[Music] foreign [Music] for how much is enough the nature of fulfillment what is fulfillment whether in the sense of accomplishing a goal or enjoying a moment of real contentment fulfillment is that experience of deep satisfaction when you can say Ayah that was a delicious meal a job well done or a purchase worth the money to find fulfillment though you need to know what you are looking for it's fairly easy to know what fulfillment is in terms of food or other temporary pleasures but to have fulfillment in the larger sense to have a fulfilled life you need to have a sense of purpose a dream of what a good life might be for many of us however growing up has meant outgrowing our dreams the aspiration to write a great book has shrunk to writing advertising copy the dream of being an inspiring preacher has evolved into being an administrator and a mediator between the factions in the congregation instead of really knowing who their patients are how their patients live or the challenges in their lives doctors today are plagued with back-to-back 15-minute patient visits and malpractice suits the dream of traveling around the world becomes two weeks a year of hitting the tourist traps living a fulfilling and meaningful life seems almost impossible given the requirements of Simply meeting day-to-day needs and problems yet at one time or another practically every one of us has had a dream of what we wanted our lives to be people with a diagnosis of cancer often get that divorce or take the trip they've been dreaming about or take up a new hobby that's been patiently waiting for its time in the Sun wherever you are take a few moments now to reflect upon your dreams so many of us have spent so many hours days and years of Our Lives devoted to someone else's agenda that it may be hard to get in touch with our dreams so many of us have whittled away at our uniqueness so that we could be square pegs in square holes that it seems slightly self-indulgent to wonder what kind of hole we would be inclined to carve for ourselves indulge yourself now stare out a window shut your eyes and envision what would be a truly fulfilling life for you to help you get started on this journey ask yourself the following questions what did you want to be when you grew up what have you always wanted to do that you haven't yet done what have you done in your life that you are really proud of if you knew you were going to die within a year how would you spend that year what brings you the most fulfillment and how is that related to money if you didn't have to work for a living what would you do with your time you may want to write your answers down these questions help you focus on what you truly value what makes your life worth living in this next step you'll be finding out how well your spending is aligned with those values everybody's got a dream some people have fairly conventional dreams the kinds many Americans would cherish Amy and Jim D for example had a simple dream they wanted to raise a family in a big farmhouse in a rural area when they got married they had between the two of them logged more than 20 years in the work at a World Gym as a career Navy man and Amy as a graphic artist yet by the mid-1980s they had only 1 500 in savings to show for it their first child according to Amy was born nine months and 15 minutes after we were married they recognized that they valued family and Community above the fast lane of life in which they had both been living and decided to raise their children and realize their dream on only one income Jim's salary from the Navy to realize their dream they called upon all the frugality training they'd gotten from their Thrifty parents and devised scads of new strategies for saving money neither had any sense of deprivation they thrived on this challenge to their creativity and their relationship thrived on their shared purpose in seven years they had four children and saved 49 000 by the late 1980s all from Jim's income which at that time was under 30 000 a year Amy stayed home with the kids enough to make a down payment on a rural farmhouse in Maine pay off all debts and buy a new car furniture and appliances two years after that Amy decided to put her graphic skills to work and create a forum where Frugal ideas could be exchanged in June 1990 she published the premier issue of The titwat Gazette an eight-page newsletter full of practical tips about living the good life on a shoestring.1 a year later they had twins and were still able to live within their means their story is testimony to the fact that simple dreams like having a house in the country and staying home to raise a family are truly Within Reach other people have more unconventional dreams Wes LS passion is nature both being in it and preserving it for him the Phi program is a way to do what he's always wanted to do contribute to a Humanity's understanding of and respect for the natural world full-time he's aligning as many parts of his life as possible with this dream his paid employment is as a chemist measuring air quality he's moved within walking distance of work so he won't contribute as much to the air pollution he's measuring on vacations he kayaks through unspoiled Wilderness areas and on weekends he teaches kayaking to help others experience nature safely and respectfully and with his disposable income he builds up his savings and supports major conservation organizations the compass of his life is the natural world and every aspect of his life points in that direction and some people look forward to fulfilling a number of Dreams keys and Helen K are a case in point Keys was a physician and the medical director of a clinic that provides Medical Care to minorities and migrant workers Helen was a former teacher active in the programs of a number of non-profit organizations who also held down the fort for her family they loved their lives but looked forward to an empty nest so that they too could fly the coop the financial program gave them a way to retire from their paid employment at the same time they retired from being full-time parents they moved to a small town and bought land that became the heart of an echo Village and intentional Community committed to sustainability on every level possible Helen is now a force of nature in this new community and also has time for her painting step 4 of this financial program allows you to evaluate your priorities and rebalance your accounts it allows you to take your dreams out of Hawk and reincorporate them into your everyday making a dying life eventually you'll find you are finally making a living step four three questions that will transform your life in this step you evaluate your spending by asking three questions about the total spent in each of your subcategories one did I receive fulfillment satisfaction and value in proportion to Life Energy spent two is this expenditure of Life Energy in alignment with my values and life purpose three how might this expenditure change if I didn't have to work for a living to do this step go back to your monthly tabulation form and notice the three blank rows along the bottom this is where you will write the answers to our three questions see figure four to one you have already converted dollars to hours of Life Energy now you can take a look at how you want to spend that precious commodity these three questions apply to each spending subcategory on your monthly tabulation will give you a basis for evaluating the way you spend your money figure four to one typical monthly tabulation with the three questions question one did I receive fulfillment satisfaction and value in proportion to Life Energy spent this question provides a way to evaluate your expenditures take a look at each sub-category with this question in mind if you received so much fulfillment from this expense of Life Energy that you'd even like to increase spending in the subcategory place A Plus or an up arrow in the first box if you received little or no fulfillment from it put a or a down arrow in that box if the expense feels okay just as it is Mark the box with a zero this simple exercise will show you where your spending is so automatic or even addictive that your life energy flows in that direction while fulfillment lies in the opposite you might even find your shopping weaknesses your gazingus pins at first you might angrily defend one or another of your gazinga spin habits I like having lots of shoes every pair has a function anyway it's my money but no one is trying to take your gazingus pins away from you in fact no one is even listening since the honesty required by this exercise emerges most readily in solitude over time seeing the number of hours of your life you spent in order to reward yourself with yet another gazingus pin might make it less of a treasure and more of a booby prize every M an intensive care nurse talked about her pet purchase I discovered that every month I bought at least one new pair of shoes wore them a few times and then placed them in the back of my closet with the other 40-plus Piers making room for my next new shoes I calculated that in one month I spent 10 hard hours at work to pay for one pair of shoes a large minus sign went in the box under my category for shoes no amount of rationalization could keep me from seeing the simple truth I did not get value from having so many pairs of shoes on the other hand you might find you've been too much of a penny pincher in categories where you get a lot of fulfillment make sure you note these areas of supreme satisfaction and put your Plus or up arrow in the columns where you are actually under spending the trick to doing this evaluation is to do it objectively without rationalizing to yourself why the expenditure was so high or so low and without condemning Yourself by agonizing about how you could have spent that much in that category the key phrase to remember is no shame no blame couples have also found this step a valuable way to discuss differences in their spending habits with Equanimity and objectivity Ted and Martha P discovered that this question provided a gentle way to evaluate each other's spending patterns without getting defensive or adversarial rather than directly challenging one of Ted's purchases Martha can just calmly ask whether he really got fulfillment satisfaction and value in proportion to the amount of Life Energy spent they find that they are able to observe and even comment on each other's gazingus pins with a lot more compassion for Martha its books Fort edits phones he has one in every room and some don't always work being able to discuss Financial choices without subtle bickering has been invaluable for them and has actually helped their marriage developing an internal yardstick for fulfillment answering this question helps you develop an internal yardstick for fulfillment and in the process kick any unhealthy shopping habits you may discover that you've been measuring your fulfillment or lack of it by what those around you have or by what advertising says you should want being fulfilled is having just enough think about it whether it's food or money or things if you don't know from an internal standard what is enough then you will pass directly from not enough to Too Much with enough being like a little Whistle Stop town you blink and you've missed it you will rarely have an experience of fulfillment by diligently working with this question you will begin to identify for yourself an internal yardstick that you can use to measure how much is enough the primary tool for developing this internal yardstick is awareness the affluence that surrounds us has been called the American dream and with good reason we've been asleep we wake up by questioning the dream asking yourself month in month out whether you actually got fulfillment in proportion to Life Energy spent in each subcategory awakens that natural sense of knowing when enough is enough you come to differentiate between a passing fancy and real fulfillment that point of Perfect Balance where desires disappear because they have been completely met any less would be not enough any more would be too much a fulfilling meal is one where all the flavors smells and textures blend perfectly and your appetite is satisfied without even a trace of the discomfort of having overeaten in the same way a fulfilling car is one that meets your transportation needs perfectly that is pleasing enough to the eye that you will enjoy owning for many thousands of miles that doesn't insult your wallet or your values and that with good maintenance will be both reliable and a pleasure to drive your internal yardstick would dismiss any superficial desires to impress others to relieve the boredom of driving a two-year-old car to own a Lexus because you want the status symbol or to have a blue convertible that matches your eyes those are all external yardsticks if an experience or a purchase is truly fulfilling the desire disappears for a long time you are satisfied contented at peace having an internal yardstick for fulfillment is actually one part of what we call Financial integrity you learn to make your financial choices independently of what advertising and Industry have decided would be good for their business you are free of the humiliation of being manipulated into spending your life energy on things that don't bring you fulfillment Marcia M whose story we'll be hearing in chapter 7 reported that before doing this evaluation she used to feel powerless over the money in her wallet I'd walk into a store and my money would fly out of my wallet not literally but that's how it felt I couldn't stop it it is a form of financial Independence to be able to just say no to unconscious spending to recap when evaluating your subcategories place a zero in the box if the expenditure feels fine just as it is a plus or an up Arrow if you got so much satisfaction that you might even like to increase that expenditure or a or a down arrow if the amount of money spent was not fulfilling this question is an opportunity to look at the degree of satisfaction in your life by examining something as simple and tangible as the way you use your life energy no shame no blame it's simply the facts question two I asked this expenditure of Life Energy in alignment with my values and life purpose this question is Illuminating it gives you a concrete way of looking at whether or not you're practicing what you preach as you did with the first question ask of each spending subcategory was this expenditure of Life Energy in alignment with my values and my life purpose if your answer is a strong yes put a plus or an up arrow in the second box under that column if it's a no just put the or a down arrow if it's fine as it is put a zero take as long as you need to think it through people like Amy and Jim D had a clear set of values and a strong sense of purpose when they undertook their tightwad campaign so did Wes Elle and keys and Helen K measuring their financial choices against these two factors help them to align their finances with their dreams on the other hand many people living otherwise well-off lives are suffering from a Poverty of ideals many ears and air essays are among the lost and confused all dressed up financially and nowhere to go and lots of ordinary people who have achieved the American dream are also wondering whether there isn't more to life than this what about you are your values and life purpose clear or are they out of focus buried under the weight of a lifestyle that doesn't seem to fit values let's talk about values first what are values anyway our values are those principles and qualities that matter to us living our values gives us peace of mind not doing so disturbs our conscience and if we aren't aware of what's going on disables that inner gyroscope that orients us on one level values are the ideas and beliefs on which we base our decisions they are like an invisible ethical DNA made up of our sense of right and wrong that structures our choices so our values reflect our beliefs but since how we act reflects our real motivations our values are revealed by our behaviors parents sometimes try to sidestep this fact with the phrase do as I say not as I do when we choose to provide food shelter and clothing for our children we are making that choice on the basis of values being a good parent expressing a natural feeling of love whether we spend our day off walking in the park or going back to the office our choice is based on values but I had to go to the office you say that's not a values decision that's pure necessity yet you value the paycheck so you choose to do the job or you value being responsible to your family or you value the guy in the next cubicle perhaps more than you should our behavior is a concrete representation of our values how we spend our time and money says volumes about who we are and what we stand for this book deals with one of the chief social manifestations of our values how we handle money in our lives you learn quite a lot about the values you are living when you look at your monthly tabulations what values do the 150 or 25 hours of Life Energy at the six dollars per hour we calculated in our example in Chapter 2 spent on eating out reveal they could indicate any number of things that you value convenience that you like good food or that you want social time with friends what about the 12 hours donated to a charity the 30 hours for the phone bill you may find that you are comfortable with many of these expenditures and some you may question 25 hours of Life Energy spent on eating out may seem fine until you realize upon reflection that you devoted only eight hours this month to one of your children for many people the values expressed in their expenditures are not the values they really want to be living your totals in some of your categories May reveal that habit peer pressure or even boredom has gotten the best of you go back to the questions at the beginning of the chapter if you didn't have to work for a living what would you do with your time what have you done with your life that you are really proud of how would you spend the next year if you knew it was the last year of your life your answers to these questions will tell you a lot about what you truly value your monthly tabulations are like a mirror as you ask the question is this expenditure in alignment with my values month in and month out you will find that you are looking deeply into yourself simply as a result of asking and answering this question you will make changes large and small that bring you closer to financial Integrity where all aspects of your financial life are in harmony with your True Values the process of coming into Integrity is like that telescope we talked about in chapter 2. the multiple lenses of the telescope allow you the viewer to extend and expand your vision but only if each lens is clear and Polished and only if all the lenses are aligned and properly oriented one to the other if any aspect of ourselves is out of alignment with the whole of our being we will not be able to see very far in fact our vision will be completely obstructed by that one lens that is out of line Tom C had the makings of a very nice life all the pieces were there to add up to success a terrific wife two kids two cars a lovely house and plenty of tangible and intangible benefits from his job as a school administrator he had respect a good income and security he was successful but he wasn't happy in fact he was mad he was angry and frustrated with the system that had led him to believe that if he had the right stuff I.E house cars job Etc he'd feel fulfilled he didn't looking for a way out he attended one of our Phi seminars on that day he realized something he knew but didn't know that happiness doesn't come from externals it comes only from integrating your values with your relationship with money nothing was wrong with his life but the pieces didn't add up to something he was internally proud of his life was good but it wasn't real when he looked at his values he realized that his overarching desire was to contribute something towards solving some of the world's problems instead of just being one of the decent yet sleeping Millions who consider minding their own business their highest good but how could he live his values his job while good did nothing to express his concern for the world he took a risk and a cut in pay by leaving the school system to develop a private Counseling Practice and to work in a clinic in conjunction with a doctor his new career slowly came into Focus eventually he went into partnership with an Associate holding training sessions and seminars Tom and his partner help people get in touch with their values and worth and with their responsibility to themselves and the larger community Tom has pieced together his skills values and concerns into a life that fits for him his insides match his outsides and he's finally happy what is purpose the second part of this question calls on you to evaluate your expenditures in light of your life purpose but what does that really mean purpose implies Direction and time you do something now to have something later that you value for some people like Amy and Jim D doing work they enjoy and raising a loving family defines their purpose for others the sense of purpose might be elusive not quite in Focus their actions don't reflect their deepest desires some