How Much Worth Are You?

Do you know how much worth you are? 

Do you know how much money actually you have at this moment?

Do you know exactly how much money you spend per month and for what?

Do you know how much money you save per month?

I know you would wonder WTH I am talking about this boring stuff again. Here are my excuses.

I have been reading a book called “Your Money or Your Life” written by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. This book is about 9 steps to transforming our relationship with money and achieving financial Independence, and I am quite enjoying reading and learning valuable thoughts from the book. One of the first steps recommended by the book is finding out ‘How much we worth?’ When I was reading through the chapter, my chicky mind knocked my consciousness that it might be good to exercise instead of only reading. So, I decided to dig out our financial reality. Frankly, I was bit worried that it would take too much of my time and energy but it was far simpler and less time-consuming than I expected. We always worry more than necessary, don’t we?

 

Firstly, I started finding out our income for the last three months (1 Jan 2014 to 28 March 2014). Salary, bank interest, rental income, etc…. Last three month income was quite easy to find as all was recorded in our bank account.

 

Figuring out what is our total saving for the last three months was the second step. It was also not difficult at all as I could extract our saving accounts into Excel spreadsheet by clicking a few buttons. I had to acknowledge that how current technologies make our life easier and convenient.

 

So, what was our total expense? Total income minus total saving equals total expenses, doesn’t it? I have to admit that our case is far simpler as we don’t have any mortgage to pay and no credit card debts to consider. Remember that no debts can make life much simpler and easier so don’t make any debts or clear them as soon as possible.

 

 

 

‘Wow’ was my first reaction when I figured out my balance (Saving (S)= Income(I) – Expenses(E)). I knew that we have been saving as much as possible and trying not to waste anything so, I knew the saving rate would be high but it was a great surprise the see actual number to confirm our efforts. Our saving rate was very close to 80%. Not too bad, is it? If someone is curious about the figure how we made such a high saving rate, the answer is extremely simple and straight forward.  Our income has been grown up steadily during the last decade but our expenses have not been changed from the time we were studying and living on a tight budget. I know many people around me who upgrade their lifestyle based on their salary growth and I easily guess their saving rate would stay same or even worse as very often keeping high standard lifestyle easily overtakes salary growth.

 

When I got the number, I emailed the result to my husband and we shared a nice discussion about our present life and future plans. It was a very simple exercise but the outcome was far greater than I expected so I would like to recommend you to try this whether you are truly interested in getting financial independence or simply want to know what your current financial situation is.

 

I believe this exercise will show you a direction to get a healthy financial position. After getting the actual figures…

 

1.      You will now know what your current financial position is.

2.      If it is good, you can keep your attitude to money as now (or even try to get better for future).

3.      If it doesn’t look good (or serious), you need to find what to fix and how to fix.  It is very simple. Our goal is having positive outcome (S=I-E), isn’t it? First option is increasing income (I) and keeping expenses so, you can have positive figure. Second option is reducing your expenses blow income and third one is increasing income and reducing expenses. As we all know, very often increasing income is out of our control so the best (the most realistic) option will be the second one (reducing expenses). Isn’t it simple?

4.      You now know what to fix so it is time to set up a plan to fix the problems. Set up a short term goal (e.g. 30% saving) with detailed action list (how to reduce your daily expenses). 

5.      You have got a plan so you live on it. I strongly recommend you to record all the expenses for a while until you feel comfortable about your spending habits. There are many free apps (e.g. DEM (Daily Expenses Manager) for recording your expenses on the web so choose and use one for you. 

 

As per my result, I am quite satisfied with our lifestyle and spending habits. The best feeling from this exercise is realizing that we are on a right track. I know some people would argue that they don’t want to scarify their current (high) standard of lifestyle to save little more. Everything is totally up to you if you wish to work 9 to5 till over 65 for feeding your high standard lifestyle and retire with financial burden.  All I hope are you remember that you need to be responsible for your future and better prepare earlier than later.

 

I am very happy to live frugally. Funny enough, when I purchased more things, I felt I never had enough but I don’t really need to buy things to feel enough at the moment. Living less frees my greediness on materials and fills my life with pleasure on small things. I can assure you that knowing your bank account is getting bigger is not too bad either.

