Frugality as a means to achieve wealth is good, but frugality which becomes the goal itself is joyless.
I recently read an article by Robert Kawasaki about “The price of being cheap”. It was an interesting article because it talked about how many self-help books will tell you the path to wealth is to change your thinking about saving and spending. Many books encourage you to be thrifty, but others encourage you to be Cheap; as in to buy the cheapest things, drive the cheapest car, buy the cheapest clothes and overall strive to buy only cheap things. This is the path laid out by some books as the way to become debt free.
While Mr K acknowledges the value of the philosophy to live below your means and save large portions of your earnings. However he drew a line at being cheap. He felt that being wealthy didn’t mean you had to be cheap. He felt that if you were always thinking like a cheap person you remain a cheap person even when your rich. He felt this cheap mentality deprived you of the enjoyment of your wealth and also deprived your loved ones of the fruits of your labor and investments. The joy of a prosperous and abundant life.
He gave an example of a person who lived a cheap, penny pinching life and died leaving his children an estate of eleven million dollars, which his children fought over like starving dogs. I think the father intended to live a prosperous life, but got stuck somewhere along the way and never shifted gears from save to enjoy. I think the point Mr K was emphasizing how undesirable dying a cheap rich person is and all the self deprivation which goes with it. But to me the operative word was balance. We balance our desire to save and invest money against our desire to enjoy our money and the freedom it can bring. Saving is not the goal, but wealth and more importantly the freedom it can bring us from the daily grind of trading “time” the currency of “life” for money.
Money is not an irreplaceable commodity, but time is irreplaceable. Once spent it’s gone forever.
Title: Frugality as a means to achieve wealth is good, but frugality which becomes the goal itself is joyless.
I think rather than being cheap, there can be a scake of preference, where every need is attended to according to their order of importance. This doesn't mean going for cheap things. You can still get qaulity things but not all at a time, each need is attended to based on necessity.
No matter how much we make, we still want to have more. So it is best to spend less than we earn and also attend to our needs according to priority.
Again, let's enjoy while we live!
thanks for the motivation.
I agree. I think your thinking is good. We need priorities. Additionally, quality goods sometimes last longer and work better. But most important is joy and happiness, while we live. I agree.
Thanks for understanding.. STEEM ON!
Great info, thanks for the info.
Thank you and your welcome.
I tend to be cheapskate too because I want to use the money to invest on something that would give me back more. Sometimes I splurge on something that need to be durable and timeless such as good quality shoes that I would frequently wear or gadget where I can make money with it. Balance is the key as you stated. I wanted to enjoy my work/investment while I still alive also be cautious to save some for future as we don't know when is our death date. Nica sharing. Thank you 😊
Thank you for your comment. I think you hit the nail on the head; balance, and careful enjoyment.!