Simple Living

Article from a good friend and life coach. Link here



Have a blessed day!



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Hi People


We just completed teaching 5 lessons for 7 couples in TOUCH’s Marriage Preparation Course last Sunday (go to www.tcs.org.sg to find out more about the FREE lunchtime talks coming up 25 - 27 March 2008 and other family life events).


Among the topics covered is Financial Intimacy. I cannot overemphasise the importance of financial education to these eager young couples, for afterall, a long lasting successful marriage is more than just a glam wedding.


I shared with the class how we can learn from the collective wisdom of people who have been there, done that, e.g. Dave Ramsey’s book on Total Money Makeover (available in the public library and at Borders). Here is another article lifted from the internet by Janet Luhrs:


“Simple living yields simply millions in savings. Many people who lead simple lifestyles are millionaires. Their wealth is the result of hard work, perseverance, planning and self-discipline.


Many people already lead simple-living lifestyles and don’t know it. And many of them are millionaires. Proof can be found in the best-selling book, ‘’The Millionaire Next Door,” by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. You’d never guess that the subject of millionaires could have anything to do with simple living, but it does.


Compulsive savers vs. the rest of us

The millionaires in this book were not born wealthy, nor do most of them have high-level, exotic jobs. What they do have are simple lifestyles.


It’s the simple lifestyles, not the big paychecks, that turned these people into millionaires. According to the book, their wealth is the result of hard work, perseverance, planning and most of all, self-discipline.


So why aren’t all of us hard-working souls rich?

Answer: We regularly and continually give our money away to other people so they can become wealthy, while we live paycheck to paycheck. We buy the latest cars, biggest houses, full wardrobes, daily espressos, high-tech gizmos and gadgets of all kinds. As a result, we’re on treadmills, never allowing ourselves the time to create the kind of lifestyle we want.


On the other hand, the millionaires are described in the book as “compulsive savers and investors.” After surveying 1,115 millionaires around the country, authors Stanley and Danko came up with seven common denominators among those who successfully build wealth:


They live well below their means.


They allocate their time, energy and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth.


They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status.


Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care.


Their adult children are economically self-sufficient.


They are proficient in targeting market opportunities.


They chose the right occupations.


This list represents simple living at its finest. Here’s why. Simple living is about living consciously and with a purpose. This means being in control of your money and your life. When you save your money rather than continue spending, you buy yourself control. Then you have a say in how you’d like to spend your time.


With money saved and invested, you can live for years without earning money, or you can at least afford yourself the luxury of working part-time. This is vastly different from living paycheck to paycheck. These millionaires have created lifestyles and jobs that are meaningful to them because they took a look at the big picture and made choices accordingly.


The Millionaire Next Door:

“The flashy millionaires glamorized by the media actually represent only a tiny minority of America’s rich. Most of the truly wealthy in this country don’t live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue — they live next door.”


The authors say that the typical wealthy individual is a businessman who has lived in the same town for all of his adult life and owns a small factory, a chain of stores or a service company. He lives next door to people with a fraction of his wealth. Their survey indicated that while the paycheck-to-paycheck crowd drives new cars, most millionaires don’t. They’re not wearing expensive clothes and watches and their houses are relatively modest compared to their financial status.


You don’t need to be a millionaire to lead a simple life, and indeed, no one said that money equals happiness. But you can learn from millionaires how to get off the treadmill and create a satisfying life.”


In this time of financial market turmoil, when there is a crash, cash is KING! Have you got enough spare cash to tide you over the long haul or just a fading memory of the designer coffee you used to have when times were good or the designer handbag whose colour is fading in the cupboard covered with dust?


Like Dave Ramsey says: “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”