 

I have started recording my daily expenses recently and it has been a fun. I try to catch all the expenses not because of I want to know every single details of my expenses, because I want to train my brain to be conscious on my spending.  In the book, ‘Money’ was described as ‘Life energy’ and I couldn’t agree more. We exchange our precious life (time and energy) to earn money so be conscious on spending our life energy and don’t waste it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Ways to Save Money While Shopping

As my husband and I are ‘VERY’ interested in ‘Early Retirement’, we have been trying to learn more about the people who have achieved the freedom of choice whether to work, in order to discover some crucial tips from their live experiences. Their many books, blogs and interviews show us what to do and how to do to reach the freedom and one of the most common (the most important) advices I have found is ‘Financial independence’. Financial independence is the foundation of the road of freedom and the first step to the financial independence is ‘Saving’. So, I would like to talk and learn more about saving to be ready for the day that I have saved enough to retire (not need to work anymore).

 

Since I have been mindful on saving, I have become more conscious on spending. We cannot simply live without spending but, we can spend wisely to spend less and save more. One of my biggest expenses is grocery shopping currently and I have been trying to shop wisely not to waste money. So, why don’t I share with you some ways I have found to save money while shopping?  

 

 

 

10 ways to save money while shopping

1. Less shopping, less spending: Reduce the number of times you go shopping. If you go 3 times a week, reduce to twice. If you go twice a week, reduce to once. I have found from my own shopping habit that I go shopping not because I certainly need to buy things, only because I think I may need to do shopping routinely. More time I shop I intend to make more compulsive purchases that are often not necessary and regrettable. If you do less time shopping, you will definitely buy less stuff which is not needed and you can save money. Less time of shopping will also offer you extra time which can be used for other things (Don’t we always complain about lack of time?). Remember that time is money.

 

 

2. Empty your fridge and pantry before shopping: Before going shopping, check the fridge and pantry and find out whether you really need to buy more things to store or not. I used to buy same stuff and I found out I had them already only after shopping. So, I try to empty my fridge before I go shopping. When fridge and pantry are not empty that simply means you don’t need for another shopping. So, try to delay the shopping and use whatever you have. One ingredient missing will not harm your meal as much as you think. Beginning will be bit hard to adjust your shopping habit but you will have a fantastic feeling when you see the empty shelves. Because you know you didn’t waste any food and also it is time for shopping.

 

3. Buy what you need not what you like: Don’t be distracted by new products, well-presented products, promotion products or sale products while you are shopping. Buy what you planned to buy, not what you find out that you may like to have. How often we buy things unnecessarily because we feel like to buy. It is very common way to waste our money which we exchanged with our precious time and life (at work to make the money), so don’t buy if you don’t need. 

4. Make a shopping list: Write down what you need to buy before you go shopping. If you don’t have a shopping list, you are likely to buy more things than you need. Also, you can forget things you need to buy so you have to do extra shopping. The shopping list will direct you where to find and what to buy, so it will reduce the chance of habitual purchases and also your shopping time.   

 

5. Buy on big sales: I try to be very careful on sale items because they are very tempting. The letter ‘SALE’ is too distractive to focus on buying what we planned. However, if you control your emotional craving and use the chance wisely (buy what you need), you can save quite a lot of money by purchasing goods on sale. I don’t consider 20% or 30% sale as a big sale. Quite often, many items in big supermarkets are half priced or having further deductions (which can be up to 75% down) so you need to focus on the big sales. You can buy bigger quantity of daily items such as shampoo, toilet papers, washing powders, tooth paste or frozen items which you can store longer on big sales so you don’t have to pay full price next time.

 

6. Buy seasonal fruits and vegetables: Eating more fruits and vegetables are essential to keep our body healthy and control weight. However, unfortunately it is not always good for our wallet as some fruits and vegetables are brutally (unreasonably) expensive. Try to buy seasonal fruits and vegetables instead of not having them or buying expensive ones. You can always find seasonal fruits and vegetables which are cheaper than others. Some people might argue that they deserve to buy what they want to have even though they have to pay heaps more, but this mindset (I deserve better one.) can be a very dangerous factor to push away your financial independence.

 

7. Maximise store card benefits but don't buy to get the benefits: All the big supermarket chains provide their store cards to attract more customers. I was very reluctant to get any of them as I thought there must be hidden tricks to tempt the customers to spend more money. I still believe that is the main reason why they offer all the benefits/bonuses to their customers. However, if you use the store card benefits properly, you can save up quite a bit of money. If I do one bigger shopping instead of doing two small shippings, I can get $10 off which is 12.5% extra off from the sale price (I don’t buy anything full priced.). If I diligently activate their bonus point offers which doesn’t take me any cost, I can get between $10 and $50 off from a shopping. So, use it wisely to save up. However, be careful not to buy extra stuff to get more points or discounts.

