Are you tired of living a mediocre life and ready to do something big and adventurous? Is limited money holding you back? It’s time to strip your budget bare. We are talking about getting to basic.
What does that even mean?
Bare Bones
First, getting to basic means only spending money on the very essential necessities in order to maximize savings. What can you eliminate from your budget that isn’t contributing to the future you dream about? You must have a crystal clear reason for the bare bones life.
You can read lots of stories about people, even those with families, who sell everything they own in order to travel the world. The stories are quite inspiring, but you might think they are a little irresponsible or extremely brave to live without any money coming in and no home or job to come back to.
Sure, it would be crazy to just quit your job and sell everything to go on an adventure if you didn’t have a plan in place. A plan for how much it would cost, how long your money will last, and an exit plan to re-enter the “real world.” But, these people do have a plan. It’s not just a pipe dream or a seat-of-the-pants decision.
So, what is your dream? Your goal? What do you want to stack up a large amount of money to do? How much do you need? Maybe you want to pay cash for a house. Or, maybe you want to take a year off work to try and start your own business. To travel. Or, to become a pro golfer.
Getting your budget to basic means taking a look at each item you spend money on and asking yourself, “Is this expense necessary for my basic needs?” If not, ask yourself if it’s worth slowing you down from reaching your ultimate goal.
Is sitting around watching cable TV getting me closer to my goal? Probably not. So, get rid of it. Is driving a $30,000 car helping me start my own business, or can I do it while driving a $8,000 car. Probably. Sell the car and get a cheaper one. Does going out to eat every weekend satisfy me as much as playing golf on tour someday?
Thinking about your monthly expenses in this way shows you what you are trading your dreams for.
Go Even Lower
Now that you’ve gone through all of the ways that you spend money and decided you can eliminate several expenses in trade for a future goal, you might be coming up with some extra money to save towards your goal. But, it might not seem like enough to get you there for a long time. Patience is a necessity, but now that you have decided to be purposeful about pursuing your dream goal, you are in a hurry to get there. What more can you do?
Start getting creative. Look again at each expense in your budget. Are you paying too much for rent because you think you need to live in a big comfortable house? Can you downsize to a smaller house or an apartment? If you are single, or a couple without kids, can you rent a room in a shared house? You don’t tend to think outside of the box like this when you don’t have a reason driving you.
Think of ways to lower your utility bills, your food budget, and your gas use. Find free entertainment venues. Shop at thrift stores. Every time you go to spend money, ask yourself if there is a cheaper alternative, or if it is necessary at all.
Change your thinking. What’s your one thing?
As you start to focus all your attention to reaching the one goal you’ve set, your thinking begins to change. You slowly start to realize that you’ve been living the life that seems expected of you by others, but not necessarily a life that you’ve thought through and planned out.
Those small nagging thoughts in the back of your mind telling you that there’s more adventure out there get pushed down as unrealistic. As impossible. They are never given a chance to actually be developed into a plan. But, as you allow yourself to start making a plan, you can begin to see real possibilities of your goal coming to life. It all has to do with what you focus on and make a priority. And what you are willing to make trade-offs for. And patience.
Why would I want to?
Why would you want to move into a small apartment, buy a cheaper car, and give up eating out at restaurants? Stripping your budget to bare bones is only worth it when you have a meaningful goal to reach.
To pursue adventures
Lots of people talk about traveling the world, white watering rafting down the Colorado, skiing the Alps, climbing some mountain, or sailing across the ocean. Few people ever actually do it. What is the difference between the two? One believes it’s possible and makes a plan. The other one thinks you have to be born a millionaire to do those kinds of things and settles for living a “normal” kind of life.
Dreaming up an adventure is pretty easy, but when you start planning out the details, you might find that it’s not really your dream. Sure, watching someone else white water raft down a crazy river may look like an amazing experience, but is it really what you want to do? When you start getting into the details of the plan, you might decide it’s not. So, what is your dream adventure?
To live your dreams
You might decide becoming debt-free and buying a house is more your speed and worth living on a bare bones budget. Maybe you want to go back to school, or move to a new location, or have a swimming pool built in your backyard. All of our dreams are different.
To work your dream job
A future passion may be to start your own business or freelance while living in an RV. Maybe you want to work for a specific company and need to start at an entry level and move your way up. Or, you might want to go back to school to become a doctor. Have you always dreamed of becoming a PGA champion?
When your budget is basic, and you have a nice savings account, there are so many more options out there for you to follow.
How can I do it?
Think outside of the box
Step away from normal thinking and become creative in your planning. Remember, it’s all about what you want, not what others expect of you
Put your goal front and center
Make a goal chart. Cut out a picture of you and tape it to a background picture that represents your goal. Like a picture of you standing in front of a new RV or house, on a golf course, or with a lab coat on. Keep your goal visually in front of you. And keep it at the top of your budget.
Keep the blinders on
Expect to be socially challenged by friends and family. Nobody likes to be reminded that they aren’t living their own dream. And most people don’t like change. Have you ever gone on a diet and your friends or family try to get you to cheat. Why don’t they support you in your decision to lose weight. Because it cramps their style and it makes them feel guilty. Healthy friends don’t try to make you cheat. They are your cheerleaders!
It’s the same way with friends who are winning in life, working towards their own goals. That’s who you should hang out with. Or, you can try to recruit someone to do it with you. Moral support is an awesome way to stay motivated and it’s always more fun to have friends along for the ride.
Only the Committed Win
This is not for everyone. You’ve got to be committed to your decisions. Making hard choices and sticking to them until your goal is reached won’t always be easy. But, if you stay the course, you will get the reward. Do you really want to be in the same place you are now in 5 or 10 years? Will you look back and regret that you didn’t keep trying, or will you be living your dream, glad that you stuck it out?