Best Financial Advice Ever

Hello people of the internets.

I think perhaps if I write shorter entries, I might hop on this medium more often?  Perhaps.  I've been working a great deal lately in all of my five jobs.  It's enjoyable to work but it also means I've been outdoors less often, getting less activity, and reading in my own personal interests less as well.  So this morning I slept in until (gasp) a very late 6:11am and enjoyed the guilty pleasure of reading with a cup of coffee (aka covfefe) while my laundry was cleaned by magical machines.

With the swirl of watching the stock market self correct and knowing that I will have slighter higher pay in the Army due to my recent promotion, I decided to dedicate a few minutes to looking at my overall financial future.  I probably do this about every 6-months just to make sure I'm conscious of where my money is going.  At times it feels a bit self-aggrandizing but the last time I took a big look at my finances I sold a bunch of stuff I didn't need and cut several of my bills in half.  Cutting expenses when it does not dramatically affect your quality of life is like getting a pay raise.  In my reading this morning I came across an excellent, one sentence quote that I felt all peoples should consider regarding how they spend their money.


Why would you inflate your lifestyle, when you haven’t even bought your freedom yet?

Easy $$$ come, easy $$$ go.
It's a nice car but what else could I do with my money?

Over the past several years I have learned to want less.  My former brain would have considered it somewhat of a sacrifice to let so many purchases go, but after rewiring my brain this is no longer the case.  Today I'm just as likely to see spending money as sacrificing my freedom.  Not that I don't spend money.  Not that I never waste money.  I'm just better at remembering what my freedom costs and I can compare the cost of the thing with the cost of my freedom.  So instead of sacrificing, I make better decisions about what my hard work will amount to today and in the future.

I'm pretty boring when it comes to how I view financial decisions because I keep it super basic.  I am not an analyst or expert of any kind and I don't plan on getting rich quickly.  I'm more like the unspoken financial warrior who wants to save a small pay raise towards my freedom and keep my living expenses as low as possible.  It's pretty unexciting!  That said, as the stock market corrects, it's time to buy a little more freedom.  At my age I welcome the dips.

I hope the simple quote about lifestyle inflation speaks to you in some way.  Where can you trim the fat and still have just as much happiness and joy (conceivably more) in your life?  We certainly hope we live to enjoy retirement, but even if we don't, this sort of thinking can almost always give us more freedom today.  I hope you can give yourself a pay raise soon, best of luck!

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