Mind the Beginner

You’ll experience less stress, you’ll save more money and you’ll be healthier. Just a few benefits that you can enjoy when being a minimalist. But don’t just take my word for it. Here is what some other bloggers have to say about minimalism:

MNMlist

“Often we don’t really need those possessions as much as we might think, and even when we do have them, we’re not as secure as we might think.” A blogpost on the troubles with getting rid of your possessions. It’s actually by far the hardest thing out there in the minimalist approach: the initial struggle to reduce your belongings. Leo argues that your belongings give you a false sense of security. You’re prepared for all sorts of events. The idea of being prepared goes a bit overboard when you have a triple redundancy on your car, a stack of over 20 dinner plates and you just can’t get rid of that old tv. “What if the new one breaks down, I won’t be able to watch tv for a while”

Keeping stuff means you need a bigger house to store them all in.

The Everyday Minimalist

A 20 something blogger living out of a suitcase since 2006. Having lived in 1600 and 1200 square foot apartments and now living in a 600 square foot studio. Just imagine the difference in monthly rent! and immediately two benefits come to mind: the first being that rent, it’s probably going to be cheaper and secondly: you can vacuum the entire space without unplugging the vacuum. Cleaning 600 square foot while owning just a few things means you have a lot of empty floorspace. Enough space to exercise, lie flat on the floor and stare at the ceiling for a while or dance.

A smaller home and less stuff means easier cleaning

Far Beyond the Stars

You know about the 100-things challenge. Everett took it one step further and decided to go with just 50 items for a while! “The 50 things movement doesn’t count shared items like cooking supplies, bedding, and furniture. I was only counting personal possessions that only belong to me.” Give it a little thought, what if you could live with the freedom of having so few things that you could tuck it all in a suitcase. You’d no longer have to wonder what you would be packing when going on a holiday, you’d just pack every single thing you own!

Everett dropped the 50 things and went back to 75 after a while, to make life just that little bit easier (think laundry…) “Living with less isn’t for everyone, but I’ve discovered that it can make life a lot simpler when you decide to opt out of the endless cycle of consumerism.”

Less stuff means more mobility

Wake Up Cloud

“Having the latest gadgets is cool, but I also realize that it is largely unnecessary and something I’m going to grow tired of within a few weeks.” As soon as you realize this, you can start saving some serious money. Do you actually need that iPhone, iPad or high powered notebook? Or worse, phone, pad AND notebook. Thinking about needs versus wants will help you here. Will owning the latest thing seriously make you happy? And if so, for how long. Especially on the more expensive things, think about how long it took you to save up all that money and so where you will spend those hours of your life on you can never get back. And so Henri realized: “happiness doesn’t come from things, it comes from inside of me.” You can be happy with nothing, and unhappy with everything.

Less desires lets you find true happiness

Simple. Organized. Life.

Is there something wrong with you if you choose to own less? David has been told this countless times. Many people think an empty house is an empty life but they couldn’t be more wrong. For them it certainly is true because thy identify who they are and what they are worth by their possessions. Minimalists however find their worth not in the stuff they own, but what they carry with them in their mind and hear. Happiness really does come from within. So is there something wrong with us because we know where to find true happiness?

Minimalists are completely sane and have a full life

The Minimalist Path

Minimalism can be applied just about anywhere in life, and David points out that it’s actually fun! Yes, you know and I know, but do others know as well? Spread the word. You get perspective and control over your own life. There are less things to take into account when making a decision, less stuff to worry about. Although on the one end there are a few who think that going minimal actually costs more, David makes a clear statement that it actually doesn’t cost anything to get organized.

Sure, if you own just a few things, you’ll be inclined to make those few things the best they can be. If you can own only one computer and it’s essential to your income you’ll be wanting a very reliable laptop and those are expensive. If you have just one coat or one pair of shoes, you’re going to make sure that they will last. It’s still cheaper than buying something new every week or month and -maybe that’s just me- it’s fun to go hunting/researching for the best possible buy.

Minimalism goes great with frugality and quality

Step 1 minimalist

The final blog we’re visiting it written by Brett and gives you the absolute best reason to become a minimalist: Time. “Looking at every aspect of minimalism, it constantly comes back to creating more time to focus on and act upon what we love, while discarding the rest.” Remember that triple redundant car I mentioned? If you spend some time (and fun) on hunting down the single best car you can buy, you don’t have to work all those hours to buy the other two, work all those hours to maintain them, and have a garage that will fit them while you drive around in the first one. Bigger garages come with bigger houses, that come with higher rents or mortgages. Well, you get the idea.