 

8. Be flexible: We all have our prefer brands or items but, to save money, we need to be flexible. If the items are far more expensive than others or not on sale, try to find alternatives. You can try new and different things to compare the quality and also save up money.

 

9. Check the measurement: It is sometimes quite hard to know how much actual things are in the various sizes of packages. Therefore, compare the price by the measurements ($/g, $/kg, $/L etc…) is very helpful to find out how much value we are actually getting by paying same amount of money.    

10. Check the receipts: Don’t forget the check the receipts before you leave the shops. Human can make mistakes so you need to be responsible for not paying more than you need to pay. Check the receipts if the items you bought are correctly entered. One time, I was charged my green beans ($2/kg) as mushrooms ($11/kg) so I had to pay 5.5 times. This can happen anytime so check the receipts to avoid getting overpaid. 

 

I know the 10 tips will not make you extraordinary savings or instant rich but I believe that they will direct you to get the correct shopping habits which can impact on your savings in a long term. As every journey starts with a step, our financial independence will be achieved by our simple spending habits. Whenever you do shopping, remember that you are not only spending money but also your precious time and life.

 

To Escape The Rat Race

Normal life, ordinary life or standard life?

 

 

 

I am not sure how I have to call the life path acknowledged as a standard path by most of people in current society and I have to confess that I have been struggling to fit myself into the normality recently. I know I am not the only one as I can find many similar minded people through reading numerous blogs who are trying to get out of the rat-race (a typical form of normal life, isn’t it?).  However, frankly, I feel bit isolated from the real people around me as no one seems to care about my plan on taking not-normal, not-ordinary and nonstandard life path.

Let’s talk about how we have been convinced (brainwashed?)
that our standard life should look like since we were very young.

 

• Study hard to get good marks at schools.
• Go into a good University.
•  Choose a major wisely for future job market.
• Graduate and get a good job (Well-paid, stable, etc…)
• Get married and work hard for family (9 to5, till 65)
• Work hard for buying a house, car, lifestyle, kids educations, etc..
• Work harder and longer for making more money to spend more.
• Work even harder for saving money for retirement.
• Retire at retirement age (If lucky).
• Live on aged pension or social security (If lucky).
• Ended in a nursing home (If lucky)

 

 

I hope that I realistically itemized ‘To-do list’ for the standard life path which we are supposed to follow. Is this your ideal pathway for your life? Which stage are you on at the moment? We all have been consciously and also unconsciously educated to follow this normal life path from the very young age. This education programed our brain/mind to think that taking a different pathway would lead us to a wrong (dangerous) direction. However, I am finally apprehending and being curious about ‘THE NORMAL LIFE’ because I don’t wish to live my life like that at all. How about you? Is this how you really wish to live?

 

 

This standard pathway simply cannot work because it ignores the differences between human beings. This puts all different human beings into a same wok and mixes together to make identical and tasteless life. Some lucky ones can fit in the setup but most are being struggle to fit themselves into the social perception because we all are different. This life path can create unbearable stresses. Everyone complains about their stresses nowadays. Working 9 to 5, until 65 can exhaust us to keep our life healthy and happy. We work hard to spend more and spending more forces us to work longer and harder endlessly. The saddest fact is this life path will not guarantee a comfortable life in our old age any more. How often we are told stories about countless old people who have been working all their life but have not much money left that they have to rely on government pension or social security to survive. I refuse to take the ‘NORMAL’ path not because I am a special or exceptional, only
because I believe that there must be different ways to live and enjoy my life with pleasures and happiness.

 

 

 

Hereunder are 5 ways to escape the standard pathway which I am ready to action (and, I wish you to consider, too).

 

1.   Design our own map: We all are different. We all have different views and priorities our life. We cannot push our body into someone else’s clothes that are not fit and have to live in them all our life. We need to design our own life map that suits us the best. Find out how your life should (wish to) look like and what is the most important thing to yourself and your life. Many of us try to postpone or ignore our wishes in our life by excusing our busy life routines but we need to realize that living without
achieving our wishes can be emptiness. Knowing what we really want to do in our
life and designing our own map based on our wishes will be the first step to
escape from the rat-race (Normal life).

