Spending Habits: Why Less Is Better

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WHAT I'M READING: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
By Greg McKeown

Essentialism is about spending your time and energy on the few things that really matter—a narrow but deep focus. “It’s about doing less, but better….”

This principle applies equally to how we spend our money.  What if you didn’t just spend less, but better? Frugality for the sake of frugality isn’t very helpful. Your habits will lack motivation when not connected to a greater purpose. Why do you want to spend less? How can you spend better while spending less?

Here’s an interesting thought from the book on having a single priority:

The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years. Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could bend reality. Somehow we would now be able to have multiple “first” things…. This gave the impression of many things being the priority but actually meant nothing was.
 

A HELPFUL ARTICLE: “5 Best Practices for an Organized Financial Life”
By Christine Benz, Morningstar

While taxes and financial documents are top of mind, do yourself a favor and take the time to better organize your financial life. This article lays out five great strategies for doing so.