For one reason or another today I saw this quick video that talked about what you must do in life to save money. While watching it there were the usual points such as tracking your budget and finding discounts. However, the list just kept going on to the point where it felt like if the question was how do you walk you are then bombarded by all these instructions on how first you need to wear socks, shoes, calculate the gravity and wind turbulence, etc.
To be fair, maybe they were trying to aim more for a “Ways to save money” approach. I then started to read some articles on the same topic and sure enough it seemed to follow the same theme. I was thinking too, is one of the reasons that we over complicate it so much is because the simple answer sounds too simple? For example, I would think the the biggest answer on how to save money is to simply not spend it. I’m sure that answer would usually generate a “but” response.
I still think the most important thing about saving money is your mindset first and foremost. For example, I’m pretty sure people would say things like “You have to spend money, otherwise you can’t eat.” Like in that case though, you could still say the main way to save money is to find ways to not spend it. Example, find a way to say grow your own food. The key point out of that is so that you develop the mentality that you are essentially spending money for the convenience in having someone else do it for you as opposed to it being something you have no choice over.
Another more straight forward tip that a lot of people use which makes perfect sense is that if you want to save money then stop buying stuff that you don’t really need. Similar in that case, is the concept of simply not spending too simple to accept? That would make more sense to me if you are truly in a position of wanting to save money. For example, instead of only trying to find ways to reduce the cost of that $200 pair of sunglasses that you can’t really afford maybe it’s wiser to not buy it all. It all starts with how you perceive money I think. If you can’t get past the notion of saying there is no way you can do anything with no money then that is a good first step to work on.