The wisdom of alignment has been extraordinarily useful for me in recent months. I am gaining the ability to check, at any moment, whether my thoughts are moving me in a direction that pleases me… or not. In other words, I am becoming very sensitized to when I am focused on things wanted or unwanted. When I notice myself getting out of whack, I quickly realize that my focus is on unwanted things. This helps me to pivot immediately to what I want.
Here’s a good example: for awhile now, I have been an admirer of people who becoming financially free at a young age. Mostly, I have come across these people via their blogs. I’m talking about people like Mr Money Moustache, who retired at age 30 by saving over 50% of his income and living off $25,000 a year with his wife.
What is common to folks like Mr Money Moustache, as far as I can tell, is NOT that they created high-income generating businesses or inherited a lot of money. Instead, these people display a certain form of stringent minimalism and financial discipline that allowed them to save fifty-, sixty-, seventy-, eighty- or more (!) percent of their yearly income. This quickly grew their nest egg to the point where, after a few years, they literally could live off their nest egg without working.
The math of this is pretty simple: if every year you live off so little of your money that you are literally saving one, two, three, four or more (!) years of living expenses, pretty soon you have a sizeable nest egg that is so big that you can either live on the interest (assuming it is well-invested) or a slowly draw down that money indefinitely.
I love the idea of this, because it gives a person financial freedom. When you have so much money you don’t need to work all the time to pay for your life, well, obviously that has many perks: you basically get to decide when to work, when not to work, what to do with your time, etc.
Side note: my life already exhibits certain qualities of this lifestyle… without the huge nest egg yet 🙂
Anyway, while I deeply admire people espousing the idea of extreme savings, in the past few years, thinking about this topic has generally been more frustrating than helpful! This is because, even if I would wish it, I simply haven’t been in a place to save such a high percentage of my income!
Now, you might say, “Who is?? That just sounds impossible!” And for many people, as they currently live their life, I have to agree. Personally, I have not found that I was ready or able to make the changes to my lifestyle, nor earn the income that would be required to save 50%… at least not yet.
In fact, thinking about the prospect of such a thing is not fun for me. Instead of motivating me, it tends to just make me frustrated, as I start thinking about my circumstances, and I start feeling bad for not being able to do that, etc. In other words, the topic of extreme saving actually has backfired for me, and I end up focusing on unwanted things: negative feelings of powerlessness, disappointment, or frustration.
(sigh)
Fortunately I am smarter now about what I focus on! I have learned that even something which I consider generally good–like extreme savings–has to pass the satisfaction test. When I think about this topic, I feel frustrated, disappointed, and a little angry. This is not satisfying! So, even though I hope to one day be in a position to save 50% or more of my income, right now, it does me no good to dwell on this!
Truth be told, I love thinking about saving my income. Currently I have been aiming to save 25%, with mixed results. Actual savings probably approaches 20%, and believe me, this is a huge amount of progress. Four years ago I had basically saved nothing. When I focus on goals that are achievable for me right now, it is so much more rewarding than focusing on the lofty, far-off goals that don’t currently resonate for me.
Lastly, as I said, when I realize that I am focused on something unwanted, I can ask myself, “What is it I want instead?” In this case, here’s my answer:
I want to feel good about my progress. I want to appreciate all the wonderful things I am doing to make my life better. I want to appreciate my life, and focus on things that I enjoy. I want to continue creating fun and pleasant results. I want to relax, take it easy, and follow inspiration, while trusting the Universe to have my back to make sure all our needs are met. I want to stay connected to my Center, which is unlimited, infinite, and unconditionally loving. I want to enjoy each day. And I want to know that All is Well, there is nothing wrong, and I am doing a great job!