Joshua Becker's Blog, page 96

Get Uncluttered This Fall

“The Uncluttered course is about more than just removing clutter from your home. It is about challenging you to live differently.” — Amy Slenker-Smith, Herndon, VA

The Course

Uncluttered is a 12-week online course intentionally designed to help you own less, live more, and discover the life you’ve always wanted.

Today, we are launching the Fall Edition. Registration is open for the next 10 days.

The program includes videos, interviews, live webinars, practical articles, weekly challenges, accountability, and an engaged community. It is strategically packaged for one purpose: to help you declutter your home and start living a better life.

If you are drawn to the notion of owning less, but need some extra help getting there, this course is perfect for you. I am confident Uncluttered will provide just the extra motivation you need. By the end, you will have decluttered every major living area in your home—and just in time for the holidays, I might add.

Every Monday, you will receive a video from me, an exclusive interview with one of the brightest minds in the simplicity movement, or written content uniquely prepared for the course. You will receive a weekly challenge to complete. And you will be offered significant opportunities to engage with the community in a private Facebook group and with me during live webinars each month.

The course offers everything a book cannot: community, accountability, and opportunity to ask questions.

The course is divided into four unique parts: Find Your Motivation; Declutter Your Home; Develop New Habits; and Experiment with Less.

To find more detailed information about the content of the Uncluttered Course, click here: my.becomingminimalist.com

The Results

So far, over 10,000 people have gone through the course. The feedback has been unbelievable:

The term life-changing gets thrown around a lot, but this course really is. I went into it with a lot of shame and anxiety. Joshua gently guided us in a way that made lasting change seem possible. My home is much improved, but my mindset is also clearer. —Kathryn Wagner, Los Angeles, CA

Signing up for the Decluttering course was one of the best decisions I’ve made. —Tracy Nowak, Webster, NY

In the past, I bought every organizing book that came out, but never followed through on any of them. This course has been so helpful by being clear with direction, encouragement, and helpful advice. Thank you so much for helping me to make changes I never thought I could make. —Nancy Dopler, Davenport, IA

My credit card statement came today. $1,000.00 under my typical monthly balance! Thank you Uncluttered community. I’ve been at this for years; however, it’s clear I truly needed this group to get to that next level. —Cheyanne Morris, St. Paul, MN

The Details

We offer the course three times each year and this is the last time it will be offered in 2016.

The program begins on Monday, September 05. Registration is open for the next 10 days ending on Sunday, September 04.

The cost for the course is $89. But you can find a 25% off discount code in the back of The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own. The book is not required—but the course is based on it. And it’s cheaper to buy the book and use the discount code than it is to pay full price—the option is yours.

I am personally involved in every aspect of the course. Helping people live more by owning less is what I am passionate about. I created the videos and the content. I host the webinars. I answer questions in the Facebook group. And I host live video chats over the course of the 12 weeks. My goal is to help and cheer you along.

Participants receive lifetime access to the course. And they can take it as many times as they need.

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Uncluttered is a 12-week online course with videos, interviews, webinars, articles, weekly challenges, accountability, and community. It is strategically packaged for one purpose: To help you unclutter your home, own less stuff, and find space to live the life you want.

If you are interested in joining us for the next 3 months, visit My Becoming Minimalist to register. Make this fall the season you finally discover the home and life you’ve always wanted.

One Simple Question to Ask Before Any Purchase

We live in a world filled with empty consumeristic promises.

To get the girl, buy this cologne.
To be the life of the party, get this television.
To impress your friends, buy this watch.
To turn heads, drive this car.
To raise a better family, buy this bigger house.

These promises bombard our senses incessantly—even within the comforts of our home. And more than we realize, these messages begin to shape our conscious and subconscious thoughts.

As a result, too often, we buy stuff we don’t need. Our closets become crowded, our drawers overfill, our garages can’t fit our cars, and our homes fill with countless products we thought were a good idea at the time; but in reality, rarely get used.

Our lives soon become buried under everything we own.

To counter these empty promises, I want to offer a simple, life-transforming question—five simple words to ask before making any purchase.

The question is this: But what if I don’t?

Whenever you feel the pull of consumerism, simply ask yourself the shortened version of this thought, “What might I be able to do if I didn’t make this purchase?”

Every purchase contains an opportunity cost. The question, “But what if I don’t?”, forces us to recognize and articulate it.

For example:

If you don’t buy that large screen television, how much debt could you pay off?

If you don’t buy the bigger house, how much more money would you have to travel?

