Throughout most of my 20’s, I was a massive cheapskate. I would do (almost) anything to save a buck. It was almost like a game to me, and I was committed to always finding ways to decrease expenses.
Even if that meant a lesser product or quality of life for myself. There’s a quote by personal finance guru Clark Howard that pretty much described my thinking: “I will always take a lower quality product for a much lower price.”
I would take this approach toward life and money even though I had money in my savings account and had my living expenses down to a pretty modest number.
This cheapness led to some pretty questionable decisions. One, for instance, was driving a beater Honda Accord with AC that didn’t work in Las Vegas summers. Yeah, it wasn’t pretty.
Luckily, I realized the error of my ways. I realized that I could only cut my expenses so much. At some point (and I had reached it), lowering your expenses diminishes your quality of life far in excess of the money that you’ve saved.
But at the same time, I still wanted to have some extra money on a monthly basis. And a very wise friend pointed out what should have been obvious long ago: I needed to shift my focus from decreasing expenses to increasing income.
So many of us tend to focus on the expenses and just accept that our income is sketched in stone. But that’s not the case.
How exactly do you increase your income? That’s a great question, and one we’re going to answer later this month. Be sure to come to back to the blog so you don’t miss it.
In the meantime, remember this: You can only decrease expenses so much. Once they’re at a reasonable level, shift your focus to increasing your income. Your quality of life will thank you for it.
If you’d like to talk more about decreasing your expenses or increasing your income, I’d be happy to chat with you. You can email me at scott@dev-forthrightfinances.pantheonsite.io, call me at 424-258-4460, or contact me here.