… Or The Best Way To Decrease Your Consumer Spending
There’s an easy way to stop spending money. I’m going to tell you what that is in this article.
Don’t worry… I’m not going to tell you that you have to becoming a minimalist nomad who can fit everything in the boot of their car. (Oh wait… you don’t have a car because that’s not minimalist! Better put all your stuff in a suitcase.)
I joke, but decreasing spending isn’t about cutting out what you spend your money on. It’s about flipping the script in your brain.
Genesis of the Idea
I was out shopping yesterday. I don’t usually going on shopping binges, but I needed new things. It’s been a while.
I ended up buying lunch, and that was it.
The major reason is that when I was wondering around, nothing was exactly what I wanted. I looked at clothes and thought I could design better ones. I went to look at various tech gadgets and there were none that did exactly what I wanted.
I’m not a design guru or genius. This isn’t some weird “Dear Diary” entry about how frugal I am.
The reason I didn’t buy anything except a cheeseburger is that I’ve fundamentally rewired my brain to look for business opportunities.
Do You Want To Decrease Your Spending?
A lot of young guys fall into weird patterns about saving money and living frugally. They’ll read blogs about living a minimalist lifestyle and think that they should only eat the same boring foods every day and not own anything they can’t fit in a rucksack or whatever.
If you’re really passionate about living a minimalist lifestyle then that is great. If you’re like me and you like stuff, then that’s ok too. I’m going to give you the major secret to decreasing your costs whilst not giving up anything in particular. (If you are a minimalist, this trick will still work.)
It’s a really simple trick as well.
The Best Way To Decrease Your Spending
The best way to decrease your spending, either wanted or unwanted, is to start producing more.
If you spend all your money on hobbies like video games or going to the movies or whatever it is people do nowadays, then you’ve probably read a hundred articles on quitting those things or cutting down on the amount you spend by some life hack.
The problem with this approach is that it’s habit building by reduction. You’re trying to cut out something, thus leaving a void, and in turn making it easier to refill that void with the old habit after a bad day. (Or, slip into an equally bad habit.)
In contrast, if you start building something (and it can be anything) you’re creating a new habit. This is more efficient because you’re adding something to your life, and it will displace your old habit without conflict.
If you spend all your time playing video games but then start painting, you’ll spend less time playing video games without even thinking about the time you’ve reallocated.
The same is true of money.
Money Making Opportunities Are Everywhere
I wrote months ago about how once you get into the habit of looking for gaps in the market, you’ll find more than you could ever use.
Once you learn about online business, selling and the like, you’ll automatically start seeing opportunities everywhere. If you can learn about logistics as well, you’ll quickly realise that there’s not a lot stopping you from filling those gaps in the market.
Let me tell you; it’s hard to spend money when you’re building something. I build websites. I try out little business ideas. I’ll hop on over to Alibaba to see if I could start dropshipping practically every item I consider buying. (More on that another time.)
I simply don’t have the time to spend money.
Added to that, when you get into the habit of building things, you’ll get used to having things the way you want them.
You might not think that writing a blog or creating a book will turn you into an aesthete, but it will. The satisfaction you get from having completed a project and having it look exactly how you want it spills over into everything else you do.
Equally, you wouldn’t think that trying to create a physical product or a dropship store would increase your attention to detail or tastes in certain things, but provided you are the target market for your products, it absolutely will.
Final Thoughts
In summary, if you want to cut your cost of living, increase your stylistic tastes and improve your life, the best thing you can do is switch from a consumer mindset to a producer mindset.
Instead of thinking, “What can I buy to improve my life?” Think, “How can I start building the things that’ll solve my issues?”
This simple switch in perception will lead you to a lot more opportunities than you’ll get by buying stuff, and it’ll give you more business ideas than you know what to do with.
You’ll also run out of the time or inclination to spend your money on stuff you don’t really need.