Minimalists have more time to spend on the important things in life

Where it all comes down to

There are plenty of benefits to be had in living the minimalist lifestyle. It will save you time, money, space, stress and distraction among other things. You’ll be rewarded with a sense of freedom and control over your own life, and live green and save money at the same time! You want to live the minimal life? A good place to start is to take the one step towards a minimalist home.

Every day I’m confronted with problems, problems of my own and problems other people have. And as with all problems I like to see them for what they are: challenges and puzzles to be solved. Sometimes problems are much easier to solve than you’d think. Take the classic Gordian Knot, a very complex knot impossible to untie but made short work of with a sword. Other problems might not be that easy but are still easy enough when cut down to size a bit.

The trap

The hard part here is yielding the sword properly. Cutting the problem down to size will in the end leave you with a very simple problem to solve, but will the solution still hold in the big picture? You could cut the knot, but what if the owner of the rope would get very upset if you cut the rope, which was a family heirloom? You got so focused on finding a solution to the knot itself that you forgot the context.

Just a few days ago I made this mistake in a very complex problem. I kept reducing and cutting away until I got the simple solution, but I forgot all about the context of the problem. My solution to the small problem would actually do exactly the opposite when applied to the problem in situ.  If someone turns down your solution because of this, they are absolutely right to do so. Nobody wants to make things worse now do they? And of course I’m sorry for suggestion such a stupid and short-sighted “solution”.

Keep the context in mind

Finding answers to questions is what we all do. Even up to the point of “If it won’t fit… get a bigger hammer” or “You’ll just have to make time”. Did you ever try actually making time, let’s not go there. Fact remains that when you whittle down a challenge, reducing it to a single step, that step may no longer be an answer to the question. While simplification is a very nice tool, and you can cut away a lot of things that don’t matter at all. If you cut away even a single chip of the context that has a direct or indirect impact on the problem, you just changed the problem and so the answer.

So there you are hacking away at the problem, making it smaller and smaller. It’s actually starting to look like the answer just like making a statue of an elephant from a piece of marble is as simple as chipping away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant.  We all look on while you’re blurred behind a cloud of chippings and then suddenly we hear that dreaded word “oops”.

…

Thankfully you noticed that you messed up and didn’t present your answer as the answer to the question right? What? You didn’t notice!? You were so happily chipping away that you didn’t notice? We’ll just have to display that elephant without a tail and hope nobody bothers to look at the backside of the statue. You might pull it off every now and then, but you will know the tail isn’t there and I’m sure it will get noticed once you realise that the statue was meant to be placed on a low pillar in the centre of a lawn.

The clear view

If you want to simplify problems you’re always free to do so, at your own risk. If you’re to extreme you’ll get into trouble. If you’re not extreme enough you still have a lot of work to do. Simplification is a very delicate business and more of an art-form than just a skill. Something I’ve definitely not mastered yet but am working on every single day to perfect.

What are you trying to simplify?

Yesterday, the lottery in The Netherlands was up to a record breaking amount of money (€27 million)  to be won and it was guaranteed to be won by someone. You can imagine the frenzy. People literally bought hundreds of tickets and were already spending the money in their head. You know how that goes. “I would by a new car! No wait, two cars!” Aside from the stupidity of buying a new car as opposed to a relatively new used car is that really what’s important?

It’s well known that people who suddenly come to great riches tend do squander it just as fast. They’re not accustomed to managing money. One of the reasons few people become rich.

Even so, (almost) everybody dreams of being rich. I found a great quote on that I’d like to share with you:

“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up”
- Paul Valery

Yes, well all share that dream on one way or the other. Even those who are rich dream of being richer. It’s almost a universal truth. And yes, I dream of being wealthy too, or at least, having enough savings to be able to live comfortably from the interest. I estimate that goal to be €1,3 million in the bank at 3,5% interest. If the interest were higher (and it often is) say 5% under a million (.96) would more than do it. With relatively low risk to your savings you can generate an even higher interest rate.

See those numbers? It’s not that big now is it. Even if you don’t make a six figure income you can reach this point. It all depends on two things: Be realistic and be frugal, keep it simple and keep it safe.

Okay, now it’s time for you to laugh. Here I am, a blogger/student who’s 26. Doesn’t have a penny’s worth of savings talking about having a million in the bank. My old classmates are lawyers, engineers or otherwise already earning an income. And I’m being realistic or dreaming?

Actually, yes I’m dead serious. Chances of you winning the lottery are astronomical at best. You’re better of putting that money to some use instead of throwing it away. Let’s say you’re a typical player buying two lottery tickets every month, €5 Each and you do that for forty years, most people play their entire life. That’s €4800 spent. But with an interest of only 3.5% you could have had €10,337. An increase of 46% over all that time and very likely a better “result” than playing the lottery.

