5 Tips to Simplify — And Get More Money!
Intro
During my recent catch-up on blog reading, I ran across a guest post one of my favorite bloggers did over at The Art of Making Money. The Productivity Lessons - Simplify Your Life To Get Ahead article focused on how simplifying life reduced expenses and allowed Leo to get ahead. He gave 10 ways simplifying did this for him. I loved three of these particularly, and wanted to add two other benefits of simplifying finances.
Favorite Tips
Less Maintenance
When you own less stuff, you have less maintenance cost. This includes the cost of storage. I am appalled at the number of storage facilities that are cropping up all around my town. How much of that stuff is actually worth keeping? Also here is the time you spend dusting, polishing, storing, rotating, etc. all of the items. If you didn’t have to spend time maintaining things, you could use that time developing relationships or working on projects that might allow you to increase your income.
Lower Transportation Costs
Leo talks about how to maximize the use of gas in your car by consolidating errands, planning efficient routes and reducing commute. However, a big way to save money in transportation costs is to simplify what you drive. It seems that everyone in my area has an SUV or worse. I find this very funny, given that we rarely get weather that would require a four wheel drive vehicle. These vehicles are so huge that there is more to clean. They also cost more to maintain. These huge cars are also very expensive, and require earning more money to pay for them. My solution: get a small, energy efficient, and used (if possible) car.
Less Impulse Spending
Many people self-medicate by spending. They fill gaps in their lives by buying gadgets to fill the empty spots. By simplifying, and really getting a rein on impulse spending, you will reduce your outgoing costs, keep possessions to a point where you can maintain them, and lower the transportation costs because you won’t be shopping and hauling the stuff home.
My Additions
Less Stress
When you are simplified, you don’t have a lot of extra stuff you need to worry about. The amount of appointments to maintain things decreases and the pressure to earn a certain level of income to keep up with the payments for the stuff goes away. Stress goes way down when you stop worrying about “stuff”.
More Time
One of the big things I did during simplifying was editing my commitments. I had gotten to the point where I was resenting the time I spent on outside activities that did not nurture me. I said no to new things, and backed out of several long-standing volunteer opportunities that were a drag on my spirit. The financial side to this was that I no longer had to spend the money in transport to get to meetings; the other side is it freed up time for me to allow my side businesses to start.
Summary
Simplifying life is often looked at from a spiritual perspective, but the truth is there are many concrete financial advantages to it.
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