individuals waking up to the emptiness of a purposeless life spend years looking for some purpose to give life meaning others like West L seem to have it identified from the moment of birth what is this thing called purpose in life purpose can be as straightforward as your goal I am doing this in order to get that it can be revealed in the answer you give when someone asks why are you doing what you're doing your motivation it can be the deeper meaning you ascribe to the events of your life the real purpose of my job was to meet my wife purpose however implies something Beyond Reason it isn't simply achieving a goal or acquiring some long for possession it isn't the meaning you ascribe to events in your past it is a chosen dedication of your life energy to something you believe is more important than your individual little existence it is your commitment it is that for which you will sacrifice your life at very least your time attention creativity effort and perhaps even your life itself it becomes your identity as surely as your name your body or your story to date you can see these different kinds of purpose goal meaning and dedication in this story about three stone cutters each chipping away at a large block a passerby approaches the first stonecutter and asks excuse me what are you doing the stonecutter replies rather gruffly can't you see I'm chipping away at this big hunk of stone approaching the second Craftsman our curious person asks the same question this stonecutter looks up with a mixture of Pride and resignation and says why I'm earning a living to take care of my wife and children moving to the third worker our questioner asks and what are you doing the third stone cutter looks up his face shining and says with reverence I'm building a cathedral dedication to a higher purpose the meaning we give to an action comes from within us not by the action like the first stonecutter we have the choice of denying that our actions have any meaning beyond the physical reality of what we are doing like the second we can absorb the meanings that our culture ascribes to our actions supporting a family is a culturally accepted purpose so are getting an education getting married and having children creating a successful business discovering the cure for a disease winning honors the list goes on unexamined these can amount to life on automatic pilot examined they can give your life Radiance and clarity only you know the third Stone Cutters answer points to another level of meaning and purpose living are highest ideals dedicating ourselves to something beyond our personal gratification that leaves a legacy for generations to come that seems Noble and worthy of our steadfast devotion people often have a sense of purpose about making their Community or the world a better place perhaps helping solve problems of hunger homelessness abusive family relationships global warming sometimes a person's purpose is to embody certain qualities such as love peace or non-violence in this sense purpose is about our extension of ourselves out into the world there is also a sense in which purpose is generic beyond my purpose many believe there is the purpose many religions and Creeds teach that there is a core of goodness within each of us an ability to know right from wrong and a desire to do the right thing while every culture may have a different definition of the good the true and the Beautiful nearly all cultures honor the individuals who embody those ideals how do we find our purpose Joanna Macy an educator ecologist and author has suggested three directions in which to look for your own purpose .21 work with your passion on projects you care deeply about what was your dream before you stopped dreaming what's the work you would do even if you weren't paid to do it you're not looking for those superficial preferences depicted on bumper stickers like I'd rather be surfing you're looking for something you'd gladly know holdsbard would give your life to not something you use to get away from your life to work with your pain with people whose pain touches your heart have you been there so you know how it feels in grief sorrow despair hunger Terror can you offer others the wisdom and compassion you gain from this experience is there an aspect of suffering in the world that calls you to action if you are in such pain that you've lost touch with your ability to help others then now is the perfect time to extend your hand to others in pain it's healing three work with what is at hand with the opportunities that arise daily for responding to the simple needs of others finding your purpose has often been equated with discovering the perfect job or service project that will Galvanize you to be as saintly as Mother Teresa this suggestion to work with what's at hand is a reminder that in an interconnected world all acts of service contribute to the good of the whole if you remember that there is no single act of greatness just a series of small acts done with great Passion or great love then in doing what you see needs to be done taking dinner to a sick neighbor helping a child learn to read writing a letter to the editor of your newspaper being an advocate for the homeless in your city you will discover a life filled with the experience of having a purpose worth living for passion pain what's at hand these are doorways into finding a purpose Beyond material acquisition measuring our movement toward purpose once again go back to the questions at the beginning of this chapter what have you always wanted to do that you haven't done yet what brings you the most fulfillment your musings in response to these questions will also provide clues to your purpose take a few minutes right now to write down your purpose in life it may have nothing to do with how you now spend your time it may or may not seem significant to others it may not even be very clear for you yet just do the best you can use this stated purpose to measure your actions if over time you see your purpose changing that's fine simply write what life purpose now means to you and use this new statement of purpose as your measuring stick however you define your purpose you will need a way to measure your results some feedback to tell you if you are on track often we measure how we are doing in fulfilling our Purpose By material success or by professional or Community recognition there is another more accurate measure of whether you are living your purpose one that goes beyond material success and Beyond rewards and recognition it is your answer to the question is this expenditure of Life Energy in alignment with my values and life purpose asking this question Faithfully every month for every category will nudge you toward clarifying your values living in alignment with your stated purpose and defining further your true purpose in life George Bernard Shaw so The Story Goes one said to a society matron Madam I'll wager you would go to bed with me for five pounds she was instantly indignant how could he think such a thing he paused as if thinking and asked what if I offered you 100 000 pounds she hesitated and her silence gave her away so Shaw said we aren't arguing about the ACT but merely about the price money is an extremely compelling measure for all of us even those dedicated to lofty ends another way to measure your movement toward your purpose is through the purpose in life test based on the work of Viktor Frankel having survived the Nazi death camps Frankel observed that there was a factor Beyond intellect or psychology that allowed some people to retain their Humanity in inhumane circumstances this Factor he concluded was meaning or purpose a capacity to find through deep dialogue with one's conscience a positive significance in the events of one's life the will to have meaning and purpose in life he said is superior to the will to have power or the will to find pleasure indeed these latter drives take over when the will to find meaning has been thwarted Frankel also observed that being human means relating and being directed to something or someone other than oneself three going through the questionnaire in figure four to two which is based on Frankel's profound work will assist you in your own movement toward meaning in your life 0.4 to tally your score add the numbers circled if you were below 92 you probably lack meaning and purpose in life if you were in the 92 to 112 Ranger your sense of purpose is indecisive or hazy and if your score was greater than 112 you have a clear purpose how did you do remember that asking the question is this expenditure in alignment with my purpose will help you in defining and putting together the building blocks to your sense of purpose take time to make some notes and perhaps read Frankel's moving book Man's Search for meaning returning to Integrity back to the second question in Step 4 is this expenditure of Life Energy in alignment with my values and life purpose now that you've taken a deeper look at values and purpose ask this question again ask without criticism or self-condemnation but honestly and dispassionately look at the way you previously rated your expenditures do you still agree change your answers if your evaluation of a particular category is now different figure four to two purpose in life test copyright held by psychometric Affiliates box 807 Murfreesboro Tennessee 37133 permission must be granted to use this test you now have a black and white map of your spending patterns and their relationship to your defined values and purpose you may see gaps between your statement of purpose and your expression of it gaps that you were unaware of before to return to Integrity alignment of your actions with your values you can either adjust your spending or adjust your purpose indeed this question is your primary tool for achieving Phi in the sense of financial integrity Charles Gibbons makes the same point in his book Financial self-defense when your actions are out of alignment with your values you can experience fear guilt frustration and emotional imbalance fortunately you can get rid of those negative unwanted feelings you can either one change your actions to align with your values or to change your values to align with your actions.5 question 3 how might this expenditure change if I didn't have to work for a living use this question to evaluate how much your job costs you and to begin to focus more clearly on your life apart from work ask yourself which expenses would decrease and which expenses would disappear if I didn't go to work every day in the third row under your expense categories Mark a or down arrow if you think this expense would decrease A Plus or up Arrow if it would increase or a zero if it would probably remain unchanged if you can come up with an estimated dollar figure write it in a separate line on the monthly tabulation this question opens the possibility of a lifestyle in which you don't have to report to a job week in week out what would your life be like if you didn't work for money 40 or more hours a week What expenses might disappear if you didn't have to work for money would you buy more clothes fewer clothes burn more gas less gas sell your car entirely move to a cheaper house farther from a center of Commerce would you have higher or lower medical bills Insurance costs might go up but illness is down would you still take weekend breaks in hotels would your travel expenses go up or down would your gazinga spin purchases increase or decrease what do you now spend to Simply compensate for doing a job that claims the majority of your waking hours as you ask yourself this question over time you may find yourself coming to a startling conclusion if you weren't trying to fit your round peg into a square hole all the time life could be a whole lot cheaper because your days are consumed by your job you need money to handle every other aspect of your life from daycare to home repair from entertainment to being listened to with compassion here's a riddle who is more financially independent someone who can fix a leaky faucet or someone who must pay another person to fix it in many ways we have actually become more financially dependent how many times have you been stymied by a modern convenience that won't work when you try to get it repaired locally you're told to send it back to the factory postage alone is more than it would cost to replace it you'd fix it yourself but how isn't needing money to make it through life actually a form of dependence if that is so then asking the question what would this expenditure look like if I had the time and skills to maintain my possessions myself will lead you toward less dependence on money to fill your needs assessing the three questions now take a look at your tabulation sheet find all of your marks or down arrows note which subcategories didn't meet your Criterion for question 1 you did not receive fulfillment in proportion to the amount of Life Energy spent which ones didn't measure up on question two this expenditure was not in alignment with your values and life purpose and which ones are expenses that would change significantly if you didn't have to make a dying now look at your list do you see any patterns what have you learned about yourself don't punish yourself and don't resolve to do better next month remember this is not a budget simply use this information and any insights you've gained to assist in clarifying your values and purpose remember no shame no blame let's go back to the monthly tabulations we looked at in chapter 3 and see how Rosemary and Lou and Steve did these evaluations Rosemary's is fairly straightforward while she didn't choose to estimate how much she would be spending in each category if she stopped working for a living the categories she thinks would go down provide some food for thought Lou and Steve's chart is particularly interesting because they came up with some novel adaptations and interpretations the first thing you'll notice is that Lou and Steve added a fourth question is this level of expenditure helpful to the planet what would change in your own spending patterns if you were to ask yourself this question the other twist you'll notice is that their figure for charitable contributions post Phi when they are financially self-sufficient and no longer working for pay is the same as their post Phi income Lou and Steve recognize that once they are free of paid employment they will be able to volunteer full-time to causes they care about instead of giving token donations each month they will be able to give themselves their lives will be their charitable contribution now take a look at how keys and Helen K estimated what their expenses would be once their kids had graduated from high school leaving them free to do community service projects together in figure four to five they compare their year one average monthly expenses in each category with their projected expenses in year five they arrived at these figures after several years of tracking expenses and asking the three questions the year 5 estimates are not a budget they are experientially derived from months of tracking and evaluating the real cost of a fulfilling life you don't have to know precisely what you would do if you didn't have a job you don't even have to want to do anything other than your job you just need to ask the question of each expense category how would expenditures in this category change if I didn't have to work for a living remember no shame no blame you aren't violating your commitment to your profession by asking that question nor are you expressing disloyalty to your boss or dissatisfaction with your job by considering how you might spend your money if you were doing something else if you love your job the simple monthly exercise of asking this question will only increase your job satisfaction because you will increase your certainty that you are there by choice implications of the step step 4 is the heart of this program don't worry if your life purpose or your internal yardstick is not crystal clear for some individuals this program has been the process by which they Define their values and purpose the very process of asking and answering the three questions month in and month out will clarify and deepen your understanding of fulfillment and purpose just ask the questions and Mark your responses at the bottom of each expense column using your intuition as much as your intellect figure four to three Rosemary's monthly tabulation of expenses with the three questions figure four to four Steve and Lou's monthly tabulation with the three questions figure four to five keys and Helen's tabulation of average monthly expenses the nine steps of this program are easy you don't have to understand them you just have to do them in fact the people who get into the most trouble making this program work are those who believe they can skip steps that they think don't apply to them if we could make this program any shorter with fewer steps we would the fact is this is the shortcut we are practical people we haven't included any window dressing or Arcane wisdom in here just for the fun of it the steps of this program work synergistically building upon and enhancing one another so just relax and do the steps over time amazing changes will occur not only in your relationship with money but in your relationship with life itself here are a few reminders about working with step four to maximize your benefits information and awareness not shame or blame this is simply an information gathering process it is the first step toward reprogramming yourself any unconscious addictive patterns of spending will be exposed and identified when you bring them into the light of honest evaluation and clear numeric expression the point is not to drive yourself to change through guilt or self-criticism the point is to adjust your spending until you have zeros or and s in all your columns valuing yourself a shift will take place in the realm of values as your handling of money increasingly comes into alignment with what really matters to you in the past we managed to convince ourselves that buying things for ourselves was an expression of self-esteem I deserve the best we learn to think no more second-class citizenship for me if I wanted I can have it and if I don't have the money I'll just put it on my credit card then Along Comes this process of rethinking your relationship with money and with the world and everything Turns Upside Down spending money on myself in ways that might bring superficial happiness but don't contribute to Lasting fulfillment you think is actually not valuing myself it's frittering away my precious one-way Life Energy who did I think was going to pay off the credit card anyway true Financial intelligence is understanding that if you by now you will pay later with interest Financial intelligence is knowing that if you spend your life energy on stuff that brings only passing fulfillment and doesn't support your values you end up with less life this step is not about budgeting not about self-contamination and not about depriving yourself it is about honoring and valuing that limited resource called Your Life Energy it's about using this High self-respect to bring about greater fulfillment greater satisfaction and a greater sense of wholeness alignment and integrity you do this by becoming conscious of your unexamined and unrewarding spending patterns painlessly integrity and Synergy this step helps you align values and behavior by adjusting one or the other Financial Independence is built on financial integrity and financial Integrity is built on alignment of vision and values with action as shocking as it may be to see your unconscious spending patterns materialize as neatly totaled Columns of dollars and cents this exacting honesty is essential people pay thousands of dollars for therapy workshops and seminars in order to confront their self-defeating patterns of thinking and acting this step allows you to accomplish that same goal at no cost and in the privacy of your own home when you can go through this entire process of tabulation and evaluation with a totally peaceful mind and heart you will have earned your black belt in financial integrity Integrity is naturally fulfilling alignment of Vision Values and action whether we are talking about one person a team of people or a whole society Fosters a process known as synergy Synergy is that state of functioning in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts with Synergy more energy comes out of a system than has seemingly been fed in Synergy is potent because we so often work at Cross purposes within ourselves and within our organizations Synergy feels like magic Grace a miracle it's not Synergy occurs within an individual when all aspects of his or her nature are aligned and focused in the same direction if you're a tiger at work but a mouse at home something within you is not aligned your energy will be tied up in a juggling act in which you keep dropping the balls but if happiness Clarity and peace characterize all aspects of your life and what you do is in alignment with your purpose then you are a potent and fulfilled individual and that's made possible by taking a few minutes each month to ask these three questions of each of your spending subcategories you will discover what is enough at the material Level and you will have an abundance of the