2.  Plan own pathway as earlier as possible: Don’t delay or postpone your plan. Especially, earing financial independence requires certain time and efforts. We need to convert our spending habits into saving habits, and living more to living less. Plan now how long you want to be at the workforce and find out how to achieve the goal. I refuse to be convinced we have to spend all our life at work. Who has set the rule and why all of us to follow? If you set your own plan earlier, you will get your dream life sooner.

3.   Be free from other’s perspectives: One of the things interested me in phycology was a study that shows most people follow other people’s answers even though the answers are not correct. When I casually started talking about ‘early retirement’, most of my colleagues and friends were laughing and agreed that they wished it, too. However, once I started talking about the early retirement seriously, people’s reactions have become bit different. Yes, I am weird. Quite often we take abnormality as ‘weirdness’ or even ‘disability’. Isn’t it strange that everyone seems to want to get out of the rat-race but they think about person who tries to do it is a weirdo? Remember that no one will live your life so no one is entitled to make a decision for you and your life. Make yourself free from other’s view. It will make you to live your own life freer.

4.   Live our dream: How many years do we really need to delay living our dream for living the standard life. To match social statues, to meet other’s expectations, to buy more material things, to support luxurious lifestyle and to keep people impressed, we keep packing away our dreams for later. Tomorrow never can be same as today. If you are not ready for living your dream at this point of your life, which is absolutely fine as long as you clearly know what you want in your life and you are working towards to the dream. Don’t let your dream go away while you are trying to fit yourself
into the ‘Normal’ category. I rather be abnormal if I can live my dream.

5.   Remember that there is no rehearsal in life: We all live once and we all know about the truth. However, majority of people don’t seem to care about this and don’t mind to waste our precious day and day. Today will never come back to us as it is so, I believe we need to make best out of it. Our time is too precious to let go by doing what we don’t like to do and living how we don’t wish to live. Imagining myself to live as a normal person who diligently follows the standard life path until 65 or over is frightening. I believe that we have to try to live our life with the least regrets as it will be already too late then.

 

I know what I have written is nothing special and many of you already know or think about this. Last Wednesday when I was having dinner with my sisters, I had a nice debate with my teenager niece. I knew she doesn’t like eating vegetables so I started lecturing her that she needs to eat more vegetables for various reasons. She answered back immediately and very aggressively (she is ‘The fourteen’) that as a smart girl, she knows how important to eat vegetables ‘BUT’, she doesn’t like eating, that’s all. This was my answer back to her.  “If someone doesn’t know what is right so, she or he doesn’t do the right thing, she or he is dumb. However, if someone knows what is right but she or he doesn’t do the right thing is dumber! Don’t you recon?” She didn’t say anything back and I only hope my message could get through to her (at least little bit).

Do you know how our life should be looking life? If you know, but you don’t do? That’s all I can talk now J.

 

 

 

 

Never too early to plan for your retirement

One of the best things we can do at work for ourselves is utilising services (especially educational seminars or workshops) provided from work as much as we can. Attending seminars can reduce our working hours as most of them are running at working time and also educate ourselves so it is like catching two birds by one stone. Am I right? So, I decided to attend two Superannuation seminars yesterday. Attending the seminars optimised value of my day by reducing 2 hours of working time (7 to 5) and educating myself to know more about superannuation. It was excellent idea to attend the seminars so I want to share with you what I have learnt from the seminars. Sharing info with others will help me to get 3 birds by one stone so it is even better, isn’t it? Let’s talk about what I have learnt.

 

The first seminar was named 'Generation Y - Super Smart' and second one was ‘Retirement Planning and Centrelink’. As a middle aged woman, I knew I couldn’t fit in any of them but I wanted put myself into both group’s shoes. As I expected I caught people’s attention from the both seminars. I was too old (?) to be called ‘Generation Y’ and too young (?) to seek retirement advice. However, it was a great opportunity to know about money and how it will impact on our life as a young person and also an old person. It was also very interesting to see people’s responses and common targets which are from totally different age groups.