If you don’t go clothes-shopping today, how could you build up an emergency fund?

If you don’t make this purchase on Amazon, what good could you accomplish in the world with the money instead?

You know what you’ve been promised if you buy… but what if you don’t? How would your life improve if you said ‘no?’

With every purchase we make, we sacrifice a small amount of freedom. This one, simple question helps us recognize exactly what it is.

Inspiring Simplicity. Weekend Reads.

Fill your life with stories to tell, not stuff to show.

The simplicity/minimalism movement is a beautiful community. And I enjoy any opportunity to promote writing that encourages people to live more by owning less.

So fix yourself a nice warm cup of coffee or tea. Find a quiet moment this weekend. And enjoy some encouraging words to inspire more simplicity in your life today.

The Most Important Home Buying Advice You’ll Never Hear From a Realtor | Forbes by Joshua Becker. Buy only the home you need, not the house you can afford.

Why Self-Help Guru James Altucher Only Owns 15 Things | The New York Times by Alex Willams. If you don’t choose the life you want to live, chances are, someone else is going to choose it for you.

How to Minimize Your Belongings | Dana Byers by Dana Byers. Here are some suggestions on a taking a healthy approach to the process.

10 Effortless Things that Clutter-Free People Do Every Day | Reader’s Digest by Marissa Laliberte. Keeping daily messes to a minimum makes chore day so much easier.

A Physician’s Journey into Minimalism | Minimalist Doctor by Juan Cuebas. Minimalism continues to grow across all walks of life.

8 Practical Ways to Change Your Self-Description

How we talk to ourselves matters. Numerous studies indicate that our self-description, in a very real way, becomes the end to which we live.

The words we use with ourselves—both aloud and in our mind—begin to define the reality that we live.

When we describe ourselves as lazy, undisciplined, or prone to procrastination, we begin to reflect those patterns in our everyday life. On the other hand, when we change the words we use to describe ourselves (both internally and externally) focusing on positive attributes, we begin to display those positive behaviors more frequently.

In athletics, we see this all the time. Athletes are encouraged to visualize making the shot, sinking the putt, or winning the game. Interestingly, we also see it in small mechanical reminders… “keep your head down,” “elbow in,” and “follow through.” This positive self-talk becomes more than the self-description we begin to live towards, it also serves as healthy instruction on the kind of lives we want to live.

Often times, declaring to ourselves that we can accomplish a task or follow through with a desired change is the first step in achieving it.

How then, do we go about changing our self-talk? Many of the negative thoughts that shape our thinking have been around us for decades, ingrained in to us at a young age, so subtle we barely recognize them.

Simply knowing that these negative thoughts are harmful is not enough. We need to intentionally replace them with positive self-talk. Here are eight practical strategies you can use to change your self-description:

1. Start in the morning. At the beginning of each day, make it a practice to speak positive, encouraging words into your life. Find room for it in your morning routine. If you are looking for some ideas, Farnoosh Brock has a list of 100 positive affirmations.

2. Remind yourself of who you desire to become. Too often, we notice our weaknesses and the things we’d like to change about ourselves. This awareness begins to characterize the description we paint of ourselves in a negative light. But rather than focusing on them as attributes we lack, begin declaring them as characteristics we are becoming. This can be accomplished with a simple word change. Rather than thinking, “I’m just not __________,” begin saying, “I am becoming more  __________.”

3. Ruthlessly replace negative thoughts with positive words. No two physical objects can occupy the same space at the same time. Begin applying this same principle to your thoughts. When you recognize negative self-talk happening, exchange it for a more positive self-description immediately—like changing a dirty shirt for a clean one.

4. Recall accomplishments in your life. When you get stuck in a negative cycle, meditate on the accomplishments in your life—the big accomplishments and the small ones. Determine the positive attributes that must have been present for those to occur. And begin focusing more on those positive traits than any negative descriptions.

5. Call out the behavior you want to see. There are times when our self-talk can be more than motivational, it can also be instructional. Similar to how an athlete might remind himself or herself to “keep your head down and follow through,” we can speak into our lives specific behaviors. For example, if you wish to procrastinate less, try intentionally calling out positive behaviors that would counteract it, “Sit down and just get started for just five minutes.”

6. Ask yourself if you’d treat a friend in the same way. The old adage rings true, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” We apply this principle to our external relationships, try applying it to your internal relationship as well. Take captive your thoughts and ask yourself, “Would I speak this way to my friend?” If the answer is no, replace your disparaging self-talk with something more uplifting.