joy that comes from living a life that matters getting to enough in chapter one we talked about the Fulfillment curve and that interesting place at the peak of the Fulfillment curve called enough you have enough for your survival enough for your Comforts and even some special luxuries with no excess to burden you unnecessarily enough is a powerful and free place a confident and flexible place and it's a place that you will Define for yourself numerically as you follow this program asking the three questions month in and month out is the primary tool for defining experientially how much is enough for you our own experience and that of seminar participants is that enough has four components four common qualities one accountability knowing how much money is flowing into and out of your life is basic Financial intelligence clearly if you never know how much you have or where it's all going you can never have enough no matter how much money she made every month Maryland b a cook and caterer was anxious that her money would run out before her next paycheck while she always had enough she never had enough in her experience because she didn't know where she stood it wasn't until she started meticulously keeping track of her money that the fears went away rich and poor alike benefit from accountability some people on government entitlement programs from welfare to disability to Social Security have enough and others don't The Wall Street Journal told the story of a mother on a dollar 750 a month welfare income who managed to save 4500 over four years through Care Thrift and prudence the explanation was simple she was saving for her daughter's college education so she made every penny count .6 at the same time an advocate for a homeless family in Los Angeles told the story of wangling 1200 out of the system so parents and kids alike could get decent clothes and nourishing food instead the father went out and bought a 1200 stereo system he figured everyone had been through such a bad time they deserved something nice people go bankrupt and end up on the street in part because they haven't learned basic principles of money management especially accountability to an internal yardstick for fulfillment as we pointed out earlier you can never have enough if you are measuring by what others have or think three a purpose in life higher than satisfying your own wants and desires because you can never have enough if every desire becomes a need that must be filled desire begets desire that's what the astute potato chip company told us when it said bet you can't eat just one if you base your sense of having enough on your wants and desires it will be at best an ephemeral experience what is a purpose higher than getting what we want the opposite of getting is giving and therein lies a secret to fulfillment beyond the point of enough we achieve Happiness by exercising our capacity to give if you have a purpose for your life that is higher than getting more and getting ahead your energies will be focused on fulfilling that purpose whether it is loving your family serving on the school board creating art pruning your ego so your light can shine through or working for peace when you are no longer defining your worth in dollars and cents you can get off the feudal and endless money go around where your life was about trying to get ahead of the person in front of you for responsibility a sense of how your life fits with your community and with the needs of the world if we don't give a hoot about anyone but ourselves we can never have enough until we have it all within the word responsibility is the key to why it's an essential part of having enough break it down and you see it contains response and able if you are going through life robotically following patterns laid down by genetics parents or Society you can react but not respond to respond you must be conscious that you have a choice that you can select your response if you are responsible you can choose when to stop if you are not responsible you stop only when an external barrier is put up be it the size of your stomach the size of your credit limit or the limit of the law with responsibility we can choose our limits and maintain a sense of balance both within ourselves and with our neighbors initially responsibility is about identifying when you have enough and stopping there for your own well-being ultimately responsibility is about everyone in the world having enough and finding ways for all of us to get there for the well-being of the Earth we become responsible to life itself let's try to imagine for a moment a world in which everyone had enough enough for his or her survival enough for Comforts and even enough extra for those special times that represent real pleasure we began this chapter talking about our personal dreams and about aligning our earning and spending with our values and our sense of purpose the dream of everyone having enough has been with us as a species for thousands of years yet has never been fulfilled following the steps of this program doing your tracking and monthly tabulation and asking yourself the three questions will become so simple so much second nature that you might wonder what would happen if everyone who's living on more than enough did it the dream of a sustainable world might begin to seem quite possible if what wasn't needed the Clutter of Life faded away does this sound like an Impossible Dream perhaps but if you agree with Viktor Frankel that we each possess a will to have meaning then possibilities abound and the Tau TI Ching the ancient Chinese book of wisdom puts it this way he who knows he has enough is rich summary of step four one of each spending subcategory in your monthly tabulation ask question one did I receive fulfillment satisfaction and value in proportion to Life Energy spent Mark your answer with a plus or an up Arrow a or a down arrow or a zero two of each spending subcategory in your monthly tabulation ask question two is this expenditure of Life Energy in alignment with my values and life purpose Mark your answer with a plus or an up Arrow a or a down arrow or a zero three of each spending subcategory in your monthly tabulation ask question 3 how might this expenditure change if I didn't have to work for a living Mark your answer with a plus or an up Arrow a or a down arrow or a zero and write the estimated change on the monthly tabulation for review and make a list of all subcategories with the symbol or down arrow [Music] 5 seeing progress step 5 making Life Energy visible in step 5 you make visible the results of the previous steps plotting them on a graph that gives you a clear simple picture of your current relationship with money Life Energy as well as the trend of your financial situation and the transformation in your relationship with money making your wall chart step 5 entails setting up a graph of your income and your expenses one that is large enough to accommodate three to five years of data this graph will be simple to create simple to maintain and simple to interpret all the information you need is already on your monthly tabulation you don't need a computer program to do step five you just need to do it if you have a software program you use for your accounts you can train it to make the graph for you but there is a second part of Step 5 that the computer won't do for you to do it by hand get a large sheet of graph paper an 18 by 22 inch sheet with 10 squares to the centimeter or a 24 by 36 inch sheet with 10 squares to the inch will do nicely from a business supply store or College bookstore if you can't find one never fear you can use any large piece of paper and Rule it yourself see figure 5 to 1. the left hand vertical axis represents money on it you will chart both your income and your expenses Market in increments of dollars start with zero at the bottom leaving plenty of room on the upper part of the chart as outrageous as this may sound at the moment you should probably allow enough space at the top for your income to double more than one fear has sheepishly shown us a chart with extra graph paper taped at the top to account for a level of earnings he or she never thought possible set up your scale so that the larger of the two figures income or expenses for this month falls about halfway up the scale the lower horizontal scale represents time in increments of months allow 5 to 10 years on this axis that's enough to see large-scale Trends and may be enough to see you through to financial Independence figure five to one suggested size and layout of wall chart at the end of each month you will plot the figures for your total monthly income and total monthly expenses it is useful to use one color for your income and another for your expenses connect each point with a line to the previous month's entry you will be creating two different colored lines one for income and one for expenses that's all there is to it when you do this step the first month you have a snapshot of every revealing one of your habits around money but the real learning and the real fun comes as you plot your figures month by month year by year your wall chart will take the two-dimensional world of your monthly tabulations and add the dynamic dimension of time it's like transforming a photo album into a moving picture the monthly tabulations are like snapshots of particular moments in your journey toward Financial Independence but the graph will make Vivid your movement toward the goal your progress over time your graph will be a moving picture in more ways than one it will show you your motion and it will also move you renewing your commitment to keep going the initial Purge and Splurge cycle in the first month of recording your figures you might confront one of our national foibles your income entry May well be lower than your expenses entry you may have spent more than you earned it is after all the American way seeing this reality might come as a bit of a shock chances are you'll want things to change and change now accustomed to budgets diets and New Year's resolutions you swear on a stack of bank statements and credit cards that next month will be better this is when people often go on a wallet fast with the kind of zeal characteristic of first-time dieters they scrimp they save they deprive themselves and their families putting everyone on beans rice and oatmeal rations they concentrate daily on that expenses line determined to cut it in half in one short month amazingly enough many do entering the expense figure the second month they proudly note a steep decline this kind of austerity however isn't sustainable by the third month expenses often Rebound with a Vengeance making up for the second-month deprivation now what in the old way of thinking you might be tempted to take up the burden of budgeting again or to quit but take heart there is a better way and it works Diane G the computer programmer we met in chapter one who hated her job but couldn't find a way out had no trouble setting up her wall chart numbers and tracking were her business while she had acquired many trophies to prove her success from a pricey sports car to mementos collected on travels to Exotic destinations her wall chart looked no different from those of many other American dreamers her expenses were higher than her income what I saw truly shocked me I had no idea I spent more than I earned but there it was income four thousand four hundred dollars for that month and expenses dollar four comma 770. she felt challenged if the odds were against spending less than you earn she wanted to beat the odds she decided to experiment on ways to lower her expenses rather than going out to lunch with her co-workers or even ordering less expensive meals she chose to eat lunch at work for a month she bought no new clothes or dinners out after all you can take anything for a month lo and behold by month 2 her expenses had dropped way below her income she'd proved she could do it I was elated the next month I paid less attention returning to my old shopping habits and wiping out much of the financial gain of the previous month my wall chart looked bad and she realized that instead of trying to change the chart she would need to change herself yet Through The Years she'd spent thousands of dollars on seminars that were designed to change everything from her self-esteem to her Effectiveness on the job but the change never lasted so what was different this time a major component was the wall chart the wall chart seemed to be a challenge to the way she was living her whole life it drew a picture of her spending habits graphically showing her why there was not enough money at the end of the month she decided to follow the steps and see where they LED she'd beaten plenty of other odds she would beat these two see figure 5-2 how did this change in spending happen Diane explains that as she followed the steps of the program and noted her successes her self-esteem Rose she saw that she could do it and her dissatisfaction turned into a drive to do the best job she could this Spirit transformed her experience of working surprising her as much as it surprised her supervisors figure 5 to 2 Elaine's wall chart with expenses within four months I was debt free and my expenses were down to 1640. I had cut my grocery bill from 359 a month to 203 without even trying perhaps part of it was that I was happier on my job so I needed fewer treats my restaurant Bill dropped to 77 a month from 232. just by eating out only when I really wanted to I moved to a house for Less rent that was closer to work so my gas bill was 60 lower my medical costs were also cut in half most likely for the same reason my food bill went down I was enjoying my job more and had no need to get sick none of this felt like deprivation I wasn't struggling to spend less it didn't even feel like I was doing anything in particular It All Happened gradually at the same time I loved putting my figures on the wall chart each month and seeing the changes what a thrill the wall chart reminds us that Transforming Our relationship with money takes time and patience impatience denial and greed are actually part of what is being transformed it takes time to reflect on our lives and see if we still want to go where we're headed Insight can happen in a minute but growth happens over time reading this book may take only a few days but transforming your relationship with money will happen over time remember the lottery winners even if you should win the lottery your relationship with money would not be transformed and your life would not all of a sudden be filled with more joy or peace of mind by observing your reactions to your wall chart instead of getting upset about it you will be clearing away the attitudes and beliefs that got you where you are today there are two keys to making this process work for you one start to keep going we often hear that the Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with a single step what we don't hear as often is that you arrive at your destination by hundreds of thousands of additional small steps forward keep taking those steps they are important to the continuing growth of your awareness and strengthening of your integrity day by day eventually you'll begin to experience the magic of this process without even trying you'll find your expense line heading down how how the three questions can save you money remember those three questions in step four you will be finding out the profound effect these questions have on your Consciousness about money and consequently on your wall chart automatic lowering of expenses question 1 is did I receive fulfillment satisfaction and value in proportion to Life Energy spent asking this question every month about each of your spending categories increases your Consciousness about your choices and thus results in an automatic reduction in your total monthly expenses giving you the pleasure of seeing the expenses Line on Your Chart go down as we saw in chapter 4 greater Consciousness about which expenditures actually bring us happiness and which do not activates our survival mechanism in fact you are reprogramming yourself each of your Marx is an affront to your survival Instinct that automatic movement toward pleasure and away from pain this powerful mechanism becomes an ally as you become aware that some expenditures that you thought brought pleasure or that you simply incurred out of habit are actually not fulfilling or pleasurable at all remember our gazingus pins you will soon know what yours are those blinding moments of awareness as you catch yourself about to spend your life energy on yet another gazingus pin will all add up to lower expenses let's see how this works in the past when you try to change your habits and thus increase your experience of satisfaction you didn't have an accurate overview of your spending patterns rather than identifying gazing a spin buying as a source of dissatisfaction you continue to think it was the one thing to hang on to sometimes you might have tried to give up gazingus pins as a painful Penance for your spent thriftways only to find yourself once again at the gazing guspen counter-thinking just this once just this once but now you have identified those dead ends and are looking down from above the money maze you have seen the light I am not getting fulfillment in reality from this expenditure of Life Energy you will feel as if you are waking up from a dream realizing with great relief that it wasn't real as a matter of fact that's just what is happening this kind of reprogramming is amazingly powerful it will click in strongly next time you are about to robotically buy something there you are mechanically reaching out to pick up yet another gazingus pin and all of a sudden a red alert goes off in your brain wait do I really want another gazingus pin no it will just go in my gazing guspendra along with the 20 others there's five hours of my life in each of those gazingus pins and I don't even use them shrinking back from your gazing has been addiction you cry no after a while you'll learn to be cool during this process that little moment of awareness makes a big difference now that the link between spending money and getting fulfillment is in place a gazingus pin no longer automatically means satisfaction quite the opposite now you can be in line with yourself you're neither fighting yourself nor trying to buy happiness and satisfaction on the contrary you are now getting fulfillment from other uses of Your Life Energy you are valuing your life energy and thus yourself from this perspective it is easy to change direction ivu had grown up poor the daughter of Mexican-American parents there was never enough money but rather than acknowledge and talk about the pain of poverty her parents gave her platitudes we are blessed her Catholic father would say because only the poor can enter the kingdom of heaven religion and poverty and frustration at counting pennies got all tangled up leaving Ivy confused and resentful she resolved that when she grew up she'd have enough money so that she'd never have to worry about balancing her checkbook and would be able to buy whatever she wanted IV easily identified her gazingus pin it was clothes in doing her inventory in step one she breezed through her home satisfied with her Simplicity until she came to her closet where did all these clothes come from of course they came from a variety of stores most of them expensive department stores but why her determination to never again be poor had turned into the need to always be perfectly dressed she could measure her distance from poverty by the number of daily compliments on her attire yes as a career professional she did need to look her best but for Ivy that had been translated into several new outfits every month if she even wore last month's blouse with this month's new suit she felt shabby in doing her monthly tabulations she quickly saw that she did not get fulfillment commensurate with the hours of Life Energy she put into keeping several department stores in the black with no Struggle No denial or deprivation she stopped buying clothes she didn't need to her amazement the number of compliments she received per day didn't decrease at all all was well for many months then one day depressed over something she found herself back at the clothing racks she was looking for a pair of shorts and had a blinding moment of Awakening what am I doing here I don't even need shorts she walked out of the store empty-handed and with a stronger sense of her own power and integrity Gordon M the African-American activist turned financial planner whom we met in chapter one found that his unconscious spending categories were far more devastating than Ivy's gazingus pin of clothing you would have to call them Mega gazingus pins or simply major spending blind spots the Phi course for him was more like cataract surgery than simply getting a new pair of glasses when he asked himself the questions about fulfillment and Alignment he realized how bored and tired he'd been for the past eight years he also saw clearly what had gotten him into trouble first of all to play the role of financial planner he had assumed he needed an expensive office but when he looked at the amount of Life Energy his office was costing him dollar two comma 900 per month he questioned whether he was really getting value in fact he