One of the biggest insights I hope you get from our experiments in The 10-Day Turnaround is the idea that…
- Spending money or buying things does not create a better lifestyle - and in fact, that all of us can lead an equal- or even far “richer” - lifestyle on much less money than we currently send out the door each year.
First of all, pretty much everyone I know has various expenses in a month which are not necessary and which could be eliminated without any decrease in quality of life - overages on cell phone bills that rack up huge costs, alcohol, cigarettes, eating out for lunch (15 bucks a day for lunch is $450/mo right there)… and the biggest ones of all:
…Money we spend to cover up emptiness or make ourselves feel excited or happy… or to overcome feelings of guilt
One example:
- A parent buying their kids toy after toy after toy that the kids lose interest in in about 30 minutes - but the parents keeps buying them because if they don’t, they feel like they are not being a great parent since every other parent they know seems to do the same thing…
Another example:
- Someone is in a bad mood, despressed, upset, or whatever- so they buy something - clothes for women, electronic gadgets for men, etc - easy to justify that we “need” these things, but reality is, we do not.
In virtually every month’s spending I have ever seen, there are literally 100s - and usually 1000s- of dollars that would have zero negative impact on qualify of life if they were not spent that month…
I think all of us would agree that sitting down with your family and having a blast just goofing around together in the evening or really listening to your spouse and kids share and having a great talk or hanging with your buddies and telling jokes have at least equal, if not higher, value in terms of quality of life, than spending 100 bucks on stopping off at McDonald’s with your kids on the way home, then taking them all to see some junky movie later that night just to give everyone something to do and keep people quiet…
So, paradoxically, it is often true that…
- Spending LESS give us MORE quality of life- more time with our loved ones; more hugs, kisses and “I love you’s”; more time reading, napping, or just chilling; more cool conversations with our friends; and more satisfaction in a life well-lived.
If we are creative in HOW we spend our money and what we spend it on - there are tons of opportunities to “be” vs. “do”, even without increasing our income - and often even if we had very little income in the first place.
Let’s say you now make $50K per year - which is about $200 per workday.
- For the next month, you bring your lunch from home instead of spending $10-20 per day on eating out. That is an extra $400 in your pocket (Plus you have probably eaten MUCH healthier for that month anyway) - so the $400 means you just “earned” two full days of “paid” vacation (since you avg. $200/day when you work) - so you can take those two full days without guilt and just “be” rather than “do”… or take an extra hour every day for next 3 weeks instead, or whatever the case may be. However you arrange it, you have earned it. Or you now have an extra $400 every month to invest in marketing to grow your business- or an extra $400 to pay your mortgage.
Bottom line:
- The quality of your life - and the breadth of opportunities - has increased significantly by making one small shift like this- and you have substantial extra money now available to you without actually increasing your income a single penny.
Now, I am not saying to focus all of our efforts on cutting expenses - it’s just as easy or easier to earn extra income to fund our lifestyles, rather than cut expenses to give us freedom to live them.
However, what I do want to say is that it is quite possible to have tons of time to “be” rather than “do” even with little income, or no increase in income.
I know it’s possible because I, in fact, did that for years- I would keep enough clients to pay the bills and live a very simple lifestyle and that was it- probably 10-20 hours a week of working to help those clients. The rest of the time I was reading, studying, relaxing, etc- ie, totally in “be” mode vs. “do” mode.
I still had a great lifestyle but I eliminated all my non-critical expenses so I spent very little money each month. Eliminating all those expenses basically “bought” me the opportunity to experiment with “Be” long before I ever had the high income to “justify” taking the time to do that. It also gave me the time to write my first book and create my first products, even though that took months to do with no income coming in from those projects while I was doing it.
The bottom, bottom line:
For all of us, we already have far more than we think we have if we are just open-minded and creative about how we allocate both our income and our time.
In today’s Action Plan, we’ll experiment with how to put this into practice and enjoy its benefits right away.
Click here to access it now.
-Jeff
September 29th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Sometimes the small challenge of taking lunch from home for a whole month can seem overwhelming to a working mother who is also in the sandwich generation with 2 moms at home to care for besides 2 kids ad a husband. When you top that with full time office management, hiring headaches, work flow management and a husband that doesn’t do the traditional husband ‘honey do list’…. leaves it to me???? Well take a deep breath and the solution is not to stress over a perfect month of home lunches but more than half of them is the 1st step… this way I don’t fret when I spend time on discussing how to defend your politics with your college professors with my 18 year old instead of planning the week’s lunches???
What do you think Jeff? Am I on track? I am so far with my commitment to exercise every day. I just need to you to continue this to 21 days so I can make it a habit???
Sunita Pandit
September 29th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Thanks for your ‘grounded’ wholistic approach to business, Jeff ~ Am enjoying this graceful 10 day transformation !
