Why It Feels Good To Be Frugal

When you look around at folks here in America (and even some other countries), it’s amazing how often people are willing to practically give their money away. Either by buying things they don’t truly need, or things they could have gotten at a lower price elsewhere.

Whether it be consumer products, housing, transportation, food, or clothing, you see it go on all the time. And what any personal finance enthusiast knows is that it’s often the people with the flashiest or most glamorous looking stuff that tend to be the largest “under-accumulators of wealth” In other words, they should be a lot wealthier, but made unwise choices financially that have set them back.

Lets go ahead and take a look at why it feels good to be frugal.

It Builds Self-Confidence

Sometimes it feels good to say “no”. Whether it be to a purchase, or even to a job offer/business deal. When you are someone who can confidently turn down the shiny proposition for something that is a truly better deal, it feels pretty good.

This is something I have experienced first hand many times. I can’t count how many times I have heard about what sounds like a great offer only to turn it down because it just didn’t fit my needs.

Even when it comes to entrepreneurship, the same principles apply. So many people feel like they need the best equipment to get started. They go out and spend thousands on the newest and latest gear when they could have gotten by just fine with a lot less. As a result they now have to cut corners in other areas to make up for it.

A Dollar Saved Is A Dollar Earned

You would be surprised at how good you can live even when you are simultaneously making your dollars stretch. Living a low-cost lifestyle where you are not beholden to things and have a lot of autonomy is its own kind of wealth. And like I said in the paragraph above, sometimes it feels pretty good to make a little look like a lot.

Of course, these things are most prevalent when you are young. It’s part of the reason why I enjoy listening to a guy like Gary Vaynerchuk so much. Because he always advocates making your hustle the priority when you are young and keeping your expenses low so that you can go all in.

The higher your overhead is, the harder you have to work just to stay afloat. The guy with the large mortgage payment, expensive car payment, and so on has to work his butt off just to break even. Meanwhile the guy with a low cost-of-living can get by with a lot less, and pull ahead a lot easier in the long run.

Low Start Up Costs

These days with all of the resources available, it really doesn’t cost much to get started when it comes to forming new businesses. You see it in rap music all the time, and guys like Larry June are pioneers when it comes to this. Larry June is one of the largest artists in the genre right now, and has said that all he really had was a “laptop and a microphone” when just starting out.

Things have worked out pretty well for him considering how little it costed him to get started. Meanwhile other folks insist on going to the studio and spending thousands on production, engineering, recording, and promotion, when they could just do it themselves like Larry June did.

It’s something I have appreciated for myself on a personal level. Considering all the music I’ve put out over the past few years, I really haven’t spent much. Afterall, I record using a home studio and do all the mixing/mastering myself.

Final Thoughts

Everyone was raised differently and comes from a different background, but I can say that I am grateful that I was never brought up in an environment where blowing money was seen as positive.

In my household my Mother would take much more enjoyment in buying a nice shirt for a quarter of the price from the thrift shop rather than going out and paying a ridiculous price. My Dad would find good deals buying refurbished products on eBay rather than paying extra.

Because I wasn’t encouraged to be overly reckless with my money, I can now reap the benefits as an adult. I can tell you first hand that it feels good to be frugal.

Thank you for reading. As always, I hope you have enjoyed. Please feel free to check out some of my other content if you haven’t already. And other than that, have a great rest of your day!