wasn't he did most of his business on the phone through the mail or in clients homes nobody ever saw him in his office so he moved his office to his home total current office cost 750 per month the second biggest blind spot for Gordon had been his kids they lived with their mother but he provided well for their support that was no problem the problem was that he gave his kids extra money every time they asked because he felt guilty about not being with them he has nine children so that added up no matter how much he gave they always wanted more having had his street smarts sharpened by this process of honest evaluation Gordon recognized that his kids had become addicted and he was the enabler he decided to change and even though the children are now going through a form of withdrawal Gordon is satisfied with his choice to stop paying guilt money for being an absent father with a few other minor adjustments asking the three questions cut 50 off Gordon's expenses and he is a lot happier for it not everyone has the amount of padding that Gordon did but after looking at hundreds of fears wall charts we can say that those who get past the three-month hump will find their expenses leveling out at about 20 less than where they started painlessly these people report no feelings of deprivation no struggling to keep to a budget just a natural decline knowing that you are not getting satisfaction proportional to the expenditure of Life Energy in a given subcategory of spending generates an automatic self-protective reversal of your spending habits over time you actually find yourself feeling better by not spending not buying a gazingus pin now becomes a source of fulfillment because you yourself have determined that gazingus pins don't bring you fulfillment alignment and personal integration there is still more to look forward to as you work with your wall chart watch that expense line go down as you ask month in and month out question two is the expenditure of Life Energy in this category in alignment with my values and stated life purpose this is a feedback system for integrity your statement of your values and life purpose reflects your highest Vision what you truly want for yourself thus you will want to act in your day-to-day life in a way consistent with your values and purpose unfortunately however it is sometimes all too easy to overlook the reality of what you're actually doing it is possible to behave in ways that are not only unsupportive of but contradictory to your highest vision and intention and to be unaware of what you're doing worse yet sometimes conflicts between whims and higher purpose are resolved by swiftly silencing the voices of conscience the data on how you spend your life energy provides a nitty-gritty tangible measure of that Integrity which is an invaluable support in keeping your material life in line with your ideals and goals when you're spending and your goals are in alignment you have an experience of wholeness and integrity you feel good about yourself when they are not aligned when the answer to the question does this expenditure support my values and life purpose is a resounding no then the experience is more likely to be one of disappointment or self-criticism the subtle but effective process of reinforcement spend money on x equals feel good spend money on why equals feel bad actually works it serves to break robotic spending patterns the simple recognition that you're not experiencing alignment from a given spending category acts to realign your responses to the stimuli in that category you will automatically begin to spend less on those things that don't support your values and life purpose and you will feel better about yourself knowing that increasingly you are putting your money where your life purpose is integrating your material life with your inner awareness this integration is at the heart of financial integrity as far as she could tell Diane G didn't have a purpose in life she just wanted to make it through seeking pleasure and avoiding pain as best she could thinking back on her childhood she remembered that her only happiness had been wandering off in the woods when her family took trips to the country at the time she started the Phi program she was the only one of her siblings who had gotten ahead one was a recluse living on welfare another had committed suicide and the third lived on the streets having a high-paying job a sports car and a nice house made her look like a winner to herself and to her family the question about aligning her spending with her values shook her complacency having always measured herself by externals Diane started covertly checking out her friends and co-workers did they have a higher purpose one of the people in her office was one of those save the world types intrigued by someone who didn't measure her net worth by material possessions Diane cultivated a friendship with her soon both of them were attending meetings of a local peace group the people Diane met there were all questioning how they could better lie their values and what actions they could take in the world to express their sense of purpose these meetings became her Chief form of entertainment instead of expensive workshops or outings to all the latest movies she attended lectures and participated in phonathons she found a large park near her home and spent hours on weekends wandering in the woods and at charting time her expense line kept going down from a monthly outlay of over 4 500 her cost of living dropped to a steady 900 to 1 200 per month looking for her purpose in life turned out to be a key component in the change she was undergoing what about unusual months yes there will be unusual months months when your expenses line takes an alarming leap upward the insurance payment is due you have an unexpected repair expense April comes and goes with the annual bloodletting known as taxes how do you handle these for one thing you may recognize that every month is an unusual month you learn to take unusual expenses in stride and to pay for them with cash instead of hiding them under a blanket of plastic one month's tax payment is another month's insurance payment is another month's doctor bill over time these unusual expenses usually balance out another strategy would be to prorate annual expenses over the whole 12 months for example if your auto insurance bill is 830 per year one you might in addition to questioning whether a car is worth it choose to divide that by 12 and make it a monthly expense ditto with health insurance income tax payments property taxes and so on there is no right way to do the accounting you need to choose the way that gives you the information you need so that as you glance at your wall chart you know where you are and where you're going getting your finances out in the open there's another key to successfully working with your chart hang it where you can see it every day to do you the most good the chart must be visible so that it can inspire you often to stay on track you will need to hang it up but where some people start out with their chart in the closet literally they hang their chart on the inside of their closet door it keeps their financial affairs private while still providing a reminder every day as they dress for work that they want to be conscious in their handling of money for those opting for financial Independence it reinforces the awareness that work is no longer about another day another dollar but rather about drawing one day closer to their goal of freedom from Financial fears and fiscal failures it's a boost as good as a cup of coffee or a hug ivu who never wanted to be poor met her prince charming and so as they say in Fairy Tales it came to pass that she had a successful life husband two sons her built to order Dream House with three decks two patios and Furniture selected by an interior designer and no need to balance her checkbook then reality intervened the fantasies on which she'd build her life weren't strong enough to maintain her marriage or her sanity so she said goodbye to her husband her house her furniture and her high-stress job packed a few select possessions into a U-Haul and headed west with her sons seven years later through the Phi course she found a path to even greater freedom she and her friend Margaret P invited a group of 20 friends to take the course so that they could support one another in following the program they met every month sharing insights successes and roadblocks and the intimate details of their financial lives when Ivy did her chart she challenged herself to bring it to the group and some of her ancient fears reappeared her first thought was my parents would think I'm crazy you don't show people how much you earn and spend it's it's not in good taste it's what was that reluctance why was she afraid of exposing her finances the reason she realized was a fear that it would allow people to judge her deciding whether she was a person of worth they could sum her up with a few numbers and discard her if she fell short with the same resolve that had helped her to leave her marriage she took her chart to the group the fear melted and something inside her relaxed about money what she spent was just what she spent her income was just her income she could tell it to someone as easily as she could tell someone the color of her living room couch it was no big deal over time you may find that your feelings about your chart are changing as a reflection of changes in your relationship with money the chart becomes a representation of how well you are living your values something that reflects the care you are taking with every decision about your material world it becomes a source of Pride not arrogance but that kind of deep satisfaction that comes with integrity once this happens many people find that they feel so good about their progress that they bring their chart out of the closet and hang it on a wall stop a minute and reflect on your own feelings about your current relationship with money how would you feel about hanging this graphic representation of your financial affairs on your living room wall write out where everyone who comes into your house could see it would you feel at ease or uneasy the degree of your discomfort is a measure of the degree of your financial disease don't worry that uneasiness will disappear as You Follow the steps of this program Financial Independence as a byproduct of doing the steps people who put the steps of this program into practice report that the process of transforming their relationship with money becomes both challenging and fascinating recording every penny becomes an enjoyable ritual at the checkout counter and it also Sparks some interesting discussions with curious onlookers who want to know what you're up to monthly tabulation time is a highlight asking the three questions provides a quick yet penetrating check-in with your values and life purpose entering income and expenses on the wall chart becomes a time to reflect on the truth of your Consciousness around money after a few months or a year of following these steps you will begin to notice a very satisfying byproduct of the process as you consistently earn more than you spend you eventually get out of debt and accumulate savings does some of this seem impossible considering your particular financial situation it's not the conditions of your life but how you interact with them that will allow you to move forward followers of this program include people who were deeply in debt and out of work who didn't have a college education and had huge gaps in their resumes who had families to support and who lived in depressed parts of the country they didn't have the wind at their backs they just made skillful use of the wins they encountered and sailed with them in the strictest sense Financial Independence as we have defined it means having an income sufficient for your basic needs and Comforts from a source other than paid employment but there are other aspects of Phi such as getting out of debt and accumulating savings Financial Independence is getting out of debt for many people getting out of debt is a tremendous Milestone very much an accomplishment of financial Independence often they don't even realize what a burden debt is until it disappears what about you are you in debt do you know how much you owe and to whom do you know how much it's costing you to be in debt or do you just make payments on your mortgage your car s and your credit cards till death do you part we once heard an advocate for the homeless say that most Americans are two paychecks away from homelessness that seemed excessive almost beyond belief yet when we talked with other professionals who have their fingers on the pulse of Consumer Debt some have said that two paychecks is a conservative estimate one paycheck or one major illness would be enough to send many people over the itch one young participant in a debtor's anonymous group said she'd accumulated 45 000 of debt before she was 30. she'd been in a fast-track career and her income had attracted the attention of the credit card sharks when American Express sent her a gold card she figured she'd arrived if they thought she was so creditworthy then she must be head held high shoulders Square she marched to the best furniture store in town and bought everything she wanted never realizing that she would pay interest on her purchases people who see debt as endless and just pay down as little as possible are in effect lowering their income they don't see that using a high interest credit card to buy a new stereo to celebrate a raise can wipe out the gain in salary and then some a car financed via a multi-year loan will ultimately cost considerably more than the original sticker price a house with a 30-year mortgage will cost depending on the interest rate two or even three times the purchase price by the time the final payment is made Debtors Anonymous says we go into debt to avoid feelings especially feelings of deprivation like other addictions debt allows us to deny pain sorrow loss anger loneliness and despair is your tendency to use your credit card simply a habit or is it an addiction Dave Ramsey a popular money advisor says if you use credit cards instead of cash you will spend 12 to 18 more to the rise of easy credit makes it far easier to opt for instant gratification we are no longer limited to what we can afford based on what we have already earned debt has become the American way making it hard to see that it is debt that ties us to our jobs it's debt that keeps us with our noses to the grindstone making it dying to pay off Pleasures we've long forgotten and luxuries we scarcely have time to enjoy Sally M used to subtitle her life bottoms by day Piece By Night she worked for money as a graphic designer for a high-tech company with major defense contracts and worked for Love on a variety of church-sponsored service projects thanks to her 26 000 debt there seemed to be no alternative and because she had been told repeatedly that there was no other way her conscience had stopped bothering her the Phi program provided a merciless mirror but it freed her on her chart she placed a small sign that said on my way to debt free below it she put a series of velcro patches with numbers and kept track of the exact amount she owed it was as if I were melting a candle or losing a hundred pounds she told us without a raise and without any feeling of deprivation she was debt-free in two years when she looked for what was really fulfilling in her life she saw that her greatest joy came from short-term work trips she'd participated in helping with construction jobs in places like Costa Rica and Kenya Upon returning from her first trip to Kenya she had become extremely depressed yes she'd helped build an addition to a rural Hospital in a remote Mountain Village but now what she was still Rich while they were poor so she started collecting medical supplies that would otherwise be discarded and packed them off to Kenya with safari-bound tourists by the time she was debt-free Sally knew just what her next step would be she had discovered that people in Kenya were dying from untreated tooth abscesses she quit her job rented out her townhouse leased her car and left for Kenya for a year to help establish a dental clinic with no debts and with the rent on her house and car providing all the cash she needed to live in rural Kenya Sally was financially liberated being debt-free she now had a choice and she chose to follow her heart getting out of debt then is one form of financial Independence retiring your debt returns to you the freedom to choose whatever the economic climate being able to say I don't owe anything to anyone is a statement of Sanity dignity and freedom once you are out of debt you have choice you might choose as Sally did to follow your heart to distant lands or different Pursuits then again you might continue to enjoy the process of transforming your relationship with Money Right Where You Are as you continue to spend less than you earn while savoring life to the fullest an Ever larger Gap will develop on your wall chart between your income line and your expenses line this Gap has a name one that has fallen into disuse in recent years it's called savings see figure five to three savings are another form of financial Independence Financial Independence is Money in the Bank how much are you saving now what would your life be like if you had money to cover a Year's worth of expenses in some form of easily accessible savings financial advisors often warn that it is human nature to spend more when using credit cards 12 to 18 according to Ramsey and up to 20 more by other estimates interestingly enough people who follow the Debtors Anonymous program also find that they spend about 20 percent less than before consider 2. the advice of popular financial adviser Jane Bryant Quinn in promoting the strategy called pay yourself first set aside savings before paying the bills and stocking your wallet she observed that it wasn't until she herself hit a 20 savings rate that she even began to feel the pinch which means almost 20 of her money had been running through her fingers without giving her any appreciable pleasure figure 5 to 3 wall chart with expenses income and savings the capacity for saving is truly within your grasp it will happen as You Follow the steps so what does this mean for you with savings unemployment is not a tragedy if you lose your paycheck but have savings you need not lose any of your possessions what's more you may see the opportunity to explore options you were too busy or too tired to consider before you could pack up the family in a camper and travel around the country you could strap on a backpack and tour the world you could read you could do every household project on your list you could learn a new trade you could explore your creative side painting pictures or making music for the sheer pleasure of it you could spend the whole year in a systematic job search for the work that suits you to 80. you could get your Gad ba or Ma and qualify for a whole new level in your chosen field of work you could volunteer full-time for a cause you care about and maybe even be asked to stay on as paid staff you could get reacquainted with your family try this ask yourself how you would spend your time if you could take a year off with pay don't be surprised if you find your mind a total blank complete identification with your job may have temporarily suppressed your true dreams and desires but stay with the question and discover the possibilities of what you would choose to do if you had enough savings that you didn't need paid employment for one year how do you feel about having savings what are your thoughts about it for or against does having savings compromise your self-image does it represent the passage of your youth or capitulation to your parents are you a spent Thrift who thinks that the term disposable income means that it's your right to spend every last penny in your pocket does saving seem like an Impossible Dream given your Current financial status what about your religious or political convictions about saving money should you be tithing your excess money to the church giving it to the poor or donating it to a Cause the point here is not necessarily to change your savings habits but to get in touch with your predisposition about savings so that you'll be able to manage with ease and integrity the increase in savings that comes as a byproduct of doing these steps savings then are a form of financial Independence savings can give you new courage at your job and new energy to explore the neglected parts of your life savings pave over the lean times in freelance or seasonal work savings relax any unconscious fear of becoming a street person savings keep you from making bad choices out of desperation saving money is like building a dam on a river the water that builds up behind the dam has an increasing amount of potential energy allow your life energy money to accumulate in a bank account and you will be ready to power anything from painting your house to reorienting your life all this from a graph there is nothing magical about the wall chart you can enter your numbers at the beginning of the month and ignore it the rest of the month and nothing will happen but if you interact with it keep it in plain sight listen to