Okay, here’s what I want you to spend the next 3 minutes doing. Grab a sheet of paper and list all of the things that are monthly or annual expenses for you. I’m not talking about a grocery bill, but instead I’m talking about subscriptions, energy bills, car payments, and so on.
For me, this includes all of the following:
- water
- electric
- gas
- mortgage
- escrow and home insurance
- car insurance
- cell phone
- Internet and cable tv
- Netflix
- YMCA pass for swimming
You’ll probably find that it’s a pretty long list. Make sure that you don’t forgot things like student loan payments, credit card minimum payments, car loans, the Cloud, digital picture storage, music services, grocery delivery services, and magazine or newspaper subscriptions.
No, seriously. Actually take 3 minutes to do this. I promise that it will be worth it!
Now write a monthly dollar amount besides each item. Don’t worry about being 100% accurate. The idea is just to get a feel for how much money you spend each month on these expenses.
You’ll probably find that it is a lot of money.
Most of us will think of these as fixed expenses. In other words, they’re expenses that we can’t get rid of. However, I want to challenge this assumption. Instead of thinking of each of these expenses as fixed, think of them as variable. In other words, we could get rid of each of these expenses if we really wanted to.
Then, in the oft-repeated words of Marie Kondo, ask yourself if each of these expenses “spark joy.”
Now, I know that paying your mortgage or rent payment doesn’t spark joy, but you probably like the house or apartment that you live in. However, if you don’t like your house, then ask yourself why you are paying so much money to live in it. If it doesn’t actually spark joy for you, then think of an alternative to this huge fixed payment. My wife and I did this a few years ago and actually ended up selling our house.
Continue going through your list and check each item to see if it sparks joy. Seriously ask yourself this question with every expense. Notice that your car insurance may be higher if you have a newer car. Ask yourself if the cost of that newer car is truly worth it, or if you are just buying it because that is what everyone else has. Do you really want to own that car and be forced to pay the fixed expense that comes with it?
Every item on the list should be gone through. I already know that having debt doesn’t make you happier, so you should automatically be working hard to get rid of that. However, many of the expenses on this list definitely make us happy. I’m very happy that I live in a house that is warm, has fresh running water, and is connected to the Internet.
Again, if something that is real expensive truly sparks joy, then you should definitely keep it. I believe in this so much that I even named this website after the philosophy. However, if our life isn’t improved by these fixed expenses, then we need to get rid of them.
After you have gone through this list, you may have a few fixed expenses that you want to get rid of. Remember that each of these expenses isn’t just $20 per month, but instead should be thought of as $240 per year.
Hopefully, you just saved yourself a lot of money. However, if you didn’t, that is cool too! No matter what, you had a chance to look at each of your fixed expenses to see if it is an expense that is truly worth paying for every month of your life.
Please let us know if this exercise saved you any money by writing in the comments below. Also, click at the top of this page to subscribe and get new posts sent directly to your inbox.
And thanks for reading!
~Nathan
Let’s keep living a great life … with the help of money. So what’s next?
- You can travel for free by using rewards credit cards.
- You can get motivated and get out of debt.
- You can check out the next post or the previous post and continue to learn.
But no matter what you decide to do, let’s leave the ordinary behind and take action today!
