Personal Finance Advisor on Frugal Living

Visit any personal finance blogs and you are sure to notice frugal living tips. Frugal “X”, frugal “Y”, frugal “Z”, and what not. Or try this, enter frugal in the google.com search bar and hit enter key. You will get over 8,570,000 results. If every result offers at least a couple of tips on frugal living, imagine the number of advices you have on your desktop.

I am not against frugal living not am I against the people offering tips on it. Actually, I am not against anything. I am writing today, simply to know the reasons that induce people to accept frugal living as a way of life. I am sure people have enough number of reasons to do so, and most of them would be good ones. But are they missing out the better ones?

Now, this cannot be a worthless discussion because we all know that once we have very good reasons to do something, we do it enthusiastically and with enormous motivation. But many people find it quite uneasy and unenthusiastic to adopt frugal living. Why?

Here are few reasons, which according to me are quite adequate to generate motivation. However, it requires practical, uncomplaining, and genuine understanding approach to comprehend the underlying meaning. Otherwise, this post could be as useless as the really useless ones.

1. To meet you real needs
Satisfy your wants, and you will want more. However, satisfying your needs can make you feel contented and happy. This isn’t a theory by some great personal financial planning but a little known fact. When you don’t bother about owning the latest updated IPhone or any other gizmo, you have enough to provide you family with adequate food, shelter, clothing, education and a bit of saving. When you spend considerable amount of money on the latest fad, and you realize you don’t have enough to educate your kid, that’s when you start being frugal.

2. More time for important issues
According to most of the results of the 8,570,000 found by google, Frugal living means buying this cheaply that you don’t really need. According to me, being frugal is being satisfied with fulfilling basic needs. If you accept this, you would never have to search ways to spend less. You will get more time to spend on rather significant things. You could donate to an orphan age, spend time with your kids instead of partying, feed the starving stranger on the road, or read your son’s poems. The contentment you derive from these little activities is more than anything money could ever buy. You family seeks your attention and affection. There are many charitable trusts that just wants your presence, if not money. You will find more than 8,570,000 results on ‘how to spend ideal time’ on google.

3. More money for needy people
Imagine you are walking on a pavement and you watch a poor, famished child with every bone visible through his skin and is asking for money saving to eat food. You walk away just because you don’t have enough. Or maybe you have some money in your pocket, but you don’t offer it to the child because you are on you way to the Apple store to buy the new ipod. You feel guilty, but you know the guilt will disappear listening to the latest tracks in the ipod. If you could donate a couple of dollars per day, it can help at least one of the uneducated and ravenous millions.

4. Free from miserable life
For those you do not want to donate, I completely understand that it’s quite exasperating to distribute your hard earned money. Here is a better reason to lead a frugal life. You earn money, but you spend less and you save more. That means you don’t have to bother about your unpaid, high-interest credit card bill nor about the payments on various loans. You could live a life that is yearned by around 70% of the American population.

These are the reasons due to which I have adopted frugal living as a way of life. I has helped me considerably along with many other people who couldn’t even afford being frugal. Similarly, I suggest you to have some reasons, not superfluous ones, but underlying reasons that you think will help you to be consistent throughout your life. Learn to be frugal, but make sure it is backed by some real reasons.