Clearly this 7th day ‘Insight’ is an inspiration on many levels.
Articulation - being able to adeptly express - mentally or physically…. whether in writing, speaking, or in the day to day ‘be-ing’ - the managing our lives - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually in all facets of our relationships with ourselves or with others in our businesses, or in our daily public life…..is in every deed, an art. This art of expressing…of living… matures with practice, with refinement in the details…..the editing.
Your drawing our attention to the impact of our financial expenses on the larger pictures of our lives, and then your sharing your personal experience of how you invested your saved expenditures of money as well as the saved time and energy into your book, etc. and the ‘return’ on those investments is such a great, concrete lesson.
Duly inspired. YES ! Thanks ~
Aaiyn
September 29th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Thanks Jeff, I agree with you one hundred percent. First I would like to make a comment: That poor people in America are really not that poor. If you go to a third world country, where children don’t have shoes on their feet, because they can’t afford them, or don’t have any education, because there is none available, you can begin to see this.
Yet, some of these people are happier than some millionaires. You can see this on some of the giant smiles on the children’s faces, over the smallest of gifts.
” Happiness is Not What You Have.
It is the Ability to Enjoy What You Have…”
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September 29th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Very good eye opener Jeff.
It’s much less expensive to “be” and enjoy what we have, than to “do” and spend money we shouldn’t or can’t really afford.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Wow, Jeff, how true. My husband has been laid off since last October and we have cut back on “unnecessary” spending. We spend more time together and enjoy what we do. We play cards with daughter/son-in-law once a week and watch movies at home instead of out at least once a week. I am cooking at home more (we have both lost weight because of healthier eating) and driving less. I am content with this. You are right - more money isn’t necessarily the answer!
September 29th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Ok Jeff, so just being, for me would be easy, I don’t spend much money on myself anyway except to invest in my business, which I believe is necessary. My family, on the other hand, would need to be trained, How would I go about doing that? I’m going to the action plan now, maybe the answer is in there.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Hie Jeff, thats true sometimes we spend money where not necessary without knowing instead of channeling that money to a business to create more money.
http://www.trueweightlosstips.com/ogeetntw/true/
September 29th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
We’ve got to have bottom-line thinking in everything we do. We control our live…our life doesn’t control us.
September 29th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Ben Franklin said augment your means and diminish your wants.It can be very helpful.Thanks again Jeff!
September 29th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Great advice! I have learned to live on less, but I want to live on more. smile
September 29th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Hi Jeff Here I’m very late again (or early, as it’s early morning here in the UK). I’ve joined at a very awkward time, as I’m very busy with all sorts. Not leaving time enough to deal with all the important things. Need to learn time management! Thanks again for your excellent advice and wisdom. PS. When you let us know the time for the live session on Thursday, please include UK time. Thanks.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:49 am
THERE ARE DIFFERENT WAYS TO SKIN A CAT, WE ALL FALL INTO THE HOLE OF MANAGEING OUR MONEY POORLY AT DIFFERENT TIMES IN OUR LIVES. A LACK OF RESPECT FOR MONEY OR THE WORHIP MONEY CAUSES A LOT OF PROBLEMS IN OUR LIVES. MONEY ISN’T THE MOST IMPORTANT THIGS IN OUR LIVES , BUT TRY AND DO SOMETHING WITHOUT IT! GERRY R.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Another good point. “less is more” very often in life. There is a danger here, though, of falling into a “lack” mentality, rather than abundance. That being said, there is a lot of waste in much of our lives. For example, do we really need that 42 inch big screen TV we will be making payments on for the next 6 years, or would the 26 inch one do just as well. Heck, do we even need to be spending much time in front of a TV anyway? Just think if we didn’t “have”to have 100+ channels, extra-super-duper fast internet, unlimited text and messaging minutes for phones for all members of the family. Maybe more people will be able to not only afford their mortgage, but actually be able to put additional principal down and pay it off faster! Now that’s a return on your investment. How about marketing money to get your business growing and secure long-term success? Too often we are an immediate gratification society. We can take lessons from history (as in our parents or grandparents). Somehow they survived without being connected every second of every day, looked forward to the “treat” of listening to the radio or TV. Yes, technology is great, but not if it puts us out of touch with the difference between true “basic essentials” and “nice to have when there is plenty to go around”. Thank you again, for asking us to examine what is essential for growth, and not just over-stimulation and wastefull.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Hi Jeff,
I don’t know what to say. I think you hit a weak spot! I fully understand of what you’re saying and it’s totally true in the beginning of the month.
In the end of the month it’s amazing to see that the small expenditures every day has turn-out to be a big bill from Mastercard each month.
My wife and I are trying something new this month. We will not use our credit cards. We will pay everything cash! I’ve got the cash at home in a number of envelopes marked Food, Clothes and so on. Let’s see if it makes a difference.
Best!
Lars