Living Below Your Means

Becoming financially independent is one of the most important things you can strive for. But I don’t mean getting rich at the expense of your sanity. What I mean is to get away from having your job dictate your time and your life.

One of the most important steps to financial independence is learning to live below your means. This means not spending as much as you are making and getting used to the idea of having cash at your disposal and overcoming the urge to spend it.

Saving and living below your means also helps establish a frugal attitude. You will need this attitude when you really start making money because it will allow you to save a disproportionally larger amount.

Living below your means allows you to take chances with your time if you want to start your own business. New businesses don’t return money in the short run. You have to lay some groundwork before it will start making a useful income. But if you are living paycheck to paycheck and spending all your time working for someone else then you will not have the free time to invest in yourself. Let alone the money.

It will also allow you to enjoy yourself more. You can quit work on time or maybe take a few extra days off now and then to enjoy your life. Which is what life is all about. Working less allows you to live in the moment and not put of the pleasurable things until you are too old to enjoy them.

Pleasure doesn’t have to cost lots of money either. This is the influence that advertising and the consumer culture has taught us. You don’t need bigger and better. You don’t need the newest and most improved. The old things will give you 90 to 95 percent of the benefit of the new item at a fraction of the cost. Or at no additional cost if you already own them.

Living below your means means saving and having something left over for emergencies. And it also means being able to work less so you can enjoy yourself more. None of these things are possible if you’re working all the time to support an unnecessary lifestyle.

More often than not this lifestyle isn’t even for you. It’s about what your neighbors or your family or friends will think about you. You have to break the habit of being dependent on what others think about you.

For too many people expenses tend to rise to meet income. But if you want to become financially independent you have to get used to the idea of living below your means.

Once you have achieved a certain level of financial success then you can increase your expenses and raise your lifestyle up. But just a percentage. Not to the full extend of your new income.

Financial independence allows you to use your time as you wish. Which is priceless because your time is something you can never buy back.