Live Below Your Means Is a Lie
Everyone says to live below your means when you say you want to save money. That’s a lie. Why?
Everywhere around you, in social media, from your friends, from the millionaires, billionaires, we hear “live below your means” every time when they are talking about saving up or being rich, and that is one of the craziest things that the modern culture has brought up about personal finances. There are a variety of reasons behind why this is a stupid thing, but when we say lie, we do not mean it is completely off the track or a total stupidness. We mean that how the 21st century’s modern culture has exaggerated it. How did we exactly exaggerate it? Let’s see.
“A poor mindset says, ‘Live below your means’” — Robert Kiyosaki
Before we dive in, what exactly is “living below your means”? It is the idea that pushes people to spend less than they earn. In theory, it seems like it is an okay thing to say, but if you want to have a rich mindset and be rich, living below your means is going to get you to only a certain point, more than that, you are going to need to do more and living below your means is definitely not one of them.
When you have the mindset to live below your means, all you focus on is to spend less than you earn, you don’t focus on expanding your means, all you look at is how much you spend on certain stuff. What you should be doing is expanding your income, your means, rather than cutting down on your expenses. Of course, you should not spend every penny you get. But you also shouldn’t cut down on necessary things like food, entertainment, and so on just to save up a couple of bucks more. Yes, you can save up some but it is not going to be enough for you to have a better life in the near future or even in the far future.
When you think about spending less than you earn, your thinking gets too narrow, and you lose sight of your dreams or the things you want to do. When you do that, you also close your world to any kind of financial opportunity that might arise, and your whole world becomes a dark room with no escape but to just sit and accept the situation. Do not accept the situation, change the situation, make it better, earn more, spend more, and get what you want.
Allocate Your Money the Moment You Get Your Paycheck
In the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” which probably most of you know or already read, it says to put your money into savings and investments the moment you get your paycheck and then spend your money even on the essential stuff like rent or food. This way, instead of trying to live below your means, you try to find new means of income and expand your network of money. People tend to come up with a lot of solutions to everything when they are in a tough position. Well, being broke and not being able to pay your rent or buy your food is as bad as it gets, so you come up with different solutions to get money rather than cutting down on your investments, savings, or other things. This way, your view of the world and finances gets wider, not narrow.
Instead of asking, “How can I live below my means?”, ask, “How can I expand my means?” — Robert Kiyosaki
Your finances are your golden mine, %80 of your life consists of your finances and if you ignore it and say that you don’t have enough and spend less, you start to not care about the money you earn and your view of money gets so abundant that you become non-existent mentally in a short time. That is why, you have to focus on expanding, getting better, instead of focusing on spending less so much that you lose sight of how much you earn and the opportunities in front of you. Be a rich dad, not a poor dad.
