This article is part of the My FI Journey series – click here to access the full journey.
Shifting Focus
I am now focusing on Saving in addition to Investing.
As any good consultant knows, you cannot improve something if you don’t measure it. So we keep track of every single Finer household purchase for a month.
At the end of the month, I analyze my spending. The results are eye-opening!
(Over) Spending!!
I have always considered myself to be a modest spender. But perception can sometimes be different than reality.
It appears that we spend a lot of money! And by we, I mean, I spend a lot of money – MrsFiner has always been the frugal type.
Most of my spending goes to things I do not even care or know about. I have an Amazon box outside my door almost every other day. I am not sure what I order, but it is clearly not important (otherwise, I would remember what I ordered). Also, I am pretty sure no one needs to buy stuff every day.
A peek into the attic reveals the result of my wayward spending. It is filled with stuff – a lot of stuff. I am not even sure when I bought some of them or why. Did I really buy all this stuff?!
New Spending Philosophy
Clearly, this has to stop. If I continue to spend like this, I will never be able to retire.
However, I do not want to become a monk either! Maybe the answer is to spend on the right things and not on the wrong things.
There are things that I value, like my health. So I do not mind spending money on organic food or a gym membership. But a big chunk of my money goes into random frivolous spending – on things that I do not value.
I start getting rid of recurring expenses. For example, I have magazine subscriptions but no time to read them, given how busy I am. Canceling these items feels good. But what next?
Making Big Changes
I start with one area – groceries. We come up with some creative strategies and make changes. It not only reduces our grocery budget, but we also end up eating healthier food.
I move on to the next area – utilities. After that, the next spend category and so on.
After a few weeks, we have a set of saving strategies. The result is astounding – our savings rate shoots up from 15% to 50%. This means that instead of 45 years, I can retire in 15 years!!
I am proud of this! MrsFiner, on the other hand, just shrugs her shoulders and tells me that I should have done this a long time ago.
I agree! If I had started saving right when I first started my job, I might have been able to retire by now!
Key Learnings
I am beginning to realize that saving money is hard (and less fun than spending money). Although spending money can be fun; the fun is short-lived, but the money is gone forever.
I am also beginning to realize that I have to work on building my Saving muscle. Saving gets easier with practice, just like anything else. MrsFiner is a natural at this; I am not.
An unexpected benefit of this newfound Saving superpower is that we have less stuff around. We have to maintain / clean fewer things. For some strange reason, a decluttered surrounding helps to also declutter the mind.
I have finally found a way to accelerate my FI journey. As it happens, it also makes my life more sustainable and decluttered.
The only regret is – why did I not realize this earlier? I guess some things can only be learned with age!
Older and wiser, I am now looking forward to the next chapter of my FI journey…
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