7. Change “I” to “You.” Sometimes, when talking to yourself, the way you do it makes a difference. Researchers have found people who spoke to themselves as another person would—using their own name or the pronoun “you”—performed better under stress than people who used the word “I.” People whose self-talk used their names or “you” even reported less shame and ruminated less than the ones who used “I.”

8. When failures happen, identify the lessons you are learning. Difficult seasons are part of  life. When failures do happen, make your self-description more positive by reframing it as lessons you are learning. Rather than saying “I’m no good,” think “I’m learning perseverance and discipline and how to work even harder than I did before.” This changes the conversation we are having from self-defeating, to self-improving.

Our words matter. The description we offer about ourselves often becomes the finish line we move toward. Let’s make sure the finish line we are painting is in the exact place we want it to be.

One Important Shift in Mindset to Find More Satisfaction in Life

Recently, the New York Times published an important piece by Robert H. Frank, an Economics professor at Cornell University: The Incalculable Value of Finding a Job You Love.

While I will summarize a few of the findings, you should read the entire article. It includes some fascinating thoughts on the connection between money and happiness.

But I was most intrigued by the connection made between work and life satisfaction. In the article, Frank explains the importance of finding work you love and its vital role in enjoying a satisfying life. And when nearly 70% of U.S. employees are miserable at work, his thoughts are important.

Frank defines some of the key elements (other than salary) that contribute to work satisfaction: attractive working conditions, greater autonomy, better opportunities for learning, and enhanced workplace safety. I might also add some of these factors that I first wrote about six years ago.

But Frank doesn’t end there. He also adds two important criteria not often considered in job selection: 1) how you feel about your employer’s mission and 2) your natural propensity to develop deep expertise in your work.

Finding a career that aligns with your values obviously spurs satisfaction. But in Dr. Frank’s analysis, so does finding a career in which you enjoy the daily tasks and are therefore more likely to become proficient in them.

We are most satisfied in life when we are most proud of the work we do—both in purpose and in quality. (tweet that)

Using these criteria, it is wise for each of us to evaluate our current work and determine if we have chosen careers that align with these realities. We only get one life. And to the best of our ability, we should try to find work that complements and adds value to it.

Often times, however, people make the wrong assumption when they hear advice to “find work that increases life satisfaction.” Too many people assume this requires a career change.

But for most people, finding satisfaction at work does not necessarily require a career and/or employer change. Sometimes, the solution is as simple as a shift in mindset.

The quickest way to begin finding greater satisfaction in work (and subsequently life) is to begin asking ourselves a new question about the work that we currently do.

Most people ask themselves, “What do I receive from the work that I do?” They weigh the salary, the benefits, the freedom, or the opportunity for early retirement. But at its core, this is a selfish question—it keeps the goal of work focused entirely on what it brings into my life.

A far better question to ask about our work is, “How does my work benefit others?”

The answer to this question begins to shift the focus at work from selfishness to selflessness. We begin to see our work not as a selfish endeavor, but as a selfless one—one that loves and serves society by offering our talents and experiences.

How does your work benefit others?

This shift in mindset is more available than you might think. A farmer uses his talent to grow food for hungry people. A doctor uses his skill to bring healing to the sick. An accountant provides financial advice for those who need it. An auto mechanic fixes vehicles for those who can not. A landscaper creates beautiful places for people to live. A grocery store cashier allows fresh food to be distributed.

While there are a few exceptions, almost every job benefits others. This is a realization that quickly contributes to life satisfaction. Our work is not for selfish pursuits—our work provides value to the people around us.

Drawing from the conversation prompted in The New York Times, we can see how this shift in mindset also affects our life satisfaction. The more we focus on how our work benefits others, the more we begin to see how our values align with our employer. And the more we see how our work genuinely benefits others, the more we are drawn to effectiveness and proficiency in it.

There is certainly a time and a place for changing careers (or employers) to increase life satisfaction. But often times, the quickest solution is to shift how we think about it altogether.

Inspiring Simplicity. Weekend Reads.

There’s more to life than buying stuff.

There are many wonderful people pursuing and promoting simplicity. Fortunately, some of them are gifted in communication and choose to encourage and inspire us with their words. I enjoy reading their unique perspective. I’m sure you will too.

So fix yourself a nice warm cup of coffee or tea on this beautiful weekend. Find a quiet moment. And enjoy some encouraging words about finding more simplicity in your life today.

The Small, Happy Life | The New York Times by David Brooks. This scale of purpose is not for everyone, but there is something beautiful and concrete and well-proportioned about tending that size of a garden.

