Simplifying Life and Becoming Financially Free

This is the final part in a series of articles about changes I’ve made in my life recently. You can read part 2 here – From Difficulties We Can Find New Paths

37 kgs – that is the total weight of all of my possessions. The number itself isn’t of great importance, but the act of shedding so much unnecessary weight was liberating.

Even though I’ve been on the road much of these last four years, I’ve still found myself with things that have no real importance in my life. I probably bought much of it on a whim, convinced that it would serve me at some point. In reality, we need very little in our lives to be comfortable. All of this extra clutter is just visual noise that fogs our vision and weighs us down.

When we first left Korea 2 years ago, I was finishing my term as an English teacher. I’d enjoyed the job, although it was certainly a challenge, but I made a commitment to myself that I would never again be employed by anyone other than myself. I threw out every piece of formal clothing – ties, shirts, black shoes – all went in the bin. It felt empowering.

Now, with the Great-Decluttering of 2014, I am making another commitment to myself – I will live with as much freedom as I possibly can, and continue the life-long journey of cultivating happiness and being in the present moment.

Rachel and I began our quest for financial freedom 6 years ago. We wrote down every bit of debt, every monthly outgoing, every titbit that we spent money on, food expenditure, everything else. We had £10,000 (about $15,000) of debt to pay off. Working decent jobs, we had it paid off within 6 or 7 months. We removed all unnecessary monthly outgoings. We began saving for travelling.

Moving to Korea, we had an opportunity to travel and save money. We decided to organise our money in the most simple of ways. We would have an absolute limit each week that we would spend on money for food and weekly necessities. We would take out a lump sum each month and that was our spending money. Regardless of circumstance, that is all we could spend.

Because of this absolute limit, we automatically cut out many of the things we’d throw money away on without even thinking about it. We’d get public transport instead of taxis, which equally helped us become much more familiar with the city. We wouldn’t go crazy on chocolate or other sweets, and we used our phones when we needed them instead of sending texts out of boredom.

We still had a strong social life and visited a lot of Korea. In those two years, we went on 3 holidays and had a great time at a Korean music festival for a few days. We even bought cameras and laptops because we’d saved more than we’d expected in the long run! Essentially, we found that limiting our outgoings didn’t affect our happiness at all.

At the end of the 2 years many of the teachers who’d started at the same time as us would ask us how much we’d saved. When we’d tell them they’d often ask ‘Do we even earn that much?’ Most seemed completely unaware of how much they had coming in and going out.

This is the strange thing: some of our friends were also quite sensible with cash. However, others weren’t and they would often ask us if we were missing out, or insinuate that we were limiting ourselves in some way. Some people believe that spending cash equals living the high life and having fun. But for us, the opposite has been true. It really depends on your own personal tastes and where you are in your life.

With our savings we’ve managed to live quite comfortably and it supported my first year as a self-employed photographer. And now, with our heads firmly screwed on, we have a goal to buy a nice apartment in the next few years without a mortgage. We’re thinking maybe in New Zealand, but that’s something to think more about in the future.

This is all made possible because 6 years ago we decided to take financial control of our lives. We looked at what brought us happiness and comfort. We knew that a large proportion of where our money went wasn’t conducive to long-term happiness and we made the necessary changes. It was one of the biggest and most important decisions we made in this journey.

I’m surprised by the sheer number of people who follow my blog that can completely empathise with our situation or who wish to make similar changes but haven’t found that inspiration or motivation yet. After hundreds of likes and dozens of comments on facebook where I’ve published these articles, I’m going to create a new lifestyle blog, separate from TSL. Hopefully by documenting my journey through these changes and ambitious goals, maybe someone will take inspiration from it and make their own changes too.

Finally, below is a short list of books that I’ve read. They were very inspiring and contain some awesome advice. None of the links are affiliate links so I don’t make any money if you buy the materials 😀

Books on Meditation & Mindfulness

Mindfulness: A guide to finding peace in a frantic world by Prof Mark Williams & Doctor Danny Penman

Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh

Books on Simplicity/Minimalism

The Power of Less by Leo Babauta

The Minimalists: Essential Essays by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus