Money

Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay

This is part of my series on Decluttering Mental Models.

Society measures wealth by the size of your house, your bank account, and your investment portfolio. They’ll also include the glamorous cars your drive and the exotic vacations you take. This is a terrible way to measure wealth!

The right way to measure wealth is something I learned from “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” And it’s this: Wealth is measured by the number of weeks you can go without a paycheck while maintaining your current standard of living.

Wealth is actually about not needing a paycheck. People who can go six months without working are far wealthier than people who can only go six weeks. And those who never have to work at all are the wealthiest of all.

Now, society says that we accrue wealth by earning more money. And I agree with this, to a point. But our expenses tend to keep pace with our incomes. We make more money but pay more taxes, buy more expensive homes, drive more expensive cars, take expensive vacations, spend more on food and entertainment, etc. And of all of our stuff costs more to maintain and insure.

This is why many high-paid professionals, like doctors, still live paycheck to paycheck. They don’t have enough money to sustain their lavish lifestyle for more than a few weeks.

The secret to building wealth is to keep your expenses low as you gradually grow your income. Over time, you’ll spend less time working for a paycheck and more time doing what fulfills you and relaxes you. Until you reach that blessed day when you don’t need a paycheck at all.

This is true wealth. The fancy cars and the McMansions and the country club memberships are all just manacles that keep us working when we should be playing, socializing, and relaxing. Cut ties with petty luxuries that only exist to impress people you don’t even like. Throw off the shackles of extravagant living and be free to spend your time how you wish.

More Decluttering Mental Models:

Top 10 Favorites

  1. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  2. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  3. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you earn $15/hour)
  4. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff
  5. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  6. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  7. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  8. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  9. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  10. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo

Get started

  1. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  2. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  3. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  4. Hold each item and ask, “Does this spark joy?”
  5. When the “Does this Spark Joy?” fails you, ask these 6 questions
  6. Create your “Discard by Feb. 2022” box
  7. Decluttering yearbooks? Ask these 8 questions first

Shopping

  1. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  2. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff - version 1 and version 2
  3. How a grocery shopping list saves me time, money, and pounds

Manage your clothes

  1. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you can earn $15/hour)
  2. Dear Dude with too many T-shirts: no one wants to buy them—just recycle/trash them
  3. Don't be like my friend Giorgio with his 400 Hawaiian shirts
  4. None of my clothes "spark joy"—so what do i get rid of?

Happiness & satisfaction

  1. Limit pleasurable things so they don’t lose their novelty
  2. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  3. Craving never stops and my potato chip addiction
  4. Reminder: happiness levels stay consistent

Get motivated

  1. Want to boost your motivation to declutter? Immerse yourself in decluttering videos, podcasts, & books!
  2. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  3. Imagine your ideal home… Imagine all the clutter is gone…
  4. Feeling unmotivated? Declutter with a 5-minute time box

Manage your money

  1. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  2. Save money by controlling aspirational identities
  3. I wasted so much money starting projects (and how I fixed it)

Manage consumption spirals

  1. How consumption spirals work
  2. Buying a house led to an enormous consumption spiral
  3. How craving completeness drives my consumption

Shift your Paradigm

  1. Change your environment, change your consumption
  2. 3 thought experiments to adopt a decluttering mindset
  3. Your home is not a storage unit for other people's crap!
  4. Before you buy stuff, do this little mental exercise
  5. Less space, less stuff
  6. That’s right, you and I pay for the privilege of seeing viagra ads
  7. Your home is an expensive container for your stuff. What’s your cost per sqft?

Manage your emotions

  1. Can you tolerate boredom?
  2. Fill the void with a long term goal

Control the Clutter

  1. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo