What is Enough?

I am baffled by how people react when I mention the idea of saving.

It's always responded with resistance, as if the systems in place have been designed exclusively for people not to save. People will almost always say: "Yeah, I should save but..."

1. I have bills to pay.
2. I have too much debt.
3. I can't afford to.

Or some variation of those excuses. But what I've learned years ago, is that if you have money to spend, then you have money to save.

Photo by Emil Kalibradov on Unsplash

It was years ago, I was sitting outside my managers office with a folded letter on hand, anxious and second guessing my decision. It was a spontaneous decision, something which I made the night before; but I decided that I finally had enough. I have been working too much, taking in too much responsibility, and for sure wasn't getting paid enough. During that time I was neck deep in car loans, I had about €1,000 in my bank account which was about to get a lot smaller because rent was due in a few days. The worst part was that I was going to leave my permanent job with nothing to look forward to later.

Knowing that I had enough of the shit, taught me that no one can pay me enough for my self-respect, and my peace of mind. This did made me realize, that money is a terrible thing to aspire to.

So when I finally left my workplace, I promised myself that I would not be motivated by money.

But I still need money though. I have bills to pay and a mountain of debt. So what do I do?

The fact that I didn't want to work anymore led me to change my relationship with money. I looked at my life, my spending, how I perceived income and came to the conclusion that money is abundant, you can always get more money.

This led me to learn that in any employment relationship, I should always have control, which meant I cannot be dependent on any employer. I don't take full time work, so I only work 3-4 days a week. I don't take permanent work so that I always have 6-8 weeks vacation every year.

You may be asking: How did I pay off my loans and in less than 3 years, and multiply my liquidity by five times, even though I'm working less?

I keep returning to the Richest Man in Babylon, but simply I simply decided that I had enough and what I have was enough.

I stopped buying shit. I said no to the new phones, gadgets, games and toys. I stopped spending shit. I said no to subscriptions and eating out. I developed a disdain for advertisement, I am immediately on guard for anything that wants to sell to me. And you might be surprised, but the simple act of spending less on things I don't need meant I had more money to spend on things I want.

Another surprising side effect is that this kind of mind set made me realize that I don't want a lot of things. This appreciation for what I already have allowed for the margins between income and expenses to grow, which allowed me to pay more for my loans, which lowered the interest and in no time erased the debt entirely. The bigger spending margin allowed me to set aside 10% from every payslip, which eventually turned to 30%. With enough capital, I am able to place that savings into an investment portfolio that outpaces inflation by 10 times as much.

So yeah, saving money might seem hard right now, because you have a lot to spend; it might serve you to consider how you can reduce your spending?