I had a chat with a friend of mine back in Dallas today. We caught up on each others' lives and our plans for the future. My mention of the financial benchmarks I had set for myself seemed very ambitious to him. We proceeded to talk about how expenses change as we get older. He suggested that I'll spend much more as I grow older; I countered that they most likely will stay the same, and may possibly lower.
I must warn you that I am in a position very conducive to saving. In the past few years, I've given up television, sold all of my vehicles, and have cancelled/closed most of my subscription services. Starting this May, the only bills I will see will come from my cell phone provider (a 2 year contract which will end before I leave California) and credit cards (which are used for most of my transactions and paid off in their entirety every month). I possess very few things, which makes upkeep minimal and insurance obsolete. And my rent, utilities, and healthcare are covered through my work.
I believe that at the rate I am going, in coordination with the steps I'm taking, I'll be able to lessen my expenses even more so in the future. How, you ask? By working on attaining productive skills while being conscious of the way I spend my time and money daily.
Cooking and learning about nutrition has helped me become more cost effective when obtaining food. Basic maintenance and handyman skills help keep me from hiring someone to take care of minor repairs. Studying about health and working on physical fitness have allowed me to be more proactive about my health as well as rely less on doctors for minor issues.
As I learn more and apply minor changes from these teachings to my life, I'll be getting more and more efficient. These techniques and skills will become second nature and take less time, giving me more freedom to focus on things besides my basic needs.
The key is that these things are easy to understand and implement. We have to be conscious of the things we do on a day-to-day basis, change the things that we don't find benefits in, and adapt to those new changes. The problem is that for most of us, it's an all or nothing endeavor, when it doesn't have to be.
If you want to be healthy, then you have to do the things that better your health daily. If you want to be multilingual, then you have to put in the time and effort to study, learn, and use on a continuous basis. If you want to be wealthy, then you have to take the steps that will increase your cash flow and/or reduce your expenses every opportunity you get. It really is in the small things that we do every day that determine who we are.
But if you're always sitting around wishing that your life were different, things will never change.
