Simple Living: Putting Your Money Where Your Values Are

One of my mantras is “You can have anything you want. You just can’t have everything.” Some people want everything now—and that’s where financial problems come in! In reality, a determined focus on what’s really important to you can get you almost anything, as long as you’re able to let go of extraneous items and activities in the process.

Financial fitness often starts with a shift in mindset. We begin thinking of money not as an end in itself, but as a tool that helps us get or do what we want. Some of us are bogged down in Surviving rather than Thriving. This is because we haven’t determined what we value, cut away the fat and made some focused, values-based decisions.

Voluntary Simplicity

In his book Voluntary Simplicity, Duane Elgin talks about stripping away as many of life’s complications and distractions as possible to focus on what’s truly important, meaningful and
satisfying. The book’s subtitle, “Toward a Way of Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich,” emphasizes choices based on what’s valuable to you.

True wealth is an inner sense of abundance, not outward displays of bling-bling. However, Elgin’s concept is not about excessive frugality or poverty. He’s talking about choices. We need to choose what’s most important to us and focus on it, regardless of what it is. The term “voluntary simplicity” says it well.

Simple Strategy: Survive on Less to Thrive More

When talking about things like money management, budgets and saving, people often mention self-denial, discipline and eliminating this or that. The voluntary simplicity concept is more about embracing what you want out of life and letting other things fall away. Instead of engaging in a grueling battle to deny yourself, simply focus on what has long-term value for
you. Saving money flows naturally from that.

In a previous blog, Does Money Buy Happiness, I described the Survive versus Thrive concept. In brief, Survive money is what you spend on needs (or what you think you need!) and Thrive money is for what you value. Simplicity is a tool you use to shift the balance so less money goes to Surviving and more to Thriving. Money is a limited resource for most of us, and time is limited for all of us. The less we need to Survive, the more time and money (our valuable life energy) we can commit to Thriving.

Ways to Free Yourself to Thrive

To Thrive more, you can earn more money for the things you value, or spend less on the things you don’t. Both options potentially free up time and money for Thriving, and a combination of the two is powerful.

Earn More: We’d all like this! If you aim to earn more, it’s important that the bigger paycheck doesn’t require too many additional hours. Some high-paying jobs demand 60, 70 or 80 hours per week, leaving little life energy for Thriving at the end of each workday.

Focus on improving your life-energy exchange rate rather than just getting a bigger salary. The more you earn for each hour of your life energy, the fewer hours you need to work to meet your Survive needs.

Simplify: Redirecting spending is usually more in our control. Notice I said redirecting, not reducing. Simplifying is not about spending less. It’s about spending better. When we’re trading some thingamabob for an item or activity we really treasure, the choice is easy.

Focus on redirecting your spending to the things you value, not on tightening your belt. This sometimes means adding to savings to achieve a deferred goal.

Whether you’re increasing your income, redirecting spending or both, you shift the balance more towards what you want rather than what you have to do or acquire. You Survive on a lot less so you can Thrive a lot more.

Your Free Choice

The first step is to ask yourself, “What do I really value? Am I putting my money and my energy toward that, or are they going toward things I don’t believe in or aren’t important to me?” The next step is to shift the balance toward Thriving. Since you usually have more control over spending, identify ways you can live more simply and put less toward Surviving. That frees up more of your resources for what’s most meaningful to you and helps you get the most for your money.

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