This piece is part of my 2016–2026 archive migration. Some original formatting, content, and external links may be missing, changed, or not be optimized.
Never sacrifice your bank account for more sh*t
I recently asked someone how they could buy all of the stuff in their home. I mean, they literally had it all. Boxes and containers of everything you could ask for. In fact, you could skip the trip to the store or online visit to the Amazon app and go straight to their home to find what you’re looking for.
Though all their offerings wowed me, I’m a minimalist, so I opted out of bringing anything with me from their overstuffed home.
We don’t end up with a bunch of stuff; we buy a lot of stuff. Even our most thoughtful purchases can end up not being so thoughtful. Just when I thought I didn’t have a lot of stuff, I could still give bags of stuff away.
I consistently go through my stuff until I have the barest of bones in belonging.
Less is more.
We Buy The Stuff In Our Homes
Some people collect stuff from gifts, winnings, and giveaways, but we buy much of the stuff in our homes.
Someone had a problem shopping at the discount store, and I humorously told them to stay the f*ck away from that store.
“You don’t need it.”
We rarely need the stuff we buy that isn’t planned.
For the stuff we plan to buy, we need to take these purchases through a vigorous interrogation to understand how they contribute or detract from our financial goals.
What Is Frugality?
Do you use everything in your home?
Frugality is not about being cheap. It’s about maximizing the utilization of everything you own.
You are not frugal if you have stuff in your home, untouched, unused, new with tags, etc. You are wasting your dollars.
Never Have More Stuff Than Dollars
Here’s my motto: never allow materialism to overtake your life to the point where it negatively affects your dollars.
Always have more money in the bank than you have in stuff you own.
The problem with owning things is that they frequently depreciate and don’t work on your behalf to build wealth.
Dollars sitting in an investment account will leverage compound interest to grow your wealth.
The constant purchases of new shoes, clothes, gadgets, technology, books, collector items, and random stuff you buy or have bought will likely not help you financially.
Less is more. When you focus more on investing and living below your means, you become a more thoughtful person and prudent steward of your money.
The longer you practice intentionalism, the easier it becomes for your money to grow and the harder it becomes for you to buy into the consumer addiction.
This content is for informational purposes only — not professional advice. Consult a qualified professional before making any major decisions.