what it's telling you and keep going you will notice changes over time part of financial intelligence is the continuing awareness of your earning spending and saving patterns over time it is a constant reminder of your commitment to transform your relationship with money it counters the out of sight out-of-mind syndrome it keeps you aware of your intention to change your unconscious spending habits it is a feedback system showing you at a glance clearly and graphically your current status and your progress toward your goal you don't have to haul out your piggy bank or your monthly tabulations to see how you're doing the two lines on your graph are either going up or going down it can be an inspiration an experience of satisfaction with the progress you are making that Spurs you to even greater Heights when you are convinced that the process isn't working your wall chart will remind you that it is it can be a motivation a prod to keep you on track when discouragement Creeps in or your energy Flags when Temptation strikes the thought of facing your wall chart at the end of the month might help you make a healthier choice it puts your integrity on the line visibly it is hard or at least harder to lie to yourself about your progress in the presence of your wall chart it is a continuing suggestion that you honor your life energy your income represents many hours of your precious tenure on this beautiful Earth and your expenses represent ways you've chosen to use those valuable hours the wall chart reminds you to Steward this resource of time as well as possible finally it enlists continuing support by having it on the wall where others can see it you're inviting interest and participation it helps to have your friends and relatives cheering on the sidelines final inspiration from Mike and Linda lennock when Mike and Linda Lennox started the nine-step program in July 1992 they were 52 000 in debt car loan and mortgage by July 1993 simply by following the steps including the supercharged motivation that came from their wall chart they were debt free but this isn't the total story if you look at their chart you'll see they traced their debt back to 1986 when it was at Dollar 75 comma zero zero zero plus that was when they were following a Surefire make a million beat the Market Stock and commodity scheme that plunged them for a while in up to 125 000 of debt part of Mike's love of your money or your life was that this program worked because they became aware committed and conscious he never again wanted to experience the gut-wrenching face blanching Panic that struck when the Surefire scheme precipitously failed figure 5 to 4 Linux savings and salary chart checklist of supplies graph paper approximately 18 by 22 inches with 10 squares to the centimeter or 24 by 36 inches with 10 squares to the inch Pens Black plus two other colors summary of Step 5 make and keep up to date a chart of your total monthly income and your total monthly expenses foreign [Music] six the American dream on a shoestring it is both sad and telling that there is no word in the English language for living at the peak of the Fulfillment curve always having plenty but never being burdened with excess the word would need to evoke the careful stewarding of tangible resources time money material possessions coupled with the joyful expansion of spiritual resources creativity intelligence love unfortunately you can't say I'm enoughing or I'm choosing a life of enoughness to explain the mixture of affluence and Thrift that comes from following the steps of this program the word frugality used to serve that function but by the middle of the 20th century frugality had gotten a bad reputation how did frugality lose favor among Americans it is after all a perennial ideal and a Cornerstone of the American character both Socrates and Plato praised the golden mean both the Old Testament give me neither poverty nor wealth but only enough and the teachings of Jesus ye cannot serve both God and money extol the value of material Simplicity in enriching the life of the spirit in American history well-known individuals Benjamin Franklin Henry David Thoreau Ralph Waldo Emerson Robert Frost as well as groups Amish Quakers Hutterites Mennonites have carried forward the virtue of thrift both out of respect for the Earth and out of a thirst for a touch of Heaven and the challenges of building our nation required frugality of most of our citizens indeed the wealth we enjoy today is the result of centuries of frugality as we said earlier the more is better consumer culture is a Johnny come lately on the American scene our Bedrock is frugality and it's high time we made friends again with the word and the practice let's explore this word frugality to see if we can't redeem it as the key to fulfillment the pleasures of frugality we looked up Frugal in a Merriam-Webster Dictionary and found characterized by or reflecting economy in the expenditure of resources that sounds about right a serviceable practical and fairly colorless word none of the Elegance or Grace of the enoughness that fear is experience but when we dig deeper the dictionary tells us that Frugal shares a Latin root with frog meaning virtue frocks meaning fruit or value and frui meaning to enjoy or have the use of now we're talking frugality is enjoying the virtue of getting good value for every minute of your life energy and from everything you have the use of that's very interesting in fact it's more than interesting it's transforming frugality means we are to enjoy what we have if you have 10 dresses but still feel you have nothing to wear you are probably a spendthrift but if you have 10 dresses and have enjoyed wearing all of them for years you are frugal waste lies not in the number of possessions but in the failure to enjoy them your success at being Frugal is measured not by your penny pinching but by your degree of enjoyment of the material world enjoyment of the material world isn't that hedonism while both have to do with enjoying what you have frugality and Hedonism are opposite responses to the material world Hedonism Revels in the pleasures of the senses and implies excessive consumption of the material world and a continual search for more frugal people however get value from everything a dandelion or a bouquet of roses a single strawberry or a gourmet meal a hedonist might consume the juice of five oranges as a Prelude to a pancake breakfast a Frugal person on the other hand might relish eating a single orange enjoying the color and texture of the whole fruit the smell and the light spray that comes as you begin to peel it the translucence of each section the flood of flavor that powers out as a section bursts over the tongue and the thrift of saving the peels for baking to be frugal means to have a high joy to stuff ratio if you get one unit of joy for each material possession that's frugal but if you need 10 possessions to even begin registering on the joy meter you're missing the point of being alive there's a word in Spanish that encompasses all this apra vetcher it means to use something wisely be it a sunny day at the beach or leftovers made into a delicious new meal it's getting full value from life enjoying all the good that each moment and each thing has to offer you can a pravesha a simple meal a bowl of ripe strawberries or a cruise in the Bahamas there's nothing miserly about a prevention it's a succulent word full of sunlight and flavor if only Frugal were so sweet the more is better and it's never enough mentality in North America fails the frugality test not solely because of the excess but because of the lack of enjoyment of what we already have indeed North Americans have been called materialists but that's a misnomer all too often it's not material things we enjoy as much as what these things symbolize Conquest status success achievement a sense of worth and even favor in the eyes of the creator once we've acquired the Dream House the status car or the Perfect Mate we rarely stop to enjoy them thoroughly instead we're off and running after the next coveted acquisition another lesson we can derive from the dictionary definition of frugal is the recognition that we don't need to possess a thing to enjoy it we merely need to use it if we are enjoying an item whether or not we own it we're being frugal for many of life's Pleasures it may be far better to use something than to possess it and pay in time and energy for the upkeep so often we have been like feudal Lords Gathering as many possessions as possible from far and wide and bringing them inside the walls of our Castle if we want something or wanted it in the past or imagine we might want it in the future we think we must bring it inside the boundaries of the world called mine what we fail to recognize is that what is outside the walls of mind doesn't belong to the enemy it belongs to the rest of us and if what lies outside our walls is not them but us we can afford to loosen our grip a bit on our possessions we can gingerly open the doors of our Fortress and allow Goods material and spiritual to flow into and out of our boundaries in addition to the good feeling you get when you give from your bounty to others and others give to you you get community Through the many daily exchanges of time helping out gifting and even offering a listening ear and Community is the real treasure as part of a community you can relax into belonging and getting a helping hand when you need it frugality isn't being alone and lonely Ranger perfect in your self-reliance it's discovering that you have more to give and more to enjoy than mere material possessions frugality then is also learning to share to see the world as ours rather than as theirs and mine and while not explicit in the word being Frugal and being happy with having enough means that more will be available for others learning to share the resources of the earth equitably especially as it becomes more and more evident that there actually isn't enough to support us all at the U.S level of Comforts is at the top of the global agenda some creative frugality in North America could go a long way toward promoting that balance frugality is the balance we seek frugality is the Greek notion of the golden mean frugality is being efficient in harvesting happiness from the world you live in frugality is Right Use which sounds appropriately like righteous the wise stewarding of money time energy space and possessions Goldilocks expressed it well when she declared the porridge not too hot not too cold but just right frugality is something like that not too much not too little but just right nothing is wasted or left unused it's a clean machine sleek perfect simple yet elegant it's that magic word enough the peak of the Fulfillment curve the jumping off point for a life of being fulfilled learning and contributing to the welfare of the planet keep this in mind as we explore ways to save money we aren't talking about being cheap making do or being a skin Flint or a tight wad we're talking about creative frugality a way of life in which you get the maximum fulfillment for each unit of Life Energy spent in fact now that you know that money is Your Life Energy it seems foolish to consider wasting it on stuff you don't enjoy and never use recalling the arithmetic we did in Chapter 2 you'll remember that if you are 40 years old Actuarial tables indicate that you have just 349 763 hours of Life Energy in your bank that may seem like a lot now but those hours will feel very precious at the end of your life spend them well now and you won't have regrets later in the end this creative frugality is an expression of self-esteem it honors the Life Energy you invest in your material possessions saving those minutes and hours of Life Energy through careful consuming is the ultimate in self-respect step 6 valuing Your Life Energy minimizing spending this step is about the intelligent use of your life energy money and the conscious lowering or eliminating of expenses long ago and even now for those in poverty the vast majority of humans were economically conservative they knew how to get the most from their environment for the least effort the life energy cost of every item was clear when we humans worked our muscles to get our food there was a consequence to excess you got hungry and tired and time by the fire with friends looked pretty good the Industrial Revolution changed that machines used their muscles while we used our lives to make the money to get the machines to do our work until we rediscovered frugality either by choice or necessity and now with the Advent of the internet Yes dear reader the authors were born raised and became Frugal BC before computers The Frugal life has gotten both easier and harder sites for Consumer research tools and frugality tips are now so numerous that saving money on everything is two clicks away there are websites that cruise other websites to find the best price online for the item you want there are product evaluation sites where real people tell you their real experiences with products there are online user groups for every Hobby and interest with know it all seemingly at the ready day and night to help you choose products and help you make them work once you get them home neighborly advice has gone global indeed the advice we give in this chapter is now readily available online just type frugality into a search engine and up Pops the top 50 frugality bloggers and the top frugality websites at the same time however the web has made The Frugal life harder because the global Marketplace is also just two clicks away sign up for a free email account and somehow the provider can follow the breadcrumb trail of websites you viewed and put a string of tantalizing offers to the right of your inbox sites with no advertising now look a bit Plain Jane and dreary there's one click shopping where online sellers store all your data and if your finger Twitches you've authorized a sale auction sites don't say you've just parted with 100 hard-earned dollars instead they tell you you've won you don't have to leave your house to do impulse shopping buyer beware might now mean buyer beware of the army of marketing experts who have studied people just like you and know how to get you to click your way into six-digit debt because the web is an emergent phenomenon its growing exponentially and innovating daily and because it both helps and hinders frugality we are leaving it to others to keep you current on how to work the online system to your advantage the purpose of this chapter is to provide you with an overarching perspective on how to save money which we hope will spark your own creative ideas we intend to provide you with time-tested wisdom rather than the hottest tips for living well within your means there are classic Ways to Be Frugal to maximize value and minimize cost and what follows our tried and true suggestions they reflect the author's Lifestyles and choices and those of many fears as well since we're focusing on classic not pop wisdom we have included information from two of the most successful frugality proponents of the 1990s Amy and Jim de sykeson their newsletter The titewaj Gazette was eventually compiled into several books of their best tips and they remain real Bibles of frugality to this day one change from when we and the decisions wrote Our books is the rise of green consumption today green products are everywhere in general though don't use green consumption as another shopping opportunity rushing to replace perfectly functional items with Greener versions there is often a higher environmental cost in manufacturing a new green item than using up an old conventional one and old appliances were often designed for decades of use while newer ones by admission of salesmen can fail in five years do however consider our expanding knowledge about global warming and resource depletion as part of your does this align with my values inquiry and if energy costs Skyrocket you will find adaptations that have nothing to do with the do I buy a new one dilemma instead you might be asking do I need this at all frugality by focusing on enough rather than more can actually be one of the truest ways to be green the amount of stuff you buy is strongly correlated with your impact on nature since less overall spending generally means fewer products purchased or purchased new which means fewer environmental costs also Community Solutions sharing resources and everyday objects among friends and neighbors made a lot of sense to us when we wrote the first edition but not to others back then sharing resources seemed marginal to people with the financial means to afford the luxury of having one of everything in their homes now with Rising energy and food costs sharing is moving from marginal to mainstream a simple and obvious example is public transportation when fuel costs skyrocketed in 2008 so did ridership on commuter lines the Christian Science monitor reported on July 18 2008 that passenger numbers climbed 5.7 Nationwide during the first quarter compared with a year ago ridership jumped 27 in Seattle 17 in Harrisburg PA and 10.4 in Philadelphia during the same period Americans drove 2.3 percent fewer miles according to the Federal Highway Administration last year marked the first such dip since the agency started recording the figure in 1982.1 Wikipedia an online open source encyclopedia is another example of how sharing is the new hip way to get things done in this case sharing knowledge other internet sharing tools like Flickr and YouTube have quickly become just the way we do things the Epic of sharing is so prevalent on the web and with the under 40 crowd that it's harder and harder to enforce intellectual property rights and software patents and even privacy it's not quite holding hands and singing Kumbaya but sharing at least in the world of the web is becoming the way of the world finally we'll point out that some Frugal choices are healthy choices for example a vegetarian diet eliminates heart-clogging animal fats while reducing costs meat is far more expensive than vegetables or rice and beans riding a bicycle saves money three times once on gas once on gym fees and once on Dr bills point to consider the suggestions that follow not as a blueprint for the single right way but rather as a menu of options explore the ones that Intrigue or inspire you and leave the rest there's something for everyone here but not everything will be for you at the end of the day frugality is about having a healthy relationship with yourself and your possessions it's about your own inquiry as you shop your cash register Consciousness about what a product means to you and if there might be another way a way that feels better and costs less to meet the need that product represents frugality is about enjoyment not penny pinching happy saving or should we say happy frugaling one sure way to save money stop trying to impress other people other people are probably so busy trying to impress you that they will at best not notice your efforts at worst they will resent you for one-upping them when thorstein veblen published the theory of the Leisure Class in 1899 it didn't make a big splash but the term he coined conspicuous consumption has made it into the heart of our culture in the forward to veblen's book social commentator and writer Stuart Chase summarized his thesis this way people above the line of Base subsistence in this age and all earlier ages do not use the Surplus which society has given them primarily for useful purposes they do not seek to expand their own lives to live more wisely intelligently understandingly but to impress other people with the fact that they have a surplus spending money time and effort quite uselessly in the pleasurable business of inflating the ego point three but just because conspicuous consumption is a cross-cultural and evolutionary aberration of the human species doesn't mean that you have to fall prey to it if you stop trying to impress other people you will save thousands perhaps millions of dollars and think how impressed people will be with how much you've saved 10 sure ways to save money one don't go shopping if you don't go shopping you won't spend money of course if you really need something from the store go and buy it but don't just go shopping about 53 of groceries and 47 of hardware store purchases are a spur of the moment for indeed shopping at malls and online is one of our favorite National pastimes more than the simple Act of acquiring needed goods and services shopping attempts to fill but obviously fails since we have to shop so often Myriad needs for socializing and time structuring for a reward after a job well done for an antidepressant for esteem boosting self-assertion status and nurturing an alien Anthropologist might conclude that the mall is our place of worship and shopping the central ritual of communion with our deity Louis laffem observes we express our longing for the ineffable in the wolfishness of our appetite the feasts of consumption thus become rituals of communion five consumption seems to be our favorite high are nationally sanctioned addiction the All-American form of substance abuse so don't go shopping and while you're at it stay away from advertising that wets your appetite for stuff you don't want and for pity's sake don't tune in to the Home Shopping Network and the like you