Fall Of The Mall? | Forbes by Bryan Pearson. Mergers and millennials are changing an American Icon.

The Secret Life of a Wedding Gift List Adviser | The Guardian by Anonymous.  I often think of the good we could do with all the money spent on presents.

This Kid Calls Out America’s Addiction to Materialism | ATTN: Video (1:05).

Partner with The Hope Effect

Last November, I announced the creation of a nonprofit organization called The Hope Effect. The nonprofit was funded by the proceeds from my new book, The More of Less. Because we don’t need much to live on, we are able to build something significant from the extra income.

The Hope Effect is changing how orphans are cared for around the world by providing solutions that better mimic the family. Rather than constructing large, cold buildings with dozens of children and only a few guardians, we are committed to building smaller homes that house 6-8 orphaned children, 2 adults, and function as a healthy family.

You can find out more about our work, right here.

Since announcing the organization late last year, we have raised over $150,000 from 1,000 individual donors. Thanks to their generous gifts, our first home is currently being constructed in Siguatepeque, Honduras and should be complete later this Fall (pictured above).

We are also beginning to turn our attention toward a new location: San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico. This Mexican border town has a population of 200,000 and the local authorities have encouraged us to build some Hope Effect Homes in their community. We are laying the groundwork for that to happen.

All of the funds that we raise for The Hope Effect are used directly for orphan care—literally every penny. We do not use publicly raised money for administrative expenses, everything goes directly to the construction and/or operation of our homes. We call it The 100% Model and we are proud to be restoring people’s faith in non-governmental organizations.

In order for this model to remain sustainable, we depend on private donors and corporate sponsors to cover our administrative costs.

Up until this point, I have not gone public with this opportunity. I have invited the Becoming Minimalist community to become active in changing orphan care around the world by donating to The Hope Effect, but I have not provided opportunity for private and corporate donors to help build the organization.

But today, I want to invite some of you to partner with us in this specific way. As our fundraising and reach has grown, so has our need to fund the growing organization without sacrificing the 100% Model we created.

We are committed to keeping our administrative expenses as minimal as possible. However, the fact remains there are always costs associated with doing business (web, design, fees, office supplies, a part-time Executive Director, and currently, the cost of expanding our organization into Mexico). I invite you to partner with us in covering some of those specific costs.

If you would like to partner with us in this unique way, please donate using this page.

It is our goal to raise an additional $5,000/month to begin expanding our staff and developing community among our donors. Your recurring monthly donation will help make that goal achievable. Thank you.

7 Powerful Ways To Maintain Momentum After Decluttering

Note: This is a guest post from Anthony Ongaro of Break the Twitch.

“One quick question: why are we all working so hard for stuff we don’t need, just so you can ‘tidy up’ and give it all way…?” —Carl Richards

It’s no secret that removing excess can create an incredible amount of freedom. With fewer things to organize, less financial stress, and more time to pursue things that matter, minimalism creates the opportunity to design a life aligned with your values.

Once you’re in the swing of things, it feels great to donate and declutter items from your home. At a certain point, you’ll reach a place of equilibrium where you’ll simply have to maintain the work you’ve done. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to continue building upon the progress you’ve made.

Here are seven ways to create new opportunities and take additional steps in your intentional living journey.

1. Start a blog. Starting a blog is one of the most important things I’ve done for my intentional living journey. A blog provides personal accountability, a record of learnings over the years, and a place online where people can connect with you. I’ve found it incredibly rewarding to connect with other bloggers and creators who are making things they’re passionate about. Many of these connections would have never happened had I not started putting my ideas out into the world online.

2. Take better care of your things. If you’ve pared down your belongings in a significant way, you should be left with the things that you love most. A little bit of extra care can preserve them for much longer than typical lifecycles. For example, using a dryer is one of the most damaging things you can do to your clothes. With fewer clothing items, hang-drying is quick, easy, and preserves the quality of the clothing. I’ve learned to enjoy doing laundry, and thanks to this method, I have many shirts that still look brand new despite being worn every week for the last two years. I use a folding rack that can be easily stored when not in use.

3. Travel somewhere new. Going to a new, unfamiliar place can be perspective-changing, and incredibly powerful. Try visiting a place that is outside of your comfort zone, perhaps somewhere less economically fortunate than where you live. There are very happy people all over the world living on a fraction of the income that an average first world resident earns. Traveling to such places will change the way you think about money, and the power of what it can accomplish when used effectively.