 

‘Never too early to plan for your retirement’ : Main point that the instructor wanted to say in 'Generation Y - Super Smart' seminar was funny enough deeply connected to retirement. ‘Never too early to plan for your retirement’ was the main theme. Think about retirement when you are this young? Is it necessary?  If you question it, you will be late. The instructor who has been working in the banking industry for 25 years firmly emphasised how important to think about future when we are young. He exampled many of his clients who he had to deal with as a banker. He affirmed that astonishingly many number of his clients who were extremely well paid were having massive financial problems due to high maintaining costs for their luxurious lifestyle and lack of savings.  The seminar was for the Generation Y who need to realize that ‘NOW’ is the time to prepare what type of retirement they seek, and have a knowledge on the level of funding required to support this outcome. The instructor added that more than 60 % of retirees are experiencing financial hardship that forces them work longer or live on tough living conditions. Gen Y didn’t look really impressed or urged by the seminar as I couldn’t really think about old aged life when I was their age, but I couldn’t agree more. I hoped they realise that preparation for future is not that boring as soon as possible as it will become a real one day.

 

3 Tips from retirees surveyed : These 3 top tips from retirees are simple but very important as they are from retirees’ real life experiences. Please remember that some would be happy that they have saved enough money for their retiree life but most of them are regretting that they should have saved more money when they were young. These tips emphasise the importance of ‘saving habits’ from the early age.

 

1.      Start saving at an early age

2.      Start saving a small amount regularly

3.      Don’t spend what you don’t have

 

Implication of a funding shortfall in retirement will never be a glorious experience we wish to have so, start saving now.

 

Retire as early as you can : To tell you the truth, sitting in between the old people who are looking forwards to having ‘THE DAY’ or seeking for the best pension options made me feel bit sad. Some of them were already far over the official retirement age. ‘What the h… they are still working?’, ‘ How can they enjoy the freedom when they cannot even walk?’… Sorry, but I couldn’t stop questing myself. I truly wished they all have enough funding for their life dreamed all their working life. One lady in the seminar caught my attention the most was repeatedly asking questions about ‘Death benefits from superannuation insurance’. She said that she is having serious health issues at the moment and still working. Do you really want this as your case? I refuse to retire when I am too old to enjoy the freedom. What is the point? Make yourself free from the workforce as early as you can so you can enjoy the dreamed time plenteously. For that, you need to plan ‘NOW’.

 

I know it is not always exciting to talk about money, savings, future plans, retirement, financial plans, etc… because they are too much realistic. Any reason, we intend to avoid talking or even thinking about them but all I can assure you is they are ‘REAL’ and we all have to face them time to time in our life. If we prepare earlier, there will be less probability that financial hardship will invade our life and highly likely we can enjoy the freedom more. However, if we ignore or postpone dealing with reality, it will become a serious hassle in our life. So, it is all up to you. I have noticed that people listen what they want to listen so, my view can be valueless to someone but I really hope this boring talk can make you think and live bit differently.

 

What will be the next seminar I intend to attend? I don’t know yet but I am sure you will know soon. Bye for now.

 

 

 

Jin's Fifth picture in 2014

This is my fifth picture in 2014 and not with me any longer. It was done for one of my friends who loves painting and enjoys the pleasure from the colour. It is now hanging on the wall in her house next another picture of mine. She kindly texted me the day she took it to her house that her family really loves the picture and enjoys looking at it. I replied back the I put plenty of love and joy into the picture so it will brighten her place. What else could I expect more from painting pictures as it gives me irreplaceable pleasure and makes people happy. I am truly blessed to have my little talent.  

 

How to be rich (20 things what the rich do)

Is there anyone who wish not to be richer? I believe that most people hope to be financially better off and live comfortable life without money problems. Don’t you? Beginning of every year, all the newspapers keenly write down the list of richest people in the world to catch the ordinary people’s attention (like us) and we all check them out enviously. Yes, I am the one of them, too.

 

 

 

 

 

Whenever I see the list, I can’t stop questioning how on earth these people could become this rich and if there are any secrets that we don’t know to be richer. So, when I found this interesting article named ‘ 20 things what the rich do that the poor don’t do’ , my eyes were widely open to catch some clues I have been looking for.

 

The article was originally posted  by Dave Ramsey, an American financial author. The article outlines 20 differences between the habits of the rich and the poor so I believe it would be a great chance to exercise reviewing our habits and learning the habits of the rich in order to rich our life. As Sr. Richard Branson mentioned that the best way to create a successful business is copying an existing business and improve it, I think it would be excellent idea to learn the rich’s habits and take them into our life. Shall we start?

