The first step on the journey of generosity often starts with a reduction in expenses that leaves more room for giving. By conquering lifestyle inflation and cutting back on spending, it becomes easier to climb the ladder of generosity. The Rich Fool’s articles on spending cover practical tips for budgeting, reducing expenses, and using our possessions to enjoy life and bless others.
A personal spending limit – a self-imposed annual consumption cap or “salary” – limits lifestyle inflation, and directs extra income into higher saving and giving rates. It’s a money guardrail that focuses spending on basic needs and fulfilling discretionary expenses, and it leaves much less room for empty consumerism. For now, I’m setting an annual spending finish line of $100,000, with the goal of reducing it over the next few years.
Most personal finance enthusiasts embrace frugality, but there’s also a downside to chronic cost-cutting. Frugality isn’t just about spending less and saving more; it’s a tool that empowers you to spend money on the things in life that have meaning and purpose – instead of empty possessions that don’t bring fulfillment.
Lifestyle inflation sneaks up on you like a lawn weed, slowly spreading but blending in with its surroundings. But held in check, it is possible to squeeze the unnecessary spending from our lives. With lifestyle inflation in check, it becomes easier to take the next step on the journey toward radical generosity.