Living a life with just the things you need…living minimally. One area to consider when pursuing financial independence or if you’re just trying to get a hold of your financial stability is to try to live minimally. Living minimally doesn’t mean you have to live like a monk. Living minimally is being aware of your needs and wants. How to live minimally depends on you and what your definition of minimal is.

Now that I’m older and a little wiser than yesterday, the things that mattered to me years ago don’t matter to me anymore. Some of those things are electronics, cars, computers, gadgets, clothes, shoes, etc. These things don’t matter to me as much as they used to do. I’ve seen myself spend thousands of dollars on these things just to see them become obsolete, out of style, or not valuable anymore. So I choose to live minimally and not care for these things.

Stop Accumulating

When you don’t live minimally, you start to realize that you just keep accumulating more and more things. I saw myself buying things that I didn’t need and eventually my home became a storage room for all the things I accumulated. It was tough for me to do any spring cleaning because I had a tough time parting ways with my stuff. One thing that will help is to stop accumulating stuff.

Declutter

Get rid of, sell, donate, or give away the things you don’t need or want. I know it may be hard to part ways things you’ve had and have history with but the less you have to live with, you realize just how minimally you can live. I’ve gotten rid of old computers, old gadgets, old games, and so on. I kept them for this long because in the back of my mind I keep saying to myself, one day I’m going to need it and that’s why I’m keeping it. I used Decluttr to get some money for my clutter.

Balance

Find the balance between what you need and what you want. Like I said, you don’t need to live like a monk. Do you need to have multiple computers? Do you need to buy clothes that look the same? Do you need another pair of shoes? Sometimes the answer will be yes so just make sure to balance that out. I’ve been eyeing electric vehicles (EV) and there are some cool looking models coming out. Do I need one? Is my car dying? No it’s not but it’s the next trend.

Like Minded

Surround yourself with like minded people as yourself. If you hang around with folks who are interested in lavish things, you will be tempted to follow that same lifestyle. By hanging out with people who live minimally, you will be influenced by them to also live minimally.

Living minimally sounds hard. It may sound unappealing. It may sound unrealistic. It may sound unattractive. One day you will get to a point where you’re going to question what really matters to you. I’m looking to find ways to help with my goal to financial independence. I believe living minimally will help with my journey to financial independence. If you are interested in following my journey, email subscribe to get alerts of latest posts or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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