may be saving more than money you may be saving your sanity not to speak of your soul to live within your means this notion is so outmoded that some readers might not even know what it signifies to live within your means is to buy only what you can prudently afford to avoid debt unless you have an assurance that you will be able to pay it promptly and always to have something put away for a rainy day it was quite a fashionable way to live a couple of short Generations ago before we started living beyond our means there are two sides to the coin of living beyond your means the shiny side is that you can have everything you want right now the tarnished side is that you will pay for it with your life buying on credit from Cars to houses to vacations often results in paying three times the purchase price is going to Hawaii for two weeks this year worth working perhaps for additional months next year to pay it off this doesn't mean you have to cut up all your credit cards you just have to avoid using them as much as possible we recognize that credit cards can be a way to put food on the table for those who unexpectedly hit hard times but in general it's important to distinguish between necessity and Indulgence so you have as little debt as possible to pay off living within your means suggests that you wait until you have the money before you buy something this gives you the benefit of avoiding interest charges it also gives you a waiting period during which you may well discover that you don't want some of those things after all he who hesitates saves money the bright side of living within your means is that you will use and enjoy what you have and harvest a full measure of fulfillment from it whether it's your old car your old coat or your old house it also means that you can weather the economic bad times when they come which they will three take care of what you have there is one thing we all have that we want to last a long time our bodies simple attention to the proven preventive practices will save you lots of money flossing and brushing your teeth for example could save thousands in dental bills and eating what you know agrees with your body judging by your energy not by your taste buds May save you thousands inexpensive procedures not to mention your life extend this principle to all your possessions regular oil changes are known to extend the life of your car cleaning your tools extends their life how many hair dryers and vacuum cleaners have choked to death on hairballs dusting your refrigerator coil saves energy and could save your refrigerator one big difference between living beings and machines is that machines are not self-healing if you ignore a headache it will probably go away if you ignore a funny noise in your engine you could throw a rod burn out a water pump or otherwise incur major and costly damage many of us have lived with excess for so many years that it no longer occurs to us to maintain what we have there's always more where that came from we tell ourselves but more costs money and more may not in the long run be available for wear it out what's the last item you actually wore out if it weren't for the fashion industry and boredom we could all enjoy the same basic wardrobe for many years survey your possessions are you simply upgrading or duplicating last year's electronic equipment Furniture kitchenware Carpeting and linens or are you truly wearing them out think how much money you would save if you simply decided to use things even 20 longer if you usually replace your towels every two years try replacing them every two and a half years if you trade in your car every three years try extending that to four if you buy a new coat every other winter see whether every third winter would do just as well and when you're about to buy something ask yourself do I already have one of these that is in perfectly usable condition another way to save money is to ask before trashing something whether there might be another way to use part or all of it old letters and emails become scrap paper old dishcloths become cleaning rags old magazines become art materials old grocery bags become grocery bags again or garbage bags a word of caution to the already frugal using something until you wear it out does not mean using it until it wears you out if you must continually fiddle with a lamp to make it work and you've already tried repairing it it may not be worth your life energy to coax it along for another year if your car is taking you for a ride costing more hours in tinkering or more money in repairs then it's giving you in service buy a newer one if your knee joints are suffering from running shoes that have lost their bounds it would be cheaper to buy a new pair on sale than to have knee surgery 5. do it yourself can you change the oil in your car fix a Plumbing Leak do your taxes make your own gifts change the tire on your bicycle bake a cake from scratch build a bookshelf refinish furniture plant a garden ham a pair of pants cut your family's hair form your own non-profit Corporation it used to be that we learned basic life skills from our parents in the process of growing up then the Industrial Revolution put our parents in factories and after the passing of child labor and mandatory public education laws put us in schools next our grandparents were put in Rest Homes removing the people who traditionally taught life skills to the children while the parents worked eventually home economics and Shop classes had to be incorporated in the curriculum as supplements to the ever decreasing skill nourishment we got at home by the 1970s it was no longer fashionable for mothers to stay at home with their children by the 1980s many couples assumed it wasn't even possible economically for either parent to stay home with their children is it any wonder that the only way we know how to take care of ourselves in the 21st century is to be consumers of goods and services provided by others to reverse that Trend just ask yourself when you're about to hire an expert can I do this myself what would it take to learn how would it be a useful skill to know in the context of a fast-paced high-tech life a do-it-yourself orientation might seem quaint but most humans throughout history and on the planet today are far more able than most of us to make and provide for themselves what they need for daily living and many experts think that will be thrown back on our own resources increasingly in the coming decades years ago when Susie T was young and lived in Fiji with her doctor husband for several months she was embarrassed by how the native Fijian seemed to Revere them she tried to diminish their respect to an appropriate level but they would have none of it then she discovered that since they made and could repair every single thing they depended on to live they assumed that Susie and Bill made their transistor radio watch and typewriter they were unable to understand that no these were made by others and Susie had no idea how basic living and survival skills can be learned through websites adult education classes extension agents and last but not least books every breakdown can be used as an opportunity for Learning and empowerment what you can't do or choose not to do you can hire others to do and tag along for the ride every bit of your energy invested in solving these breakdowns not only teaches you something you need to know for the next time but helps prevent mistakes and reduces the bill one fear tells the story of how her heating system failed one winter three companies sent out repair people to assess the problem and make a bid each one told her with absolute certainty what the problem was unfortunately each told her a different story so she cracked the books meditated on the Rube Goldberg Maze of pipes came to an educated guess and chose the company that came closest to her analysis thus saving herself hundreds of dollars of unnecessary and possibly destructive work by staying with the repair man and observing his work she also was able to avert a few more expensive mistakes and to save expensive Time by doing some of the simpler tasks a typical working couple might have paid 10 times what she did to have the job done and then felt fortunate to have two paychecks since the cost of living in the modern world is so high six anticipate your needs for thought in purchasing can bring tremendous savings with enough lead time you will inevitably see the items you need go on sale by the time you need them at 20 to 50 under the usual price keep current on web discounts and catalogs and sale Flyers of national and local catalog merchandisers read the sale ads in the Sunday paper if you have access to the internet type discount merchandise or price comparison into your web browser and find the current meta sites that allow you to comparison shop Online Auctions allow you to see the prices Discounters and warehouses might be offering watch for seasonal Bargains such as January and August white Sales holiday sales such as Memorial Day and Labor Day year-end clearance sales and back-to-school sales But be sure these are really sales by simply observing the poor condition of your car's left rear tire while it still has some life left you can anticipate a need by simply being aware of this need you will naturally notice the phenomenal tire sale that will appear in the sports section of your Sunday newspaper three weeks from now and you'll know it's a phenomenal sale because you have been watching prices in the shorter term shopping at the corner convenience store can be expensive anticipating your needs that you'll be wanting evening snacks that you'll run out of milk midweek or that you'll need paper for your printer can eliminate running out to the corner store to pick up these items instead you can purchase them during your Supermarket shopping or on a run to the office supply store this can result in significant savings anticipating your needs also eliminates one of the biggest threats to your frugality impulse buying if you haven't anticipated needing something when you leave your house at 305 chances are you don't need it at 3 10 when you're standing at the gazinga spin counter at the corner store we're not saying you should buy only things that are on your premeditated shopping list although that isn't such a bad idea for compulsive Shoppers we are saying that you must be scrupulously honest when you're out and about saying I anticipate needing this as you're drooling over a left-handed feeble fitzer or cashmere sweater is not the same as having already anticipated needing one and recognizing that this particular one is a bargain remember the corollary to Parkinson's law the work expands to fit the time allowed for its completion needs expand to Encompass whatever you want to buy on impulse seven research value quality durability multiple use and price researcher purchases the print and online editions of consumer reports and other websites and Publications give excellent evaluations and comparisons of almost everything you might buy and they can be fun just to read decide what features are most important to you don't just be a bargain junkie and automatically buy the cheapest item available durability might be critical for something you plan to use daily for 20 years one obvious way of saving money is to spend less on each item you buy but it's equally true that spending 40 on a tool that lasts 10 years instead of buying a thirty dollars one that will need to be replaced in five years will save you 20 in the long run multiple use is also a factor buying one item for ten dollars that will serve the purpose of four different five dollar items will net you a savings of ten dollars one heavy-duty Kitchen pot can and perhaps should replace half a dozen specialty appliances like a rice cooker a crock pot a dutch oven a deep fat fryer a paella pan and a spaghetti cooker so if you really expect to be using an item buying for durability and for multiple purposes can be a good savings technique but if you will be using the item only occasionally you may not want to spend the extra dollars on a high quality product knowing what your needs are and knowing the whole range of what is available will allow you to choose the right item besides reading consumer magazines and websites you can evaluate quality by developing a sharp eye and carefully examining what you are buying are the seams in a piece of clothing ample are the edges finished is the fabric durable is it washable or will you be paying dry cleaning bills to keep it clean are the screws holding the appliance together sturdy enough for the job is the material strong or flimsy is the furniture nailed stapled or screwed here is where you will become an expert materialist knowing materials so well that you can read the probable longevity of an item the way a Forester can read the age and history of a fallen tree this is the opposite of crass materialism this might not be as uplifting as standing in a redwood Grove but it actually is respecting The Wonder of Creation in its own way everything you purchase has its origin in the Earth everything knowing the wear patterns of aluminum versus stainless steel is honoring the Earth every bit as much as lobbying for stronger Environmental Protection laws in fact changing yourself and changing the system go hand in hand by the same token engaging only in personal strategies is inadequate we all need to become active citizens and to encourage our local state and federal governments to provide high-quality public transportation Public Schools public hospitals Universal sickness care insurance and other Basics so that we can all be frugal together and decrease gobs of personal spending eight by it for less if you've spent any time in the marketplace you know you can pay a lot of different prices for the same item things don't cost what they cost they cost what you pay where you get the item and how much you pay off and relates more to questions of values and convenience rather than differences in quality all things being equal however the goal is usually to get it as cheaply as possible the following section contains a few tips on how to do that comparison shop by phone where do you shop and how did you choose it is it where you've always shopped at the mall closest to your home where your friends shop where advertising or status seeking has told you is the only place to shop we research products via the Internet compare prices there too but try to buy locally and for big items always do for those items we comparison shop via the telephone once we know what we want we phone around for the best price the more educated you are about the product and the more specific you can be about the exact make or model you want the more successful your bargain hunting will be you will be amazed at the range of prices quoted for the same item if you prefer doing business with a particular store or supplier phone shop for the best price and then ask your favorite vendor if he or she can match it seven years prior to writing the first edition of this book after much research we decided we wanted a Toyota Tercel with four-wheel drive we then called every dealership within 100 miles and shaved 33 off the highest bid by purchasing a demonstrator a deluxe model with everything but air conditioning that had 3600 miles on it seven years and 100 000 miles later nothing had gone wrong seven years prior to this Edition the author pulled the same trick with the Honda Insight at that time the most fuel-efficient hybrid car on the road the new car was 24 000. one dealer offered a right off the showroom floor but 2001 model for 16 800. a few calls later a new write-off showroom floor 2002 model was offered by another dealer for 16 000. a similar 33 savings some things never change like phone comparison shopping bargain you can ask for discounts for paying cash you can ask for discounts for less than perfect items you can ask for the sale price even if the sale begins tomorrow or ended yesterday you can ask for further discounts on items already marked down you can ask for discounts if you buy a number of items at the same time you can ask for discounts anywhere anytime nothing ventured nothing gained haggling is a time-honored tradition the list price of any consumer item is usually inflated as soon as you hear the words the list price is you should say yes but what is your price According to Jim de Sikes and you should be able to shave 24 off the sticker price for a car but this strategy applies to more than houses cars and other major purchases you have nothing to lose by asking for a discount at any store from your local hardware store to a clothing Emporium a case in point was our recent outing to buy new running shoes a 95 list price pair was sitting on the manager's special rack with no price they fit perfectly we asked a Salesman what they would cost dollar 39.99 he replied would you take dollar 30 we asked surveying what he had left he said 28 dollars we could have pointed out that haggling etiquette suggests that his counter-offer be higher not lower than ours but we were astute enough just to shut our mouths open our wallet and take advantage of a great bargain by the way this strategy works best at independently owned stores where the owner has more authority to make instant decisions so if the chain store has it for Less at least give the independent local store owner a chance to meet the price buy it used re-examine your attitudes about buying used items most of us live in used houses someone else probably built your home and inaugurated the shower toilet fridge and more of us drive used cars if you define your needs and research prices via online sales Outlets like cars.com Craigslist and autotrader.com in the United States or use a purchasing agent you can certainly save a bundle but what about everything else if you are a thrift store or garage sale addict look at whether you are really saving money or whether you are buying items you don't need just because they are such a bargain but if you wouldn't be caught dead in a Salvation Army Thrift Store look around your town thrift stores have become fashionable emporiums clothing kitchenware Furniture drapes all can be found in thrift stores and you may be surprised at the high quality of many of them as a matter of fact donating brand new items to thrift stores is one way that shopaholics justify excess purchases if you just can't bring yourself to shop at thrift stores consider consignment shops the prices are higher but the quality is consistently high as well in our experience thrift stores are best for clothing but garage sales are cheaper and more reliable for appliances furniture and household items if you're an early bird arriving before the sellers have even had their morning coffee you can often find exceptional buys unless you get shoe and away because you are too early on the other hand the later in the day you go to a garage sale the more eager the people will be to get rid of the stuff for a song swap meets and flea markets are two names for the same event weekend open air bazaars where you'll find merchants of every stripe displaying their Wares shrewd hucksters collectors of every kind and families hoping to unload their excess before moving across country just as when you shop at Discounters you have to know your prices there are some clever Nomads working the flea market circuit who will sell you tools clothing housewares and other items for more than you'd pay at the shopping mall in recent years eBay and other Online Auctions have become a craze and help move buying used from tacky to smart nine meet your needs differently the principle of substitution says that there are hundreds if not thousands of ways to meet a need traditional economics would have you believe that more better or different stuff can satisfy almost any need and is just a credit card swipe away but who says Frugal Pleasures are less pleasurable because they are less pricey for example what's the best way to lift your spirits an antidepressant running cognitive therapy a change of scenery going to a funny movie helping someone in a worse pickle retail therapy which works best for you do you have just one strategy or many different ones when you feel depleted where do you turn rest exercise caffeine therapy retail or talk TV in other words there's a difference between needs and the strategies we use to satisfy those needs the Chilean Economist Manfred Max Neve has studied needs and the strategies that satisfy them he found that across time and culture the following needs are Universal subsistence protection safety affection understanding making sense of Life participation being part of some social process recreation in the sense of leisure time to reflect or idleness creation making things identity who you are and freedom choosing for oneself if these needs are not met to some degree in your life likely you'll feel dissatisfied and search for something to satisfy that longing the consumer culture would say shop your habit patterns would say when I feel this way I always but let's take one of these needs and see how to meet it by widening your repertoire of how needs can be met and then choosing the strategy or strategies that fits best one of the universal needs Max neef identified is freedom freedom is the need for autonomy making your own choices according to your