How Minimalism Saves You Money

I will talk about how minimalism saves money and the most common reason for divorce: money. Anyone who says they don't care about money is lying to you.

You've probably heard that money doesn't buy happiness. It's the root of all evil. Every bad guy in every movie has money, most of them.

Yet, the lack of money leads to most of our problems, a lot of stress, and divorce, and you literally trade the best part of most days of your week for money.

It's super important. The truth is that money rules our lives. Try to take any time off to earn money, and you will realize how important it is.

That's why learning how minimalism can improve your finances is essential.

2. What does your rich life look like?

It doesn't mean that you don't have nice things. It means that you're intentional about the things you spend money on.

So, if shoes aren't important to you, you won't spend thousands of dollars yearly on them because you don't care about them. You'll have a couple of pairs of sneakers, and that's it. You'll save more money and be more well off in the end.

I feel like that leads to the question of what is important to you and if your actions right now align with those that are important to you.

Recently, I realized that the things that are most important to me are not the things I spend my money on. I feel like this is common for most people.

We spend money by impulse buying things to impress people or to make us feel better when we're bored, depressed, or lonely.

We spend money on what our ideal or future self thinks will make us happy. It's on the travel that we see all over Instagram. It's on the new car that we see on TV. It's the newest tech, gadget, and cool thing your friend has.

After that initial dopamine hit, it's exactly what you had before. That is the trap and the lie. It's this place of diminishing returns. At a certain point, money can improve your life.

3. Money can improve your life

Let's look at a house. Moving from something small to something bigger, which I've done recently, has actually improved my life. We have more room inside where we can each have our bedrooms. I can have an office.

Then there's this point where lifestyle inflation hurts us. If we go to a bigger house, it will cost more money. It's going to have more taxes and more upkeep. So, the more I have, the less I enjoy it because I have to work more to pay for it. Then I have more time to clean it.

It's this idea that the more money we make, the more money we spend, and then we have to earn more money to pay for our things because we're earning more money, and we get less freedom and less enjoyment out of our lives.

That's one of the critical ideas of minimalism that has improved my life. Once you get to a certain point, there's no more stuff that you need to buy.

Once you have a wardrobe, you no longer shop because you're good for the next however many years until those clothes wear out. You no longer upgrade unless it will improve your life.

4. Minimalism can change how you invest

I don't always optimize for financial return. When you see many financial experts online, it's always about trying to get the greatest return on every dollar you have. I love the book The Psychology of Money. He talks about how he does things that are usually contrary to popular public opinion for personal finance experts. One of them was owning his house outright in cash.

You could probably get a much better return on your investment if you put that money into the stock market. But the safety, security, and freedom you get from knowing that the house is owned is much more valuable.

When we think about the emotional toll and the emotional impact of money, it can help us live a life that's a bit more flexible, a bit freer, and allows us to make easier decisions, pick up, and move across the country if we want to.

Likewise, I don't have 20 credit cards because I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible. If you optimized and had ten different credit cards, and you gamed the point system, you could go on five free flights every year. However, the amount of time and energy, as well as the overhead of paying off all these bills, is not worth it for me.

You don't always have to focus on getting the greatest financial return for every dollar you have. It's proven by statistics that, generally, the simplest forms of investing are the best forms of investing for most people.

I read this book called A Simple Path to Wealth, which completely changed my investing. He talked about how most people who try to pick their stocks lose money, and most actively managed mutual funds underperform the market.

Investing in low-cost index funds, which is the most basic, boring, simple thing you can do when it comes to investing, is generally going to be the best approach for most people. It doesn't involve looking at the markets every single day.

It doesn't involve picking stocks, researching, and spending time. It's simply investing for an extended period and something you don't need to understand. It comes down to finding actual good returns on your money and still having the freedom to enjoy that money without always stressing about it and checking in on it every day because you're invested for the long term.

How minimalism saves money

Learning how minimalism saves money can change your life for the better. What have you done to save money as a minimalist? Share your tips in the comments below.

Next, check out these Easy Frugal Hacks on How to Save Money on Your Food Bills.