Our money is only as valuable as what we choose to spend it on.
This has been a life-changing realization in my life. It has changed how I see money and how I spend it.
If we choose to buy a big screen television, our money was worth a big screen television. We get to have it in our living room and watch basketball games or play video games on it, but our money will never be worth more than the electronic hanging on our wall.
Similarly, we could use our money to buy a new pair of shoes or wardrobe or a closet organizing system. In that case, our money was worth the fashion we purchased with it… or the designer storage compartments we installed to better store our stuff.
But our money can never be spent on anything else. Once it is spent, it is spent.
Now, let’s say we decide not to buy the large screen television, but take our kids on a weekend vacation instead. It seems to me, in this scenario, we begin to increase the value of our money. We create memories around a shared experience. Or we learn something about a new place or culture or try a new food. We bond as a family and share an experience we will talk about for the rest of our lives.
There is a reason experiential purchases tend to provide more enduring happiness than material purchases. This trip may likely prove to be more valuable to us than an unneeded larger-screen television.
But there’s more. What happens when we begin to use our money to help people or solve problems we see in the world?
How valuable does our money become when we use it to help send a child to school in a developing country or deliver clean water to a village in Africa? What if we helped provide a family for an orphaned child or helped a refugee family get settled in a new country? What if we helped provide job training in our local community or chose to help out the financially struggling young mother in our community?
Our money could be used to help solve an injustice we see in the world—whether it would be an injustice against another person, a group of people, the environment, animals, or any cause we are personally passionate about.
When we begin to use our money in this way, its potential and value begins to increase even more!
What about the child you helped send to school? Who knows what cycle of poverty you may have broken in his/her life and who knows what potential exists there? Who knows what might become of the child you helped place in a family—whether through community orphan care, foster care, or adoption? What might become of the young mother and child you helped put on solid footing, or the man who was trained in a new job skill?
Who knows what life your financial resources were able to change or how the world may turn out differently because of your investment.
Our money can never be worth more than what we choose to spend it on. And there are some things we can buy with it that are more valuable than others.
Once we see that, spending dollars on a bigger-screen television or chasing ever-changing fashion starts to look like a pretty poor investment.
Mari R says
Until I was introduced to minimalistic movement this spring, I thought I was a minimalist. House was always tidy and people commended it.
However, once I went through my home with real minimalist’s eyes, a mountain of things had to go. I ended up calling a junk removal service. Meantime I finally put an end on buying new clothes, well, almost.
Now I’m more comfortable contributing to the causes I care. Also I have less possessions to take care of. Thank you, Joshua!
Sandy says
I received this post in my inbox while on a cruise. A great worthwhile expenditure as we are celebrating our friend’s successful first phase of cancer treatment. I checked my email (and saw the post) right after I’d had a delightful massage that my husband gave me for our anniversary—a gift of love I thoroughly enjoyed. But in my hand was a very expensive bag of lotions I was afraid to tell the therapist I didn’t want to purchase.
An hour after I saw the post I returned the lotions.
I think the message of this post for me is that we need to be intentional and brave about our purchasing decisions. And that it’s an ongoing process. Thanks Joshua for helping me make a decision (or change a decision) that moves me towards more intentionality in my spending!
EDJ says
Thank you for sharing the article. But I agree with the above comment that not every purchase is negative. One idea that I’ve read about happiness and money is that frequency with something purchased adds to happiness. This is why spending money on experiences is good. There’s planning, the actual event, and memories after.
But if someone wants to buy a tv or organize their closets, it’s something that they see everyday. It makes them happy. I don’t think it’s bad.
Barb says
I’m sorry, but I disagree with some of the posting. If a big screen tv is purchased to bring family closer and to have family nights… then go for it. It’s not wasteful. Also, a vacation…. yes! It creates memories, it brings togetherness and it’s a teaching tool. No waste of money there.
You gotta look at the whole picture!! Not every purchase is negative!
Tracey says
Barb, I agree with you. As a single parent, watching football every Sunday was an incredible bonding experience for me and my boys. It is a bond that we continue to have to this day. Quite frankly, family vacations as a single mother with 3 kids who had been somewhat traumatized and spread out in age, could be a nightmare and only memorable for the disasters that could ensue. Football at home as a family created much better memories for us personally.