own best lights and Independence doing what you will apart from the demands or expectations of others in America Freedom has become deeply tied to Mobility getting in something with wheels or wings and going away it's also connected with not having to share with anyone so you can have access to everything you want whenever you want it is also linked to any product that will let you ignore the consequences of your actions from anti-aging cream to credit cards of course we are freedom-loving people all people are but here's a substitution exercise I've run about freedom if when I think freedom I think travel what am I really looking for what values or desires lie behind that core need often it's novelty and stimulation and getting out of daily and sometimes deadening routines it's needing some aimlessness and idleness in contrast to my Norma purposefulness it's learning new languages cultures facts meeting new people a slower Pace with less stress swimming in a different sea of assumptions getting jolted out of narrow-mindedness tasting new foods indulging in a novel during a long flight it's being out of town and unavailable for all the meetings and decisions that tend to whittle down my store of daily Joy but do I need to travel to far away places to experience these things remember substitution as a frugality strategy isn't about downgrading pleasure it's about ensuring that I get precisely what I am seeking at half the cost or no cost at all I'm not limiting myself why a I'm focusing myself yum freedom from my daily routines might involve letting go of rigid standards let the house be less clean some burden some responsibilities don't always say yes to those requesting my help and some entrenched habits why not go out to eat with friends more often with Rising gas prices people are traveling locally seeing the sites within a day's drive and discovering exotic people and places nearby staying closer to home also reveals some Hidden Treasures in your own backyard or over the backyard fence like your beautiful flower garden or your neighbor's interesting stories stay put long enough and the details and delights of where you are become more evident see substitution isn't deprivation it's about getting creative substitution also reminds us that consumption is rooted in changing a feeling state which is a signal that a need isn't being filled we feel hungry so we eat to have a feeling of satisfaction we feel lonely so we join a club or make a date to feel connected we feel bored so we go to a movie or read a magazine or go on a trip to feel enlivened as Max Neve points out most of our needs are not Material substitution says when you feel a desire to shop take time to trace it back to the need and ask if creativity rather than consumption might best fill it donello Meadows cuts to the heart of it in beyond the limits people don't need enormous cars they need respect they don't need closets full of clothes they need to feel attractive and they need excitement and variety and beauty people don't need electronic equipment they need something worthwhile to do with their lives people need identity Community challenge acknowledgment love and joy to try to fill these needs with material things is to set up an unquenchable appetite for false solutions to real and never satisfied problems the resulting psychological Emptiness is one of the major forces behind the desire for material growth substitution isn't limitation it's liberation it's letting go of assumptions and habits looking at the richness of reality and picking from the smorgasbord of Pleasures available right in front of your nose 10. follow the nine steps of this program the steps of this program have been successfully followed by hundreds of thousands of people these people have found that doing all the steps leads to a transformed experience of money and the material world it's the transformation not the tips that saves them money mild shopping addictions evaporate self-denial and self-indulgence both yield to self-awareness which ends up being a much bigger pleasure you can use this program as a series of tips or advice or you can let it work its magic by doing the steps they are a whole system approach to money and stuff that changes your habits by changing your way of seeing all the steps matter they sign Regis to Spur you on saving on the basics from scrimping and saving to getting Savvy on saving in an earlier edition of this book we included a section called 101 sure ways to save money but times have changed since then and some of our tried and true suggestions aren't so true anymore for example back in the day a car was a machine that was fixable by a backyard mechanic Now cars are rolling computers that do everything including talk to you and require professional technicians to service them so doing your own maintenance is increasingly unlikely in addition there are Legions of bloggers and websites with information on Frugal simple living which will always be more up-to-date than any book could hope to be the internet in general is a great place to start shopping whether or not you clinch the deal online or in person getting good at Googling using a web browser can help you find the best products and the best prices also this book was originally written in an American context but it has been translated into over 10 different languages and what works in the USA doesn't necessarily work in other cultures and countries finally and this is the biggest tip of all keep in mind that what you invent for yourself in your own life often will be much more powerful than the advice of others consider the following story Glenn H was looking at his wall chart and reconsidering his practice of hiring a maid and Gardener to take care of his home he wasn't ready however to take on all that daily maintenance himself so he came up with a surprising solution he noticed that his family never used the large dining room it came with the house so they furnished it forgot about it and ate in the family room but with his new fight thinking he saw that he could remodel replacing the dining room with a studio apartment including their third bathroom in the deal he made the renovations and found a couple who was willing to do yard and housework in exchange for room and board that kind of creative thinking could never be embodied in a hints and tips list nevertheless a little guidance can be extremely useful in helping to break old patterns and getting you to think creatively so we include the following quick tips containing real life examples of Phi thinking that can save you money and buy you freedom borrowing money cutting down on how much you pay for the privilege of using borrowed money is a cardinal frugality rule if possible always pay your monthly credit card bill in full rather than paying just the minimum balance which often is mostly interest not principal pay cash or use a debit card for all purchases even major ones like a car if you can in addition try to pay your mortgage off as quickly as possible if you have been extending your mortgage payments over the typical 30 years you may well be paying up to three times the purchase price of your house live without debt and see how free you feel some debt for those without backing from family or friends may be hard to avoid mortgage and student loans are two kinds of debt that can help you get started in life especially if you don't live in a country that subsidizes education all the way through graduate school there are some ways around the rising cost of college and the shrinking pot of scholarships CP 187 raising children but if you already have loans maybe one fears careful strategy is worth considering he had 42 000 in variable rate private student loans back when rates kept Rising so he and his wife transferred the balance to zero interest credit cards losing the tax advantage of student loans and taking on a strict discipline of paying as much as possible and on time so no interest ever accrued end of story they saved ten thousand dollars so comparison shop for loans and credit with the same dedication as other purchases Dave Ramsey is a current Guru on getting out of debt you can check out his website www.davramsey.com getting around consider this for nearly all of human history some 50 000 plus years people walked or rode in carts pulled by other animals most people never traveled more than 10 miles from their home in their lifetime the internal combustion engines didn't exist until the 1860s when Otto first patented the engine now in your Auto that's only 150 years ago only a fraction of humans on this planet today own a car plus global oil production is peaking which means the price of gas will continue going up humans get around and always have but it's our curious minds not things with engines that have propelled us around the world so let's just get some perspective as we see how we might in our short lifetimes frugalize our rod the technology of transportation is evolving so rapidly that by the time you read this electric vehicles charged by solar and wind energy could be the rage but the 5 million plus internal combustion engine cars on the road now will take a long time to disappear so keep good records of mileage and maintenance for your car so you catch problems early join a carpool take the bus live close to work and do errands on foot or bicycle ask your employer if you could work a four-day week or work some days from home which would reduce your commuting costs and could have the added advantage of putting you on the road before or after rush hour most importantly especially if you don't drive a lot be sure to think twice before you buy a second car Rosemary I did the math and with considerable trepidation sold her one and only car her City had a car coupe at the time see if yours does so she joined for her once a week stocking up at Hardware Grocery and other stores she calculated that renting a car for her once a month weekend in the country plus her once a week errands cost her a fraction of what she was paying for insurance monthly payments and maintenance on the car she owned and sometimes she could coax a friend to go camping with her in the friend's car adding the advantage of human companionship to the joy of communing with nature she paid for the gas and for the two together the pleasure was doubled while the cost was halved a bargain as a home remodeler Steve W rationalized his two extra Vehicles an old pickup truck and another beater as useful for hauling tools and materials to his jobs since they weren't worth much on the open market he'd assumed it was cheaper to keep them not true doing his monthly tabulations showed him the high cost of the convenience of having and maintaining these backup vehicles between paying for the new transmission the insurance and Licensing Steve found that he could just rent an extra truck for less money when he needed it he sold off the two extras and hasn't needed to rent yet Julie V went Carlos for her vacation she decided to travel from the Puget Sound area to Northern California via public transit system City and County buses she was able to piece this together for all but 150 miles 450 of them she hoofed it and for the other 100 she accepted a ride from another youth hostile guest in all she traveled more than 2000 miles through 28 towns riding in 48 buses on 11 public transit systems making zero stops at the gas station it cost her 177 round trip about what it would have cost in a hybrid car if she wanted to spend twenty thousand dollars to buy one overall the trip was a great adventure and a great savings taking care of your body medical costs are skyrocketing so staying well is good for your wallet as well as for your body your best basic health insurance is Diet good rest and exercise some insurance policies reward healthy habits and even pay for a health club if you are fortunate enough to live in a country with a free National Health Care System the rest of this may not be relevant to you but elsewhere these suggestions might help the U.S sickness care system has Rube Goldberg irrationalities built in as things stand now it can cost you an arm and a leg to fix your arm and leg when you have broken a bone or need an operation having access to the sickness care system is important but consider buying major medical insurance with a dollar one comma zero zero zero or more deductible make sure your provider has an a rating or better with am best an organization that rates insurance companies if your insurance doesn't cover them comparison shop for prescription drugs blood tests x-rays and other procedures since prices can vary widely keep an eye out for health fairs where you can often get basic blood work and tests done free or at a minimal fee if your teeth need care consider visiting a dental school in your area where student dentists often provide excellent care at a fraction of the usual cost also remember that many doctors have privileges can see patients at several different hospitals find out which ones your doctor can use and comparison shop for the lowest price you'll be surprised at how much the daily rates and operating room costs vary from One hospital to the next because of the high cost of surgery and because nearly 50 million Americans don't have sickness care insurance a new industry has grown up medical tourism according to U.S news and World Report low-budget Dentistry botoxing lipo and other cosmetic work have for years drawn Americans into Mexico and to other Latin American countries .6 now Joseph Woodman who publishes the patients Beyond borders series of guidebooks to finding good care thinks about 50 000 patients a year leave the country for major non-cosmetic elective procedures such as joint replacement coronary artery bypass new or repaired heart valves or back repair seven one person mentioned in that article saved 80 over 100 000 on replacing one knee and two hips by going to India and got to visit India in the process 8 KB at Emptor in neon letters though if you have complications once oh you are home you may have to pay Hometown prices for help thereby negating your savings currently the medical tourism Association nine is one organization that can help with your research having a place to live housing is usually one of the most expensive items on your monthly tabulation be creative about housing and you can reduce your costs significantly consider for example moving to a less expensive area you may well be able to keep your current job and work remotely thanks to the internet if you're in the market for a new home think about buying a duplex living on one side and renting out the other will allow you to lower your monthly mortgage payment dramatically explore living in an intentional Community type co-housing into your web browser if you want to learn more where you'll be able to share your life with people who share your values while usually also lowering your expenses if you've identified a neighborhood you like consider finding a house to rent that isn't yet on the market look for telltale signs that a house isn't currently occupied such as an untended yard or uncollected mail or leaflets find the owner through the tax office and make it easy for him slash her to want to rent their property to you finally consider renting out unused space in your home Pennywise had a lucrative job that disagreed with many of her values and lots of good ideas about what she'd do if she didn't have to report to work every day she found herself constantly thinking through Alternatives devising Escape Routes from the job that was beginning to feel like a prison the Phi course gave her a tunnel out but it was her own Ingenuity that turned on the light at the end of it she realized that she could move into the lower level of her house rent out her bedroom and use that rental income to handle her monthly mortgage payments she did just that end by implementing a few other creative strategies managed to leave her job with enough money to live on Cara and Richard M both artists took on a job as apartment managers their place was furnished and free their commute was nil their job costuming a few grungy thrift store outfits for doing the Dirty Work plus they got a monthly income all this meant they could work less and spend more time on their art in the summer Jane D and her husband live in their houseboat on a canal in France which with the dollar to euro exchange rate is also turning out to be a canny investment sharing bartering studies consistently show that one of the paths to happiness is being involved in community one quick way to build community is tool sharing some cities example Seattle Washington Tacoma Park MD and Berkeley CA have two lending libraries your city might have one too my neighbors and I have named our Ali after the neighbor with all the tools and know-how and the generosity to share them another powerful way to create Community is to barter goods and services with your neighbors instead of paying cash for them you can start with a simple idea such as offering to share a newspaper or Magazine subscription with a neighbor and move up to organizing a clothing tool or skill swap by joining a neighborhood list serve you can even let others in your area know about an item you need or one you'd like to give away the local exchange trading system lets is a computer-mediated barter system created in Canada which has spread across the United States when you provide a service for another let's member you earn a credit that you can use to pay for a service later the time dollars system is simpler people swap hour for our EG giving a haircut can be exchanged for accompanying someone to doctor visits currently there are websites that facilitate free exchanges would you please haul away my old sofa wood stove dog but if that's too complicated simply think of a skill you have and a service you need if you're a parent a skill you have and a service you continually need is babysitting Monique and Dave T have two little girls ages two and five they live in the Washington DC region where professional babysitters typically charge 15 or more per hour when they want an evening without the children they call another family and offer a babysitting swap they consider this Arrangement ideal the children are delighted to play with their friends while Mom and Dad are gone and the parents both get great child care from adults they like and Trust for free another way the family saves money is often by not actually going out on the nights when they've arranged child care instead they enjoy a quiet dinner at home and the pleasure of adult conversation without any interruptions from their children Jane Z and her family love vacationing in other people's homes they use a company called intervict that arranges home swaps but there are many ways to arrange this it's affordable and kid-friendly since you are not in hotels and restaurants all the time Jane and her family just swapped their two-bedroom condominium in Old Town Alexandria Virginia with families that live all over the world since 2003 they have been to Sweden San Francisco Key Largo Williamsburg Grand Lake Colorado and Ely Minnesota while the owners of those homes visited Washington DC staying in Jane's home each family usually allows the other to use their bikes canoes and kayaks to go out exploring Jane says the only downside is that you need to do a thorough cleaning of your house before you leave eating no matter how Frugal we become almost all of us have to spend at least some money on food there are many ways to save money on groceries some are obvious and some are not obvious tips include making a list and sticking to it clipping coupons avoiding convenience foods and buying in bulk eating with the seasons also saves money by not insisting on peaches in the winter and apples in the summer you can lower your grocery bill significantly and enjoy food that is both tastier and much more sustainably produced a less obvious suggestion includes creating a price book kept by Thrifty Housewives for decades and made famous by Amy De sykeson author of The titwat gazette-10 a price book enables you to recognize quickly the cheapest prices of your most commonly purchased items you can create your own system some folks prefer a small loose leaf binder others like index cards but the format is similar each item gets its own page or index card with the name of the item example peanut butter at the top below that on one horizontal line record the store name product brand name price quantity and unit price the per ounce unit price is often printed on the price tag on the shelf or you can figure it out yourself each time you find a cheaper price record that information on a new line put the cards in alphabetical order to make it easy to find them while you're shopping one way to begin collecting the information you will need is to review your store receipts then you'll periodically supplement that information when you're out shopping soon you'll be able to use your price book to stock up on non-perishable items because you'll know with confidence you won't find this item any cheaper in your region stores often advertise super specials called loss leaders because they take a loss to lead you into the store if you have a price book you can recognize a great deal when you see one if you respect your life energy you know to resist impulse buying all the