What Does It Really Cost to Live? No, Really?
In a world where financial figures are being constantly thrown at us – the ticker on the stock market, text messages from our banks, prices on everything, for everything – it’s not often that a financial concept can truly rock our worlds. This one, though, did mine.
I’m convinced that a middle-classer who makes $45,000 a year, and whose lifestyle costs $40,000 a year, is necessarily going to feel more day-to-day abundance than an upper-classer who makes $100,000 and whose lifestyle costs every bit of that.
That quote comes from the lead writer at Raptitude.com and the article “How much does it cost to be you?” David contends that the issue with not having enough money or feeling like your budget is too tight actually has nothing to do with having less than you need (of course, there are cases where having enough is a problem), but more likely a problem with how much you’re putting out in terms of spending. And if you want more day-to-day abundance, as David says, you’ll need to work on your costs, not your income.
How much more money do you make today than you did 5 years ago? What about 10 years ago? Do you live a much better lifestyle, though, than you did then? Chances are, as your salary increases, so do your expenses and ultimately you’re not experiencing any more abundance even though you’re making a lot more money.
Can you ask yourself, “How much does it really cost to be me?” Are there places you can increase the ratio of spending in your life and thereby increase abundance? Think about it.