 

1.     70% of wealthy eat less than 300 junk food calories per day. 97% of poor people eat more than 300 junk food calories per day. 23% of wealthy gamble. 52% of poor people gamble.

2.      80% of wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor do this.

3.      76% of wealthy exercise aerobically four days a week. 23% of poor do this.

4.      63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5% of poor people.

5.     81% of wealthy maintain a to-do list vs. 19% of poor.

6.     63% of wealthy parents make their children read two or more non-fiction books a month vs. 3% of poor.

7.     70% of wealthy parents make their children volunteer 10 hours or more a month vs. 3% of poor.

8.     80% of wealthy make Happy Birthday calls vs. 11% of poor.

9.     67% of wealthy write down their goals vs. 17% of poor.

10.  88% of wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs. 2% of poor.

11.  6% of wealthy say what’s on their mind vs. 69% of poor.

12.  79% of wealthy network five hours or more each month vs. 16% of poor.

13.  67% of wealthy watch one hour or less of TV every day vs. 23% of poor.

14.  6% of wealthy watch reality TV vs. 78% of poor.

15.  44% of wealthy wake up three hours before work starts vs. 3% of poor.

16.  74% of wealthy teach good daily success habits to their children vs. 1% of poor.

17.  84% of wealthy believe good habits create opportunity luck vs. 4% of poor.

18.  76% of wealthy believe bad habits create detrimental luck vs. 9% of poor.

19.  86% of wealthy believe in lifelong educational self-improvement vs. 5% of poor.

20.  86% of wealthy love to read vs. 26% of poor.

 

What do you thing about the habits of the rich? How about the habits of the poor? This article reassure me that how important to have good habits and live on the strong foundation. I don’t mind to be richer than now but I don’t particularly dream to become an extremely rich person as I know too much wealth can bring many problems to handle as well. What I want to talk to you and learn from the 20 things the rich do every day is the rich's attitude to their life. It is admirable to live their best and try to improve themselves continuously. 

 

Now we know what are the habits of the rich so let's try to copy and use them to improve our life. To be rich? If we have good habits and live with them every day, I trust that our life will be richer and richer

6 reasons to enjoy life with less

I still remember myself walking on the street in very high heels (of course, expensive) and very posh clothes with world-known brand handbags which costed more than 60% of my entire monthly salary. I truly thought I looked so good that anyone around me had to notice my existence and appreciated what I was having on and how I looked like. I was exceptionally proud of my outfits and things I could show to others even though my bank account was permanently empty or minus as all the purchases were made by one of my countless credit cards. I was in debts constantly but I believed it is all life about. Having more things, buying more expensive stuff and showing them to others could make myself higher and better person. 

 

After university, I started having my own business instead of being employed. As my business was doing quite well, my income was far higher than most of my friends from university. Every weekend, I went out for exclusive meals and shopped around luxurious department stores. I was not scared to buy anything I wanted even though they were 2-3 times more than my monthly income. It seemed to be just fine as I could swap my credit cards and paid for all the stuff by monthly instalments for many, many months. When I didn’t have enough money to paid off one credit card payment, I made cash withdrawals from other credit cards (over 20% interests on). I thought all was just fine because I deserved them and life would be just like that. I was young and foolish.

 

One day afternoon on the way home from work, I suddenly realised that I didn’t want to live like that all my life. I was supposed to be happy with my life (with plenty of good stuff) but I couldn’t deny the emptiness in my life any longer. I wanted to experience something ‘new’ and ‘valuable’. All the things I had suddenly didn’t mean anything to me. They didn’t excite or please me anymore. I wanted to change things around me that make me truly happy.

 

When I decided to come to Australia, finally I realised that I didn’t have anything. All the things I constantly purchased to please myself were no longer valuable to bring over. All I could bring over was a 29 year old lady who had no place of her own and awfully poor bank account after the 8 years of hard working.

 

 

 

 

“You are so stingy like Scrooge!”

Here I am. After 13 years in Australia, my teenager niece calls me ‘Scrooge’ and I am not ashamed of it. I don’t buy things because I want to show off as it is not important to me anymore.  Of course, I still occasionally  make compulsive purchases but most of time, I buy things because I need them not because I want them. I have much less things but I enjoy my life far more than before. Finally, I have started learning true value of possessing and obtaining things. I feel much freer and happier to have less so, I would like to share 6 reasons why I enjoy my life more with less.

