year. Some things I am trying out are: eating more whole foods, saving money on baby products, gardening, etc. I am super excited to hopefully watch my dollar collection grow this year!
What are you doing to collect dollars, not things?
