How I enjoy being frugal and why you should too
I think it’s fair to say that for a majority of us this journey towards financial independence is going to be a long one. Even the gods of early retirement such as MMM still had to dedicate many years of their life towards the final goal. Unless you’re unlucky enough to win the lottery, taking a look over the percentage savings table will show many of us are working our way through at least a decade of income generation in order to build a self-sustaining fund.
It’s important therefore to feel happy with your current life so that this accumulation phase doesn’t become a decade resented and lost. At a 50% savings rate it will take around 17 years to reach the financial independence point. This however assumes you are happy to continue living the lifestyle you had been previously. If you had been living in a tent on cold beans in order to maximise your savings rate you need to remember that all the ‘years to retirement’ calculations assume you maintain this same lifestyle in retirement.
Set a personal challenge
I see my journey towards early retirement as a personal challenge, in the same way that someone might set themselves a target weight and have their own personal challenge to reach it. Each monthly income/expenses report is a measurable step towards achieving my personal challenge and so maintains the motivation each month to improve upon the last.
The added advantage of seeing this journey as a personal challenge is that you can resist the urges caused by comparing yourself to others through a distorted perception of reality. It doesn’t matter if your peers are out splashing the cash every Friday down the pub because doing so would take away from our own personal goal.
One of the great things about setting financial independence as a personal challenge is that it becomes so easy to calculate and measure progress. Unlike common goals such as ‘drink less’ or ‘smile more’, everyone can calculate their income against expenses to give a track-able savings rate and wealth figure. It’s important to have goals set which can be measured so that it can provided boosts of motivation when passing milestones and provided a final set finishing line.
Share the wealth of knowledge
Maintaining a frugal lifestyle and squeezing maximum value out of spending is a real life skill so often ignored by others. In reality it is an extremely valuable skill to have and actually not that hard to teach the basic principles to others. I love discussing finances with others (hence the blog) and will happily sit and chat for hours with anyone who wants information or advice in person. This information can then be used by them to make a real impact in their own lives and hopefully encourage them to further share with others.
By sharing your wealth of knowledge from living a frugal lifestyle you can help improve the lives and happiness of others, potentially saving them from debt misery or assisting them in obtaining significant life purchases. The feel good factor from this is huge and will help enrich your own life.
Increase your happiness
I have a couple of friends who constantly have the urge to obtain more. More video games, a better car, a longer holiday. To them; money is purely to obtain things in the present and as a result of this constant desire to obtain more.. nothing is ever enough. I have never seen one of these people go out and buy a new TV which they are happy with for any length of time. After a few weeks there’s something not quite right with the sound.. A couple of months and the picture is slightly distorted.. Within a year they are actually complaining about having ever purchased that TV and wishing they’d bought a better one. Instead of realising their new TV is such a big improvement from the last despite a few minor issues.. They focus on every negative issue and fuel their desires for more.
In contrast to this I take pride in knowing there is almost nothing more I currently want. I have a nice house with decent furnishings and a few semi-luxury items. Almost all of my possessions are only replaced when they physically break beyond repair. My TV isnt the newest, my laptop isnt the fastest and my motorbike certainly isnt the flashiest… but they work and I am happy with them.
Every Christmas I’m asked by family about what I need and to those who insist on exchanging gifts the answer is always the same:
“If I needed it, I would have purchased it already”
Instead I ask for consumable items such as food or drink which I would have purchased anyway or for events that we can do together. Frugality has removed my desire to obtain new possessions and this has greatly increased my happiness with what I have already.
Are you happy with your frugal lifestyle or do you see it as an undesirable necessity in order to increase your speed towards Financial Independence?
11 thoughts on “How I enjoy being frugal and why you should too”
Well said ERG. Being content is something that takes effort and planning to maintain. Much of our existence is perception. So we have great control over our state of mind. It is not easy though.