Okay, those are small numbers but there are so many things that are simply not worth what we pay for them. Most things we don’t even need. As I talked about before, the reason minimalists often have such great homes is because

• 1: They aren’t cluttered and
• 2: because they only need a few things, the few things they do buy are of good quality.

We live in a world that’s trying to convince us that quantity is all that counts. After all, we’ll buy two new cars when we win. More jewelry, more expensive watches, more bling (What a horrible word btw), more TVs, more useless clutter you “need” to show others your wealth.

It’s time to stop dreaming about those riches and come to grips with reality. You will not win the lottery. Being frugal and saving is the way to go. It’s not glamorous and it’s slow, but it’s a far better path to riches. And besides, you’ll learn a great deal about managing your money so by the time you do reach that point when you can live off the interest (a passive income)  you’ll know how to manage your money and you’ll think twice before buying a new car. Make a habit out of saving and being frugal. Eventually you’ve worked so long and hard to get where you are, you’ll take great care not to throw it all away just like that.

It seems minimalism is getting more popular every day. Now in my about page it states that I’m a minimalist, however I’m still working on the 100 items challenge I’ve written about all those weeks ago. It’s much harder than it would seem and I think this is going to take some more time.  But why do I want to go on with this challenge and succeed? It’s because I believe in it and in the power of minimalism.

A closer look

Let’s have another look at the basics of minimalism and it’s power. To me minimalism is having exactly those things you need in life and nothing more. The things you do have are of such quality that you don’t need redundancies and all those thing do exactly what they are supposed to, nothing more, nothing less.

Everything is designed with pure functionality in thought. Aesthetics come in second.

No I’m not saying that comfort and fun should be thrown out the window just because you want to be a minimalist, far from it! It’s inherent to minimalism as I understand it to have the best *whatever you need* you can find and can afford. Keep in mind however that up to a certain amount of money you are paying for function, after that it’s all about the looks, the name or whatever else is on there.

The minimalist’s Ferrari

Take a Ferrari for instance. Totally useless if you ask me. Sure, it’s a great car, but to me a car is a means of transportation. A car needs to get me from A to B safely and comfortably while having enough room in the trunk to haul whatever I need hauling. Preferably without costing me to much gas. A Toyota Prius could do all that, right? If I don’t have much stuff to haul (minimalists generally don’t have a lot of stuff) I could even choose to drive a Smart. What can a Ferrari do that a Smart can’t? It much much faster and it gets you noticed, it’s a status symbol…. it’s something little boys need to feel secure and feel like they are something. And that’s what you pay for, image.

Image isn’t functionality and so a Ferrari is useless. I’d rather spend the more than 100k I save by driving a Smart or Prius and do other fun things with all that money. (Maybe rent a Ferrari for a day.)

Is image everyhting or nothing?

This way of thinking applies to just about everything with a brand name on it. What can Nike shoes do for you that regular non-brand shoes can’t? Image. A Louis Vuitton bag? Again it’s image. Something you need to belong to a certain tribe.

Now it’s here that people who have this stuff start to protest, telling you that you probably don’t have the money to buy these things and that you are just jealous.

But let’s turn that one around. How would you feel about living a life where you need to wear certain brands, drive a certain type of car and have the latest gadgets just because they are the latest. I bet you it would feel totally fake. Not to mention the possible financial problems that come from it. I’ll let you in on a secret, most of the people who wear these brands don’t have the amount of money they try to fool other people into thinking they have. It’s part of the image they are trying to have. To them however, the image is so important that they spend all their money on it.

To cut things short: minimalism saves you a hell of a lot of money. You can easily live below your means. Living well below your means offers you one of two options:

1. You can reach Financial Independence within your lifetime.
2. You can afford not to work for months every year

Most people will respond to the idea of living below their means in one of two ways. Either they’ll say “I know, I know I should be saving more,” or they’ll scoff “how can I live below my means? I’m just scraping by already.” – Freepersuits.com

This quote shows exactly where things go wrong for “image” people: “I’m just scraping by already”. It’s probably because of all stuff the think they need to maintain the image.

I’ll stop the ranting now like I’m a poor little kid who hasn’t got the money it takes to join the tribe and so starts kicking against it and tell you what minimalism is in what I believe is the shortest possible definition. I already gave it away in the title of this post but here it is again in all it’s glory:

Minimalism = Simplicity = Freedom

Nothing more, nothing less

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it. You might also want to subscribe to my RSS feed.