Keeping it Simple.....Financially!

I would love to say that I am an expert at this one, but I am not. This is one area where I seem to make the most mistakes and in hindsight, I have certainly made a lot of them. But, I keep trying and learning from what clearly didn't work, simplifying things which always seems to help, and informing myself of how to do it better. My heart wants and desires simplicity. In my view extreme wealth adds a layer of complication, a whole lifestyle change most likely, that I would not and do not desire. Being rich in life for me means a slower, joyful, conscious, carefree, peaceful life. The ability to enjoy every beautiful moment spent with my daughter and spending more time in nature. I do not want to have the chaos and hectic life that seems to come with oodles of money. It is not worth it and I think, maybe, this is where our value system is out of place in our world. Why do we honor working 90 hours a week forsaking what is important, like our physical and mental health, our family and friends, our children and loved ones, time spent nurturing ourselves, others, and nature? Living a “vacation” is my goal in Living Simply, not pursuing money. I want to enjoy this one life fully and see everything I can and partake of every moment because I know at the end I will not have wished I worked more. I will have wished I lived more!!I But, I fully understand there is balance here too! We need to create money in order to exist in this world but it must always be in balance with the other areas of our lives. So, I hope what is being presented is a more balanced approach to financial simplicity. It is an important area of our lives that needs tending....and simplifying!

1. Debt. My grandfather always said if you can't pay cash, you don't need it! I hear that a lot in my head when I even consider putting things on loan or credit cards and it keeps me straight. I pay cash always and the times I haven't (insert recent car purchase mistake and school loans I am still paying on) it cost me. I should never have chosen to trade-in a paid for car in exchange for a high interest loan car (la-duh!!) because as of March 2020 I now have a monthly car payment! Undoing that mistake will hopefully not be too painful but only time will tell. The lesson: K.I.S.S., buy only what you can afford, save and pay cash for what the things you want! Debt is stressful, usually just keeps adding up no matter how hard you try to pay it down, seems to benefit the loaning company only, and contributes to not being able to live simply. Financial debt is a significant problem in our country and it seems no one is talking about changing how we spend or how we live. Debt just doesn't make sense no matter how it is spun to entice so avoid it!!

Mortgage debt is controversial for some but not for me. It too does not make any sense! Why are young adults rushing out of parent's homes in order to buy their own place and going into significant debt? Why don't we encourage mutli-generational household living? Why are we not building Tiny Homes as opposed to McMansions? Why not rent? We have other more intelligent options than the current $150,000 house debt and we need to rethink our values and quick! Living simply allows for smaller more manageable homes with no debt. Tiny Homes and communal living offer great alternatives to every American going into massive debt. (And it saves on the removal of green space for more houses!). Personally, I did great on the mortgage issue by flipping a few homes and "flipping up" to finally settling on a modest manufactured home in a nice community, debt free! So although I have a car payment (yuck again!) I do not have any mortgage (yeah, me!)

Credit cards are a nightmare and stressful and only benefit the cc company. This is easy, just say NO! If you have them, pay them off fast. There are many wise people (see, Suze Orman books) who have plans and ways for you to get out from underneath those monsters and I highly recommend it. Life will be and feel.....ahhhhhh. Those who loose sleep over it know!

2. School Loans. This is a hot debate, but simple for me. I know we tell ourselves that a college degree is important, critical even, and we go so far as to educate our children towards getting into a good college (rather than teaching them to be intelligent, contributing, problem-solving, self-sufficient humans, but I digress). I think the more we accept that not everyone is cut out for college, not every career needs it, and those that don't are still valuable in society, we can stop being in debt here too! I am so proud of myself for going to college later and graduating Summa Cum Laude, but it hasn't paid anything towards the massive debt incurred. Was it worth it to me personally? NO! An associates degree in a field I desired say Yoga Teacher or Massage Therapist would have been more beneficial to my career path. The crazy part is if you take No. 1 above and No. 2 here, add them together, you have a significant number of people out there graduating college with essentially a house debt! Add some credit card debt, a car loan, and then buy a house and you have a whole lot of stressed, overworked, financially dependent, humans that continue on that rat wheel in an effort to get ahead of it all! Crazy! We are in debt and it is very unhealthy. Again, simple lesson, pay cash, work your way thru it, slow down and take time, know what you want and tailor your education towards it.

3. Save, Not Shop. This is again pretty simple. Pay yourself first and save, save, save. There are times when I have read or heard it is "okay" to dip into your savings but I disagree. I fall back onto the idea of if you can't pay cash for it, you don't need it.....and that savings isn't cash to spend. I pretend it isn't there because I did dip into it to buy a flip house once and I regret it. Savings is important and I dare say that we are learning that in 2020! I usually have 1 years living expenses saved, but do not in 2020, when it would be a very freeing thing to have, just in case this crisis continues or worsens. Stuff is never worth it. Peace of mind is. When you are in that shopping mood just stop and think and ask yourself if all the stuff you have bought prior is it worth it? Is it a need or want? (At my age I do this a LOT and can look back on many years of stuff that was not worth it! Having that cash would be nice though!) Remember the 5 R's. (See my post, The 5 R's of Living Green and Sustainable) My trick is to wait and if I am still pondering the item 1 or 2 months later that I reconsider purchasing. Usually I forget whatever it was and don't think twice enjoying the less is more theory!

4. Investing. Again, simple, you know you need to do it so just do it! I wish I had done it when my family said to oh so many years ago....what a beautiful portfolio I would have now and a very different perspective on the future. I know a lot of people who don't for various reasons, either they don't have a lot to invest (some places don't work with you on smaller amounts) or because there are fees involved or simply because it is a scary unknown area of expertise. I am in that boat. I don't invest in stocks yet because I know nothing about how to do it properly and really don't want to pay someone else a substantial fee to do it for me. It seems counter-intuitive to pay someone to invest my money that I am trying to make money on! Instead, right now I purchase CD's with a lower interest rate thru my bank with no fees attached. Investing for retirement or building a portfolio will be a learned skill that I just haven' tackled. But again, investing is a simple solution for financial stability and independence so in some way you need to do it!

I hope that some common Simple Living ideas applied to finances will help others make wise choices and perhaps begin a new path to living simply!