At school, teachers have never taught us the value of money, the ability to administer, the meaning of saving. They were more attentive to teaching us linguistics, phonetics or the history of art. At home, on the other hand, we were taught the meaning of saving our money to ensure a peaceful future, but talking about money openly was always taboo.
Why?
I believe that money and minimalism travel on the same wavelength and at the same speed.
Let’s analyse ourselves! We all spend our days more or less the same way: we wake up in the morning, we go to work, we wait for the end of the month to receive the salary and then we spend it on things which we do not need. We say to ourselves “I deserve it” just because we went to work. We behave in this way above all to show off our standard of living with others.
It is as if we wanted to show ourselves for our material value. It does not arise from our interiority and is not real and lasting but transitory.
Social media does not help! Facebook, Instagram – just to mention the ones I use the most – open the doors of celebrities’ homes in which there is a display of huge spaces and luxurious objects. The constant exposure to social media pushes us to emulate the glossy lifestyle we see online and to buy, spend, consume.
But let’s be honest, how many of us can afford this lifestyle? This trend has been defined FOMO – fear of missing out-.
Missing out from what? From a system, we inherited without having asked for it. Consumption, waste does not belong to us! We can eliminate the dynamics generated with consumerism and choose another lifestyle.
The truth is that if we really want to, we too can have those spacious, elegant houses, but nobody tells us how to do it, how to manage our money, how to manage our assets and make them profitable by investing and realise our dreams. These skills seem almost destined for a few.
I believe that money has no value. It is what we do with that money that has value.
Here are some questions for you: “Who do you want to be?” “Who do you want to be in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years”? “What do you want to do?” “What are your goals?” “Do you want to be a millionaire and buy a house for your family?” “Do you want to take that psychology course that you always had to postpone because it was too expensive?” “Do you want to travel around the world for a year?” Neither of the options presented is better than another. Whatever your answer is, it is the right one for you. They are the goals you must take care of, respect them and honour.
To be able to have savings you need to understand the value of two things:
1) The value of money
2) The value of the things we own and that surround us
It is precisely here that minimalism and savings meet while travelling on the same wavelength. I propose to you some rules derived directly from my personal experience, when I arrived in London at the age of 25, without a budget and rent and bills to pay. I am talking about a gift because I want to share what I have learned, hoping it will really help you and bring you benefits.
1) Have a goal
Buying a house, going to college, travelling around the world. Everyone has their own goal, it is essential.
Whenever you have to spend even small amounts on unnecessary things, having a specific goal in mind helps avoid making impulsive purchases that are not really needed.
Having a goal will lead you to do even what you didn’t think possible.
I had two goals. The first was to travel to the United States for a month, it was achieved. The second is what I’m doing right now, my YouTube channel and this Blog. There is a long way to go but I am happy to have undertaken it.
2) Spend less than what you earn
It may seem strange; many people spend their entire salary. I recommend setting aside a percentage of your salary and every month put it into a separate bank account that you don’t use daily. Whatever happens that money can’t be touched, you have to behave as if it doesn’t exist.
3) Administer your money
Using Excel or even simply noting your accounts in a diary, you can keep track of your expenses, understand where you spend more, where you can save. Taking note of the large and the small ones to have the complete picture of your accounting will give you the possibility to intervene on what can be eliminated or reduced.
4) Make sacrifices
Nothing is achieved without sacrifices. If you have a clear goal in mind, those sacrifices won’t cost that much. So here is the connection between minimalism and savings. The two things are connected. Perhaps you will undertake a minimalist path without even realizing it, simply because you have goals to achieve and consequently more awareness of what surrounds you.
So, here’s my equation: minimalism = awareness = savings
I sincerely hope that greater openness on the topic of money will be achieved and that this topic will be discussed calmly and genuinely without embarrassment. It is all about circulating information that will help each of us build something. We all want to surround ourselves with happy and satisfied people who achieved success even economically. We will have to learn to share ideas and solutions to circulate information and help others.
I sometimes like to compare money to the menstrual period in 1930! Those days, no woman talked openly about the discomfort caused by menstrual pain. The topic was not the subject of discussion it was considered taboo. When society started talking about it, women felt at ease and began dealing with problems, solving them. Whenever we will talk about money directly and simply, many problems will be solved exactly as happened with the menstrual syndrome in the 1930s.
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