Ela says
I agree. I bought a expensive desktop computer which may seem like a frivolous purchase. However, it has afforded me endless hours of enjoyment and work productivity. It allows me distraction for when I am in the deep throes of depression, so I think it was truly a worthwhile expense.
Wendy says
Wonderful, thought provoking article. I will be sharing it with those around me. This simple article just changed my life.
Joyce says
My life is so much better since I adopted this mindset. It is sad that not all people have gotten to this point, some may never get there, including many in my own family.
C Leach says
Why is it “sad”, Joyce? Seems that you’ve slipped into the “Cult of Minimalism” instead of simply adopting its concepts as a way for you to live. If you waste your energy worrying about how others live instead of focusing on how you choose to live your own life you’ll never find a peace that minimalism offers.
Laura Ann says
Joyce & C. Leach: Simply, I don’t socialize with people who live in messy and cluttered houses, I am selective choosing friends. There’s several I talk to on phone, but distance myself from their houses keeping it casual as we have other views in common. Have sent them articles on minimalism. People that live w/clutter – can’t get car in garage, are not playing w/ a full deck (since junk trumps/outranks their cars) and the world is full of them (stuck in stupid.) distance yourself and avoid contact. There are few critical thinkers now days and feel it was always like this thru history.
Joy says
Laura Ann: The Voice of Reason speaks. Thanks.
joshua becker says
Thanks for the comment, but I’m not sure I agree with you here C.
If I discover a way to live that improves my life, I can find disappointment that people I love don’t adopt the lifestyle as well. That’s what love does… it desires the best for another person.
I have two kids. I want them to be kind and generous and hard-working because I have found that’s the best way to enjoy life. If they choose not to, that’s their choice, but I can still be disappointed in their decision. That doesn’t assign me to a “cult,” that just assigns me to “finding a discovery in life that I wish others would discover as well.”
Of course, this entire blog is about convincing people to discover the life-giving benefits of minimalism. I’ve dedicated 11 years of energy worrying about how others live and trying to expose them to a different way. So my comment should not come as a surprise.
Patricia A Mack says
I’m not exactly commenting on current comments but it is a way of thanking you for your recent article on u-tube in Optium daily.re:your trip to Poland,those Blessed survivorsof a generation of those who lost families homes personal property but learned what really matters in life,a lesson well learned.Their wisdom is my mantra. Thankyou
Jewell says
Thank you for this article. I really enjoyed your perspective and it’s given me something to think about.
Mimi says
I’m glad to have read these thought provoking words today.
It’s helping me be more disciplined with how I spend my money and for what I spend my money on. Thank you for creating and sharing these words with us readers.
Teresa says
I know many people who have more money already in their thirties than they can ever spend in a lifetime. But are they happy? Hell no. Could they be happy? Absolutely!
It’s weird how the more money you have the less you seem to enjoy it, but still you need to get more of it, constantly. Vicious cycle, which I do not wish to be a part of.
Stacy says
Yes, helping those around us is one of the most valuable ways we can spend money. There is so much need. However, it’s also what attitude we do things with. If we are buying a big screen TV for pride alone, it isn’t a good purchase. However, if that is what brings your family together, for good, quality, entertainment, I see nothing wrong with owning something that enriches your family’s life.
We each must decide what is worth our money, time and energy and not judge when others enrich their lives differently than we do ours.
Laura Ann says
Stacy: We live a simple life on into retirement. We have travelled thru the years and take trips to local, national and state parks, beaches, (not commercial crowded places), and have an above average clean and minimalist house.
We help several group homes in the area. But I “mentally” judge when people in debt waste money on the power ball lottery, casino resorts, and give money or pay bills to their adult slacker offspring who just want handouts and can’t hold a steady job. Those with cluttered messy homes and garages near me, I have discussed w/ friends that so and so is living in a pig pen with a mouse problem, etc. and they are glued to their phone or computer and won’t clean the house, garage.
Molly says
Judge less it’s better for your soul.