I agree, it’s certainly not easy sometimes! I think the feeling of being content with what you have does improve with time. There’s even been a few times when I’ve turned down offers of a free dinner at a fancy restaurant and instead suggested we went somewhere cheap!
I ask for massages because I have a bad back and am bad at taking care of it. ;P
But mostly I try to convince people not to give gifts, lol. So far it works for most people.
Enjoy the journey one day at a time ERG – you’re so right it is a mix of enjoying what you are doing to give you the independence you are looking for. I’m a few decades ahead of you. I spent two decades building up to the point where retirement is an option. During those two decades I can’t
say that I ever worked crazily or resented what I was doing. I was always mindful of what I really enjoy ‘spending’$$ on and that’s time.
Hi Ken!
It sounds like you made the absolute right balance then. No point in killing yourself over work, you’ll burn out before you ever each that retirement point.
You’re right, being frugal can be a challenge but once you’ve changed your mindset, then it just comes naturally. I’m happy saving between 40-50% and still have quality in my life. I really don’t feel like I’m missing out at all. My family are already asking me what I want for Christmas and like you, there is nothing that I ‘need’ as I would have bought the items myself if I needed them. I can see me asking for vouchers/cash, so I can use to buy things that I need when the time comes. Or perhaps I’ll treat myself to something I ‘want’ for a change – it won’t be coming out of my pocket, after all!
Im always amazed at some people’s reactions when they realise I regularly save ~50% of my income. To me that is a pretty low figure! I think of all the small luxuries like beer and cheese I buy each month but could also live without and wonder if perhaps I should be aiming for a higher percentage still. I’m not a fan of spending gift money on ‘wants’, I’d rather that money go towards genuine needs as i know my family would have worked hard for it. Work expenses however I’ll happily spend on a nice meal out.. They give me an allowance for a reason ;)
An interesting post Guy,
I started on this adventure a fair few years ago. One thing that I noticed as I became more of a minimalist and frugal, was that I wanted / desired a lot less. I also become a lot more laid back. The interesting thing though, was that when I did buy myself something (after a fair bit of research and deliberation) I enjoyed it for longer and much more.
A case in point is a bag that I purchased recently. I cycle and walk a lot. I wanted to be able to take a bike water bottle with me, carry my lumi jacket, maybe my camera and a few other bits and bobs, both on and off the bike. I finally decided on a bag a few months back. It still pleases me every time I use it (every day). Sounds crazy, but the less you have, the more you appreciate what you do have if you are sensible.
I / we love our frugal lifestyle. Myself and the SO, have a better life than most around us. Being frugal has removed so much worry. If we have a major financial crisis, I know that we can afford to sort it out, but being frugal, we normally find a more agreeable work around. To us, the happy consequence of a frugal lifestyle, is that we will be able to retire much earlier, we don’t feel the need to work late to impress the boss, unexpected financial issues are less of a concern etc etc. Frugality is the way forward for a happy life. Working your nuts off to buy more shite isn’t.
Ever noticed how similar the words need and greed are?
I hear you on the bag. Occasionally I’ll also identify something I think I could really use.. I’ll research it, read reviews, compare costs and plan the purchase. It makes me appreciate the item that much more once I’ve got it and I always value it. The only problem is that sometimes I struggle to identify the point when something really ought to be thrown away. I’ve been known to happily walk around town in trainers held together with gaffa tape or a backpack sporting safety pins all over the hold the tears.
I enjoy your free-spirit ness very much. I share similar views as yours when it comes to material belongings – having a lot of stuff makes me feel like I’m anchored down. It’s a real drag when I feel like I need to tend to a lot of things, especially when they don’t add any value to me.
I’ve been really enjoying putting up my own monthly net worth recaps since I usually notice something that I’ve done that I shouldn’t do, or something that I haven’t done that I should be doing.
Hello Clay, I only wish I could be more free spirited! I work in IT so am still pretty attached to my electronics. I suppose it’s all about finding a reasonable balance between the savings rate and purchases you need/want (within reason).