{"id":17264,"date":"2017-04-12T23:40:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T06:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becomingblog.wpengine.com\/?p=17264"},"modified":"2017-04-13T00:01:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T07:01:37","slug":"minimalism-and-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.becomingminimalist.com\/minimalism-and-money\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Ways Minimalism Helps Put Money In Your Pocket"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At first glance, the minimalist lifestyle\u00a0has a simple goal, \u201cOwn fewer things.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, below the surface, minimalism is about something more. It is about re-evaluating our pursuits, our habits, and our motivations.<\/p>\n
My family was introduced to minimalism eight\u00a0years ago and immediately began removing unneeded possessions from every room in our home. As a result, we quickly found more time, more energy, less stress, and more opportunity to focus on things that matter.<\/p>\n
As you might imagine, we also experienced financial benefits.<\/p>\n
Excess possessions are a drain on our finances. (tweet that<\/a>)<\/p>\n Here are eight ways minimalism can help\u00a0put more money in your pocket:<\/p>\n 1. Selling Unneeded Clutter.<\/strong> The L.A. Times recently reported the average American home contains 300,000 items<\/a>. That’s a lot of clutter and that’s a lot of money sitting around\u2014probably more than you realize. Bob Lotich, a personal finance blogger at Seedtime, even reported making more than $2k his first month<\/a>\u00a0selling off clutter.<\/p>\n 2. Buying Less Stuff.<\/strong>\u00a0Minimalists routinely spend less on retail purchases than their consumeristic peers\u2014this should come as no surprise. What is surprising is how easy that transformation occurs for some people. Once a person experiences the freedom of owning less, they routinely\u00a0become more and more attracted to living with less. At that point, the grip that consumerism holds on their checkbook begins to break.<\/p>\n 3. Maintaining Fewer Belongings.\u00a0<\/strong>Too often, when we purchase an item, we only look at the sticker price. But this is rarely the full cost. Our purchases always cost more in the long run. They also require ongoing energy and focus. And because everything eventually fades, breaks, or becomes obsolete, many of our existing possessions often require additional financial investment. This can clearly be seen in large items (houses, cars, appliances). Small fixes and maintenance costs also tend to add up.<\/p>\n 4. Storing Fewer Possessions.\u00a0<\/strong>The structures we build, buy and rent to store our ever-increasing number of possessions is quite unbelievable. Our houses have tripled in size over the last 50 years<\/a>, off-site storage is the fastest growing segment of commercial real estate<\/a>, and only 33% of Americans can park both cars in their two-car garage. Those who choose to live a minimalist life return all that added expense of storing possessions back into their pocket. Just imagine how different your finances might look if you lived in a smaller home<\/a>.<\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> Taking Tax Deductions from Donations. <\/b>As people begin to experience the benefits of owning less, they are drawn to remove even more clutter from their home. This almost always results in more possessions being minimized than can be sold. But even in this case, the financial gain remains as the IRS provides opportunity for\u00a0taxpayers to\u00a0deduct the fair market value of donated clothing, household goods, used furniture, shoes, books and so forth.<\/p>\n