In his book, I Will Teach You to be Rich Remit Sethi discusses that it’s not the $5 you spend daily at Starbucks that is keeping you broke. It’s not the small expenses you spend every day, it’s the big expenditures you make too often. But how do you separate the two?

You have to prioritize your spending. You love coffee, can’t live without it. So buy the coffee. You work from home so don’t need a big wardrobe. Do don’t spend a lot on clothes. Boom! There’s your coffee money and then some.

Make more money. Ok, you don’t love coffee. You love foreign travel to exotic locales. Saving $5 a day on coffee isn’t going to get you two weeks in Bali (it helps though). You have to make more money if your indulgences are more expensive. So you work longer hours, you work a second job. You can still travel but if your tastes are high end, it will be easier to make more money to pay for them than to save enough money to afford them.

Finances are akin to diets. If you tell yourself, “I can never have cheese again,” you’re going to take down a block of cheddar by yourself within days. The same is true of spending money. This is a long term commitment. It can’t be constant deprivation. Set aside a percentage of your total income that is disposable. You can spend that money on anything you want. But once that money is gone, it’s gone.

So get your priorities in order. Spend on the must haves and cut out the things you can live without.

Show Notes

I Will Teach You To Be Rich: Ramit Sethi’s best selling book.

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