tantalizing items you pass on the way to your deal also consider gleaning the Portland Fruit Tree Project organizes people in the Portland Community to gather fruit before it falls and make this valuable resource available to those who need it most every year tons of this delicious organic fruit drops without being harvested while 11 of oregonians experience food insecurity each year and many more can't afford fresh produce which is vital to a healthy diet and often scarce at food banks 11 but with cleaning as with every other Phi strategy you can do ID ourself you can glean a willing Farmer's Fields or ask your neighbors if they are okay with you taking their fallen fruit or eat berries from Wild bushes in the Pacific Northwest are untamable blackberries make gluttons of us all we so identify food with what is sold in the store that we don't realize how much of it grows wild all around us free getting away as your handling of money gets clearer and your life becomes more satisfying you will have less of a need to vacate consider relaxing closer to home you might even enjoy taking a vacation in your own house a staycation given the amount of time you work for the privilege of owning or renting your Abode you are entitled to relax and appreciate it for a week if you do want to get away any change of location might do three miles or 300 miles or both away reflect on your true needs and you may find that a day trip and a new used hammock for the backyard would be just as satisfying as the traditional week away if you want to travel somewhere exotic there just might be someone there who considers your hometown exotic membership organizations and websites broker house swaps Province France for Providence Rhode Island could actually work cjzs Story on p184 also consider volunteer vacations with scientific research or Service Groups better to live in a village and help build a school or find a cure for a disease than to whiz through on a shopping Excursion taking pictures buying artifacts and leaving the people in the dust protecting what you own as you practice the steps in this book you will invariably become a much more conscious consumer while this skill will serve you well in all aspects of your purchasing life it's particularly important when it comes to buying insurance before you spend any money in this category be sure you understand what you are buying for example does the current Blue Book value or condition of your car warrant the comprehensive and collision insurance you are carrying are you ensuring heirlooms that you would never replace if they were stolen if you have no dependents to support do you really need life insurance review each of your insurance policies carefully to ensure that you are getting maximum value if you don't understand your policy fully a reputable insurance agent should be more than willing to explain it keys and Helen K paused in doing their monthly tabulations and evaluations when they got to homeowner insurance they were paying six dollars a month to ensure some heirloom jewelry from Helen's grandmother applying Phi thinking they realized that they would never be able to replace these Priceless Treasures they wouldn't even want to what made them special was the connection with their past so what was the six dollars a month for consolation money keys with his penchant for figuring things out calculated how much principle would be required to yield six dollars a month in interest by the time they plan to be financially independent the figure one thousand dollars was so convincing that they dropped the insurance speaking of dropping Insurance Quentin and Irene did it before paying a penny they looked at the cost of long-term care insurance to manage the uncertainty of outliving their money but the expense had them think again instead they chose the option of Aging in place I.E staying home staying healthy connected and active in mind and body not having children they chose to live in a large multi-generational co-housing community in a place that would work even if they ended up in wheelchairs Michael Phillips and Catherine camel's book simple living Investments for old age 12 dispels the myth of Aging as a decline into decrepitude and suggests four strategies for living well while living long the first is to be active in pursuit of Health don't just be a pill popping Insurance dependent senior the second is to cultivate new friends especially younger ones and to participate in community both of which remind you daily that you are alive and valued the third is simplifying possessions while regarding inevitable changes within you and around you as the next adventure rather than the last straw finally attend to traditional Investments like owning a house and having enough but not more than enough income their advice reminds us that protecting what you own be at your car house or body isn't a more is better matter some things take too much time worry and money Merit protecting choose well what you must protect and how to protect it raising children children in the United States are uniquely inundated with consumer messages and a childhood free of consumer coercion is rare in Sweden on the contrary a law passed in 1996 prohibits advertising designed to influence children under 12 during any TV program and immediately before or after programming geared specifically to the under-12 crowd in contrast U.S corporations are seeking to have children bond with Brands before they're even three years old the U.S department of Agriculture estimates that it will cost the average American family approximately two hundred thousand dollars to raise a child to the age of 18. not including any college expenses although the numbers are staggering there are plenty of five parents who are successfully reducing those costs let's start with the biggest expense first college the book Frugal Living For Dummies 13 has a solid section on how to reduce College costs among the recommendations have your child take advanced placement or CLEP tests to get early college credits and thereby get through college quicker the tests cost less than 100 and can save thousands of dollars per credit earned with enough credits your child could even enter College as a sophomore he or she could also attend a community college for two years taking advantage of the cheaper tuition before transferring and graduating from a four-year School keys and Helen K in addition to eliminating Insurance on Priceless jewelry economized on one of the biggest economic drains parents face college for their two children is it reasonable they wondered for us to work another decade to put them through whatever school they want in the end they decided to offer their children tuition for a four-year State College if they wanted to go out of state or ivy league their children would pay the difference in general it's important for parents to model frugal living if you curb your own spending your children will almost always follow suit if your child is resistant you might want to give that child a larger than normal allowance but explain that this fund will now have to pay for clothing and other Essentials many fears have reported that as soon as their children realize they would have to spend their own money for the stuff they wanted they became Frugal and entrepreneurial quite quickly another tip is to substitute creativity for money in as many aspects of your life with children as you can including planning for birthday parties homemade cakes and old-fashioned games like potato sack races and water balloon tosses are charming and inexpensive and Halloween celebrations handcrafted costumes are fun to make and much more memorable if you have tried all forms of creativity and your child still wants something you don't really want to buy then suggest that you talk about it again in a few days most passing fancies are just that they pass but if your child keeps asking for a particular item then you know that it is a legitimate desire you can then determine together if and how your child might eventually pay for it throwing stuff away of course if you are doing the steps of this program very little of what you bring into your house goes out again as trash many people at the beginning of transforming their relationship with money have lucrative yard sales to weed out the unwanted items Unearthed in their step one inventory or they list them on online auctions or donate them getting a tax deduction in the process kitchen waste can be dug into your garden put in a compost bin or fed to worms that will return it to you as rich soil in wealthier countries tires as well as paper aluminum steel glass and cardboard waste can be recycled in poorer countries these items can be scavenged and sold or they sometimes show up as inventive building materials in kuratiba Brazil they solved the trash problem in the favelas urban Shanty towns and nutrition problems in one stroke people could trade trash for coupons for fresh vegetables trash and produced trucks showed up at the same time to facilitate the trades sharing works here as well one Apartment renter pays for one month of her neighbor's annual trash pickup bill she brings her a little sack of garbage over for weekly pickup and often puts the garbage can out and brings it in as well while the cost savings on your garbage bill might be minimal keep looking for ways to turn your trash into treasure who knows among the possessions Gathering dust in your basement there might be something worth a lot of money if you suspect that get it appraised gifting and celebrating for many people giving presents is an important way to express love however you can cut back on the cost of gifts without cutting back on the affection behind them this is where question 3 from Step 4 helps to reveal hidden options if you didn't have to work for a living would you give different and less expensive gifts one of the biggest gift-giving occasions in our culture is Christmas if holiday celebrations feel excessive begin to set limits on what feels right to you and your family Bill mckibben's book hundred dollar holiday 14 may be helpful here some fears promise their children one or at most three toys at Christmas and let them select the ones they want this has been Amy and Jim de Sykes in strategy ever since they observed the Fulfillment curve at work on Christmas Day the first one two or three presents were greeted with squeals of Ecstasy but from then on it was downhill instead of being able to play with what they had the kids felt compelled to keep opening all their gifts by the end they were tired and cranky and nothing suited them other gift-giving ideas useful all year round include giving services like a massage babysitting or a home-cooked meal instead of material objects you can also buy gifts at garage sales and save them for the right occasion regifting either of gifts you received and couldn't use or new items you bought at a garage sale is more socially acceptable now than ever be sure you don't regift a present to the same person who gave it to you though as one very Chagrin friend did recently finally a great way to recycle both new and used gifts during the holidays is to organize a Secret Santa party where each attendee brings a wrapped gift and swaps it for another there are many ways to do this and your internet browser will lead you to them Trisha k s Spirits sank as the season for Goodwill to all Christmas approached with parents siblings in-laws nieces and nephew she needed to buy over 20 gifts after much soul-searching she saw she had a choice her solvency and Sanity or sticking with the way it's always been done she took a deep breath and wrote a letter to each family member expressing her love for them and her desire to neither give nor receive Christmas presents she stealed herself for resistance but what she got back was respect by the way Tricia also hosted her own wedding organizing her large network of friends to cater entertain and even perform the ceremony there you have some hints and tips the biggest one of which is what Trisha did observe reality tell yourself the truth about what you really want and need and have the courage to Buck convention with integrity and respect we call this section scrimping and saving because to people in wealthier parts of the world that's often what paying attention to value for money spent feels like this desire to do whatever you want whenever you want and damn the consequences seems to be an underlying current in the Free World but as we've seen such freedom is often quite costly whereas Consciousness often saves you far more money and thus liberates far more time a special thanks for the section above to Fred X and and he big fears who were willing to research online message boards for good stories Their Own Story Bears telling as an example of what's possible by doing this program and he big and Fred X met online their Frugal values as well as their desires for their lives matched but that wasn't always true when he was younger Fred had a masters in computer science as well as a garage full of toys and mounting debt and got tired of being tired all the time that's when he read an article that mentioned your money or your life bought the book and after holding up for a weekend devouring it dedicated himself to saying goodbye to paid work forever he was 27 at the time and by 35 he was retired and living cheap with style also the title of an early Ernest Kallenbach book on the way he sold his house left his marriage started to shop in thrift stores lived in rented rooms cooked for himself and began enjoying himself more traveling sailing even taking a job with an environmental organization in Europe at a third the pay but twice the fun and had tried for years to live her environmental values but ended up again and again being anotherboard.com ER for the money your money or your life and later Fred confirmed her sense that life could be different and showed her the way to do it she kept whittling down her expenses while saving and saving some more and now works very part-time she and friend live on a houseboat in San Francisco traveled together and volunteer helping others think through their own money lives she reports much of what I do now I do for free I have time for Triathlon training bicycle advocacy work and practicing guitar Fred and I have a strong relationship based on shared values and we have time for each other life is good save money save the planet it isn't just an odd coincidence that saving money and saving the planet are connected in fact in some sense your money is the planet here's how money is a lien on the Earth's resources every time we spend money on anything we are consuming not only the metal plastic wood or other material in the item itself but also all the resources it took to extract these from the earth transport them to the manufacturer process them assemble the product ship it to the retailer and bring it from the store to your home all of that activity and cost is somehow included in the price of say a new microwave then there are the environmental costs that aren't included in the price what economists call externalities the pollution and waste we pay for in other ways in lung disease cancer respiratory problems desertification flooding Etc what it boils down to is that every time we spend money we are voting for the kind of planet we want to leave to Future Generations money is a lien on the Life Energy of the planet we call this the paganomics principle economics from cartoon character pogo's point of view pogo's contribution to Earth Day 1970 as you may remember was the observation that we have met the enemy and he is us it's no mystery that the planet is polluted we did it through our demand for more better and different stuff and that is something that we can do something about and benefit ourselves in the process creative frugality is a double win for our wallets and our world the three questions Revisited as we saw in the Fulfillment curve fulfillment by its very definition is a function of knowing when you have enough the three questions from chapter 4 can be asked in a different way with the planet in mind the questions to ask are am I likely to get fulfillment from this money spent in proportion to the resources that it represents eyes this purchase in alignment with the values that we all hold in common the desire to survive and to thrive what would spending in this category look like if I were working as much for the well-being of the whole world as for my individual survival remember asking these questions will not deprive you of things that really bring you fulfillment they will simply open up new opportunities for saving money and achieving Clarity in your relationship with money saving money while you're saving the Earth the point of all this is not to send you off into the desert to eat berries and wear fig leaves it is especially important to remember the Mantra no shame no blame we were all born into a world where consuming is part of life and consuming our way to happiness seemed both natural and benign the kinds of changes we may all need to make to keep the environment viable will require some deliberate and courageous modifications of our current habits but why wait start to live with these questions now you will see many places where you can choose a non-polluting pleasure and have twice the Fulfillment once for you and once for the planet indeed enjoying nature and feeling your vital connection to the Earth the source of all life is one of the greatest Pleasures there is if you want to find out how to save money while saving the Earth many find books and websites are available that can help you re-evaluate your personal lifestyle choices in light of our current understanding about human impact on the ecosystem if your library doesn't have the book you want request that they buy it so that others can use it as well that alone would be an Earth friendly Act the key is remembering that anything you buy and don't use anything you throw away anything you consume and don't enjoy is money down the drain wasting your life energy and wasting the finite resources of the planet any waste of your life energy means more hours lost to the rat race making it dying frugality is the user-friendly and earth-friendly lifestyle 1001 sure ways to save money after a year of keeping your monthly tabulations you will have approximately 1001 more or less single entries under your 15 to 30 spending categories chances are very good that you could be spending Less on every purchase from apples to zinnias with no reduction in the quality of product or the quality of your life it's the attitude of honoring your life energy that will show you the way not following someone else's recipe for a Frugal life you will be as excited about the savings you discover as we have been about Furnishing our home from garage sales and giveaways the empowerment comes from your cleverness and your creativity in finding your strategies for frugality that's why we call it creative frugality so here's a blank slate write your own 1001 tips for living on less and loving it 1 million and one sure ways to save money watch your thoughts anyone who practices meditation knows that our gray matter is like a frenetic monkey churning out a steady stream of unrelated thoughts at the rate of at least one a second in just 11.6 days you'll have 1 million and one thoughts and most of them will have something to do with desires I want this I don't want that I like this I don't like that the Buddha said that desire is the source of all suffering it is also the source of all shopping by being conscious of your next 1 million and one desires you'll have one million and one opportunities to not spend money on something that won't bring you fulfillment advertising doesn't make you buy stuff other people's expectations don't make you buy stuff television doesn't make you buy stuff your thoughts make you buy stuff watch those suckers they're dangerous to your pocketbook and to a lot more remember frugality isn't about being a cheapskate or a penny pincher it's about honoring and valuing your most precious resource Your Life Energy shopping smart saving money following the adage use it up wear it out make it do or do without isn't about deprivation it's about loving yourself and your life so much that you wouldn't think of wasting a second it is also as we have seen about loving the planet so much that you want to take good care of it and finally it's about loving future Generations so much that you want to leave this earth in better shape than you found it when we talk about preservation of the environment it is related to many other things ultimately the decision must come from the human heart so I think the key point is to have a genuine sense of universal responsibility Dalai Lama 15 checklist think before you spend one don't go shopping to live within your means three take care of what you have for wear it out 5. do it yourself six anticipate your needs 7 research value quality durability multiple use and price eight buy it for Less nine meet your needs differently 10 follow the steps of this program summary of Step six lower your total monthly expenses by valuing your life energy and increasing your Consciousness in spending learn to choose quality of life over standard of living [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]