Money

Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay

This is part of my series on Decluttering Mental Models.

In a previous post, I explained how you should measure wealth by estimating the number of weeks you can go without a paycheck. And increasing this number is an excellent long-term goal.

But today, I want to take this idea and put a different spin on it: You should measure wealth by how much free time you have each week. And your goal is to increase your free time, which might be spent on leisure, socializing, and fulfilling activities.

Now there are 168 hours in a week. At first glance, you might think that there’s loads of free time. But there’s not. Sleep probably consumes 56 hours. And a host of smaller tasks gobble your time, like getting yourself ready each day, food preparation, home maintenance, childcare, exercise, cleaning, and laundry.

And then there’s your day job. If you work 60 hours a week, there’s no time—or energy!—left for hobbies. There’s little time left for leisure. In contrast, the person who only works 35 hours will have 25 hours for socializing and leisure. They are far wealthier than someone working 60 hours. And the person who doesn’t have to work at all is the wealthiest of all.

Personally, I’ve created a positive work-life balance so that I have some free time each day. I’m also paying off debts, including my house, so that I have fewer expenses in the future. With fewer expenses, I can work fewer hours. At the same time, I’m redirecting money away from frivolous expenses and into solid investments. With more money in investments, I can stop working for a paycheck sooner.

And that’s the goal: I want to be free to live without a paycheck. I want to spend my waking hours with people I care about, working toward personal goals, and occasionally binging Netflix series.

I want to be free to spend my time as I wish. That’s my goal. And it should be yours, too.

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