4. Donate money. When we commit to live with less, the money we require each month decreases. As debt gets paid off and spending lessens, you can choose to leverage your resources to change the world for the better. There are organizations doing amazing work, putting 100% of donated funds towards projects that make a direct and immediate difference in people’s lives. Not only do you get the freedom that comes with choosing to live with less, but it’s incredibly rewarding to know that you’re making a difference in people’s lives.

5. Volunteer time. It feels great to serve others, but connecting with other volunteers can be just as rewarding. It’s empowering and uplifting to be around people who help others actively take steps to do so. Spend some time connecting with people in the spirit of giving and you will find your own life filled with joy and gratitude. Find an organization with a mission that aligns with your values, then register to volunteer with them.

6. Do nothing. Just because you have more time and energy to do something, doesn’t always mean you should. It’s easy to fall back into the “busy” trap and let unproductive things fill the space created by decluttering. One of the best things you can do for yourself is leave some room to breathe, relax, or simply catch up. Put the smartphone away, sit, and gaze out the window for a while. It may feel unproductive, but rest assured: you’re sharpening the axe instead of chopping with a dull blade.

7. Establish a new daily habit. In order to enhance the positive changes you’ve created through decluttering, implement a few daily habits into your life. Start with just one thing and do it every day for a week; then add on another thing each week. These habits can be anything from a 10 minute walk to spending a few minutes learning new Spanish vocabulary words. Start small, build up as you go, and commit to at least 60 consecutive days.

Intentional living is a lifelong pursuit, and doesn’t stop once the decluttering is done. There are many ways to spend your time and energy that add substantial value, opportunity and joy for yourself and the people you love.

***

Anthony Ongaro writes at Break the Twitch and helps others explore ways to live a more intentional life. You can also find him on Facebook and YouTube .

Inspiring Simplicity. Weekend Reads.

Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from it. It requires a conscious decision because it is a countercultural lifestyle that stands against the culture of overconsumption that surrounds us.

The world we live in is not friendly to the pursuit of minimalism. Its tendencies and relentless advertising campaigns call us to acquire more, better, faster, and newer. The journey of finding simplicity requires consistent inspiration.

For that reason, I hope you will make an effort this weekend to find a quiet moment with a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy some of these hand-picked articles to encourage more simplicity in your life.

Americans Aren’t Buying Stuff Anymore | TIME by Alicia Adamczyk. After aggregating data on consumers’ credit and debit purchases, researchers found that people are spending much less on things and spending more on experiences.

Two Years Without Shopping: What I Bought, Donated and Learned to Be True | Cait Flanders by Cait Flanders. Now that I know how much I need/use in a year, I have no reason to go back to mindlessly consuming things just for the sake of consuming them.

The No-Brainer Purge: 20 Items to Get Rid of Right Now Without a Second Thought | Apartment Therapy by Shifrah Combiths. If you’ve got the urge to get some stuff out of the house, start with this list of items you can say goodbye to right now with little thought and no impunity.

12 YouTube Channels All Minimalists Will Love | The Blissful Mind by Catherine Beard. If you need some inspiration to declutter your life or are intrigued and want to learn more about what other people are doing, I highly recommend you subscribe to some of these channels.

The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker. If you want more inspiration and a practical guide to owning less, my book, The More of Less, has helped over 20,000 people discover the life they want by removing the possessions they don’t. The hardcover edition is less than $11.

 

11 Ways to Simplify Your Financial Life

Note: This is a guest post from Bob Lotich of SeedTime.

I began my journey into minimalism a little over a year ago, and soon began experiencing the benefits of having less and living a simpler life.

Running a personal finance blog, I began to ask myself, “How can I apply these principles to my money?”

I don’t know about you, but I have found that in my life, my finances are entirely too involved. And too often, I feel that they are controlling me.

Those aren’t ridiculous conclusions, considering how complicated finance has become on all levels, as well as the rapid pace of change that it throws at us.

But here are 11 ways to simplify your financial life and put greater control back in your hands.

1. Consolidate Bank Accounts and Retirement Accounts

Most people can get by just fine with one checking account and one savings account. If you have more, consolidate your various accounts into a single checking account and one savings account. You’ll simplify your banking, without resulting in any loss in service level.

The same is true of retirement accounts. If you have several, due to having previous jobs with 401(k) plans, simplify your life by rolling those plans over to a self-directed IRA account. Not only will this reduce paperwork, but it will also eliminate account fees, and make it much easier to manage your retirement assets.