 

 

1.      Be honest with myself : I don’t need to show off to make myself happy any more. I used to concern a lot about other people’s opinions and perspectives more than my own. I did wear what others would think good looking than my own comfy. I bought things what others would think I should have than what I needed. I had to have things to be shown who I was supposed to look like to others. I didn’t know then It was not real me and I was never truly happy with who I was. Having less makes me honest with myself. I wear what I feel like. I value more healthy and fit body than glamorous clothes. I don’t have any problem to carry my $12 well faked Louise Vuitton hand bag from Manly market instead of paying a couple of thousand dollars for real LV (which I refuse to pay). I feel free to show who I am as I finally learnt what I have is not who I am.

 

2.      Having less, less problem : My most expensive suits were given to me as a present several years ago but I have worn them only handful of times. Whenever I wear them, I had to be extremely careful with  my clumsiness. I cannot sit anywhere I normally would sit, I cannot eat or drink as I always do. The suits need to be dry-cleaned each time and stored with extra care. Even though the suits look great, I found myself avoiding to wear them as it gives me too much hassle. I like buying and having things that can serve me not that I need to serve them. Why do you need to buy an expensive luxurious car which will push you to work harder to pay off and run when you can buy an affordable car which can serve you to enjoy driving? When you have less, you have got less to look after and your life will be much lighter.

 

3.      Time Vs. Money : My people around me don’t seem to mind working longer and harder to buy/own better or more expensive things.  It doesn’t work for me. Time is far more precious than money to me. I simply refuse to spend more time and energy at work to have things more. My time for myself cannot be replaceable by anything. Having a luxurious house with massive mortgage, an expensive car in finance, exclusive holidays on credit cards and purchasing unaffordable goods will put you into financial disaster and force you to work longer. I don’t have anything luxurious or outstanding but I don’t have any debts either. I can stop working to have more time whenever I wish because I have been living frugally and I wish to keep the lifestyle as long as I can. I am happy to have less so that I can enjoy more time for myself and my loved ones.   

 

4.      Cutting cost is by far the most powerful to increase wealth : As I am interested in early retirement, I have been interested in reading and learning about the early retired people’s stories. ‘Cost cutting’ is one of the most common advices from them. I have seen many people who are on very higher salaries but they actually have no savings or even having a financial crisis. I have learnt through my life  how to spend money is far more important than how to make money. My husband and I are not on extremely high salaries but we are financially very sound. We save more than 60% of our salaries at the moment. I try to buy only what we need to buy and not to waste money for unnecessary things. If we have to buy expensive stuff, we try hard to get the best value products. Cost cutting doesn’t seem to be powerful at the beginning but I promise that it will give you massive difference on your finance. When you have stable finance, your life flows much smoother and easier.      

 

5.      Financial freedom : Is there anyone refuse to have financial freedom? I guess not. Having less and living frugally will lead you to the goal faster. I don’t mind to be richer but I do mind spend all my life at work to be rich and cannot enjoy my life. For me, financial freedom means freedom of choice. I want to work when I want to and stop working when I wish not to work. I am happy that my husband and I have been working on getting the freedom and we can see that we are walking towards to the goal. When we obtain the financial freedom, our life choices/ opportunities will be broader. Imagine that you can have a year break from the workforce to fulfil your dream. Isn’t it fantastic? Having less can free us.

 

6.      Beauty of decluttering : My husband told me that I am a hoarder so regular decluttering is one of the essential remedies to clear my mind and also surroundings. Whenever I start reorganising my wardrobes, I cannot stop being shocked by the countless things inside. Most of things are unused and forgotten by me for a very long time so decluttering makes me to realise there is no need to buy extra things that can be also forgotten sooner or later. I highly recommend anyone to do decluttering before shopping. It will help you not to buy things because you think you need to buy when actually you don’t need to. Whenever I clear up the unnecessary things, I feel much lighter and freer than owing and buying things.

 

I was always starving to buy more things but they didn’t fix up my hunger. I needed more and more. When I have less, funny enough I can’t figure out what I would need as I feel that I have enough. Owning more and better things never can make you truly happy when you are not happy with who you are. I am still the same person but little change in my mind transformed my attitude towards to the real value of life. I feel happier than ever because I finally learnt how to enjoy my life without having more.