Early last year I decided I wanted to simplify my financial life. I had a bunch of bills and felt like, while I was making good money on paper, I didn’t have a lot (or any) left at the end of the month.
First I cut out my lawn guy at $60/mow. He would mow my lawn roughly every 10 days from mid-April to November….20 or 21 times. That’s approximately $1200/yr saved. I’m now on my second year of mowing my lawn myself and will have saved $2400 by the end of this mowing season.
Next I sold my truck, boat, and airplane and bought a ‘98 Acura as a beater. I’m not sure this was a good idea, but I sold my truck for $6500 and bought my beater for $1000. I’d rather have my truck but I did use some of that money to invest in my children’s 529 college plan.
I really enjoyed owning an airplane, but the honeymoon had worn off and a 40 year old airplane is a money pit.
The boat was just stupid.
I got rid of Netflix but that only lasted a few months. I have it back now, but we haven’t had cable since 2006 and we don’t miss it.
I also got rid of an old refrigerator through the power company. It was using $5-$10 month of electricity, but West Penn Power took it away for free and gave me a $50 check for it. Nice!
I also feel that term life insurance is extremely important and while this added to my expenses, an additional $500K policy for $36/month is must-do for every husband. Get 10-12 times your annual income in term life.
Just getting rid of stuff is an amazing feeling. Some stuff I sold and other stuff I simply gave away. Having less stuff frees you and it feels great.
What are you doing to simplify your life?
Sales And Money 
Amen! Getting rid of the “stuff” and focusing on what really matters truly unclutters your life. I’m finally figuring out: it is so much nicer to have a nest egg of savings versus the crushing weight of debt or a house full of stuff that I don’t need. The keeping up with the Jones’ mentality that Sales can sometimes foster is toxic. I thought I was big pimpin so I bought a nice car…but I still have payments. So I don’t even own the damn thing! If I could go back in time I’d have bought a $1000 beater. These sales blogs you’ve written have gems of wisdom for us all Dave. Thank you!
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Thanks Jen! We’ve all done stupid…let’s learn from it together!
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To purge is to be free! Having stuff creates stress; kids toys are where I’m turning my attention next and this time its also a lesson for my boys as well. When we are able to freely get rid of stuff, we tend not to buy more stuff as replacements. Internalizing a clutter free life is cathartic…but I do have three dogs (3 too many)!!
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Thanks for the note, Ethan! You can start small….we haven’t had cable since 2007 and my only regret is that we didn’t get rid of it sooner! Good luck on your simplification journey!
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