The Minimalist Lifestyle: Efficient and Saves Money

Minimalism is an art that I’ve seem to have slowly adopted unconsciously. It may have contributed towards my carefree, lax attitude toward physical possessions. Some may call it being lazy or apathetic but I prefer the freedom from unnecessary worry and concern over material substance.

All too often do we place an excessive amount of sentimental value on items that are better off if they remained out of our lives. The typical outcome is clutter – the true enemy of a minimalist.

A Minimalist Lifestyle
The minimalistic life consists of days where physical belongings represent the bare minimum. A great way to think of it would be to pretend as if you were traveling around world for eternity. George Clooney’s character (Ryan Bingham) in the movie Up in the Air was always traveling and showed very little emotional attachment to physical things – maybe that’s why he excelled at his job of firing people.

A time when I, and many of you, experienced a minimalistic lifestyle is the time spent away from home in college. I lived on very little – rarely spending more than $50 a week on food and fun. Plus, there was only so much space in our tiny, overpriced dorm rooms. That’s why so many people suggest that we not dismiss the college lifestyle after graduation because we were able to live off very little then, so we can live off very little now.

Another terrifying way to look at it is to put myself in the situation where burglars breaks into my home and leave tremendously pissed off at the slim pickings this target happened to be. A minimalist would be able to withstand material loss calmly (though I’d lose my sense of security).

What Minimalism Offers
It is a zen approach to life. With it, money is secondary to meaningful experiences and peaceful lifestyles. To me the benefits are very enticing.

• Focus on what counts. Minimalism frees the mind of mental clutter and it frees my surroundings of physical clutter. That leads to more focus and concentration on the things with true relevance to my financial well-being. In the end, I am able to spend money and devote time and attention efficiently.
• Clutter prevention. It takes up space. We build a false sense of compassion for it. I sometimes look at a useless object and feel the need to keep it. Why? I don’t know. But, it will be the start to many deja vu’s next year, the year after that, and the many years to come. When I do toss it, I’ll wonder why I was silly enough to hold on to it for so long.
• For the need of less stuff, there comes a need for less spending. The obvious reason for cutting out what we consider to be “necessities” is to save money.
• Find out what real makes me happy. Buying new things does create the happy feeling but it lasts for just a moment. It requires repeated purchases to maintain happiness – a recipe for financial disaster. Instead, money is better off spent on new experiences and learning new things because they create long lasting memories of the happy times.
• Lessen the burden. Society has made many of us into rabid workhorses. The conventional wisdom to wealth accumulation is to boost income. Higher income is definitely an appealing option but minimalism goes against advice to earn more to buy more but it supports the idea that we should learn to live with less.

Small Steps
An immediate conversion into a minimalism would be overwhelming. As a matter of fact, there is no specific point where one person can say “I’m living with the bare essentials”. If I feel I’ve reached that point, then that is the life I’ll try to maintain.

Each person has their own beliefs on what is considered necessary. For me, tech gadgets have gotten me enslaved. In other areas, I can easily purge myself of “stuff”.

(Photo credit: Hoboken Condos)

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