2. Get Rid of as Much Paperwork as You Can

Having multiple accounts for various financial pursuits can lead to piles of paperwork building up around your home. You may not even take the time to read through them, but the existence of large amounts of paperwork can be stressful all by itself.

Get rid of any paperwork that isn’t absolutely necessary, and shift account statements and notifications to online. And if you’re reducing the number of financial accounts that you have, the amount of correspondence will drop anyway.

3. Cut Back to Just One Credit Card

If you have a passion for rewards and zero interest rate promotions, you may have built up an impressive inventory of credit cards. But once the rewards and zero interest are gone, the cards have little value.

Keep them open for credit scoring purposes, but focus your credit card use on a single card. Choose the one that offers the best benefits and put the rest away. It’s much simpler to manage your spending and handle payments with a single credit card then with five or ten.

TIP: For most people wanting a good rewards credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the way to go.

4. Become Debt Free

Debt doesn’t just cost you money, it also makes life more complicated. Not only do you have to spend more time paying bills, but multiple debts are serious sources of stress. Think of it this way: Each debt that you eliminate takes out one complication in your life.

One of the very best ways to simplify your financial life is to become debt free. It won’t happen overnight, but just establishing a plan to make it happen can go a long way toward simplifying your life.

5. Invest in Funds Rather than Individual Stocks

Investing in individual stocks can be fun and rewarding, but it’s also messy. You have to research, purchase, track, and sell each stock in your portfolio. If you have dozens, it can be the equivalent of a part-time job.

You can avoid all of that hassle by investing in either mutual funds or exchange traded funds. Index funds are particularly attractive, since very few actively managed funds ever outperform the market.

Funds are also much simpler when it comes time to file your tax return. Individual stocks require a lot of tax related documentation, and that can also raise the cost of tax preparation.

6. Pay Cash Whenever Possible

Yes, it sounds old school, but it does have its advantages. It avoids getting receipts, and tracking expenses after the fact, the way you do with both debit and credit cards. With cash, you can make your purchase and move on.

Use your credit card on larger purchases that may require buyer protection or a potential refund situation. Then simplify your financial life by making your smaller purchases in cash.

7. Cut Out Any Services You Don’t Need or Regularly Use

You probably pay for subscriptions and services that you hardly use. By eliminating them, you will simplify your life and remove yet another payment from your budget. The fewer payments you need to make, the simpler your finances will be.

8. Cut Down on Your Goals

It’s important to have goals established to achieve important milestones in life. But you probably can’t successfully manage more than one or two goals at one time. In fact, multiple goals can spread your efforts in too many directions, and cause needless confusion.

Pick the one or two goals that are most important to you right now, pursue them with a vengeance, and let the other goals go for another time. Your chance of succeeding in any one goal will then increase dramatically.

9. Rent a Home Rather than Owning

There’s a world of documentation supporting the emotional and long-term financial benefits of homeownership. But owning your own home comes with a long list of expenses and responsibilities that you wouldn’t have if you rented. For example, you wouldn’t need to be concerned about repairs, maintenance, or HOA special assessments. Your landlord would be responsible for those.

Generally speaking, renting reduces you to just a monthly rent payment, and a small number of utilities. Anything beyond that will not be your concern. That will simplify both your finances and your life.

10. Do More of What Brings in the Most Income

This applies most directly to the self-employed and to commissioned salespeople, but it does have relevance to salaried employees as well. The idea is to focus most of your efforts and time on the work activities that are likely to generate the most income. Reduce the amount of time you spend on administrative functions by either offloading or subbing them out to someone else.

For salaried employees, this could be concentrating effort on activities that are likely to produce a larger bonus, or put you in a better position to be promoted.

This single change in strategy can both increase your income, and simplify the income earning process of your life.

11. Turn off Your TV and Go Easy on the Internet

Information is good – to a point. But after that, it turns into noise and promotes mental clutter. The “experts” on TV and the Internet are there to relentlessly inform you that you need to do this, or to stop doing that, or to buy here, or to invest there. It’s an advice merry-go-round in which the specific advice always changes, but the flow never ends.

Confusion is never a sound position from which to simplify your financial life. Limit the amount of information you take in, restricting it only to the most trusted sources, then tune out the rest.

Implementing just a few of these changes can go a long way toward simplifying your financial life.

Now, I’d love to hear from you. What have you done to simplify your financial life?

***

Bob Lotich is the founder of SeedTime, a blog designed to help people live financially free lives. Stop by to take the FREE email course to help you get control of your money.