Don’t Be Fooled. Being Cheap Doesn’t Work Anymore.
By: Kevin Alexander
Tags: Self Improvement, Life, Budget, Money Management, Finance

Personal Finance

Don’t Be Fooled. Being Cheap Doesn’t Work Anymore.

Photo by Nad Hemnani on Unsplash

Are you sick of the, “stop buying lattes, if you want to be rich” articles?

Yeah, me too.

Tired of, well, tired articles rehashing that same theme over and over?

Same here.

The idea of restraint might’ve been well-intentioned, but it’s morphed into a nonstop scolding. It’s obnoxious.

No one wants to be shamed for their spending. I sure don’t.

Moreover it doesn’t work. Sure, it’s viable at first, but denying yourself something repeatedly just makes you resent having to do it, and leads you to doing the opposite.

If someone told you you couldn’t go out for coffee ever again, you’d go buy a cup just to spite them (maybe that’s just me).

There’s a better way to be intentional with your money, help it grow, and live an enjoyable life.

It’s easy.

Ready?

Spend freely on what matters to you, and ruthlessly cut everywhere else.

That’s the short, tweetable answer.

Here’s how you get there:

Identify what matters to you.

Think of 2–3 areas of your life that give you the most joy. I mean things that really get you excited. Those are good place to start.

After you find your what, know your why.

In my family’s case, our passions are soccer, and travel. We value experiences over things. I don’t need a new car; it’s just not that important to me. But making sure my sons can play and pursue their passions IS a big deal. In my case, I’m only concerned about having a car that’s reliable. I don’t need the newest, flashiest model. Not having more car than I need (mine’s been paid off for years,) means I can invest more in their passions.

My family also lives for traveling, and have been blessed to see parts of the world many others haven’t. That wouldn’t be possible if I had been mindlessly spending on other things that don’t matter as much to us.

For you, that may mean having the newest tech, or trying new restaurants. And that’s the beauty in this; rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, you choose what matters, you choose where to allocate your resources, and you get a result that means more joy in your life.

Track your spending

If you want to direct your money towards what you love, you have to first know where it’s going. In a recent survey, roughly 65% percent of Americans didn’t know where they spent their money last month.

If you want to succeed, don’t be one of those people.

There are a lot of free programs to use. I personally use Personal Capital (NOTE: This is NOT an affiliate link- I’ve just been really impressed with their set up).

I’ve tried a few, and it’s the one I like best.

It’s easy to set up- if I can do it, anyone can!

Integrates all of your accounts into one dashboard

It’s free. (There is a paid version if you want more in-depth financial advice)

Adding in all your accounts is easy, and you can add/remove/customize spending categories as you see fit.

They’ve also recently made it possible to split one receipt multiple ways. For example, if you want to split items from a recent grocery trip, store into “household,” “food,” etc.

Do this for a month-remember it’s doing the work for you automatically-and you will be amazed at what sort of trends emerge. You will be able to quickly identify areas you can cut, optimize your spending and habits, and invest in what truly matters.

Once that’s done, you should have a clear map showing you how to:

Cover expenses

Pay down debt

Focus on living a life you don’t need a vacation from…

…unless going on vacation is your thing.