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Friday, June 1, 2007

How to make more money tomorrow by spending less money today


As I communicate via forums with you dear reader about personal finance and


about financial freedom, this theme keeps coming back to me as clear as day,

"Defer today's wants for tomorrow's needs."

Financial freedom is about as simple as that. Deferring what we WANT now for what we really NEED tomorrow.

Your wants are unlimited
Your wants are unlimited. Who among us does not want a better paying job, a promotion, a bigger house, car, more material possessions, more more and MORE? Have you taken a step back and asked yourself, do I NEED all these? If you think about it, to survive we just need to have 3 square meals, a roof over our head and a stable job/business. We need our health, our friends and our family. Almost everything else can be considered a want and is not a necessity.

So how does deferring today's wants for tomorrow's needs help you achieve financial freedom?

Your needs are relatively few
First of all, it helps you save money. When you start to be clear about what you need tomorrow, you will realise the importance of planning your retirement fund or the fund that brings you financial freedom where the capital sums of that fund is sufficient to generate passive income to cover your living needs. The less wants we feed, the more we have for our needs and it is with this mindset we start to save more and accumulate income generating assets faster, earlier and quicker.

The power of compound interest then comes in to help our income generating assets grow, grow and grow over time.

Are you ready to defer today's wants for tomorrow's needs?

It's all up to you!

Be well and prosper.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Remember my take (on yr earlry post) on the essence of financial independence?

"Sacrifice instant wants for future needs".

Same same hor? ;)
I'm..
HugsAlive:)

PanzerGrenadier said...

Hi Ang!

Thanks for your comment. Yes, you are right, it's about sacrificing instant wants for future needs!

One day at a time, but of course, we should not forget to enjoy the journey through life a little bit as well!

Anonymous said...

No la, me no Ang la. I'm HugsAlive. I posted in yr blog when I discovered the sensibility of what U shared in HWZone. Remember me?
Keep up the good work. I'll hope to participate along the way.
HugsAlive. :)

PanzerGrenadier said...

Hi HugsAlive

Sorry, thought you were one of the vounteers I know from kidsread :-)

Thanks for visiting my blog. You may want to consider subscribing to the RSS feed as I intend to make this a daily blog ;-)

Take care and prosper!

Anonymous said...

"defer today's wants for tomorrow's needs"

While i think that is a good general rule to prevent yourself from overspending, will that lead to true financial freedom?

It depends on how you define the term isn't it? Lets look at it critically - If you say to achieve financial freedom is to defer today's wants for tomorrow's needs, as I understand it, it means to just spend on the things you really need (or might need in the future) instead of splurging on excesses. Doesn't it defeat the purpose?

Limiting yourself to only things you really need is not freedom, its slavery.

True financial freedom is not only the ability to buy the things you need (financial security) but the ability to buy the things you need and also the things you don't need, but want.

Of course, how many people can achieve such an obscure goal? Needs are objective. Everybody needs a roof over their head, reasonable food, transport, expenses for children. But beyond that, it's subjective.

If your wants (interests) are a BMW and a Condominium and be able to play golf every weekend and your salary is $15,000 per month, then financially you are quite free.

But if your wants are a 3-story landed property with a swimming pool and a Lamborgini sports car, plus dinner in a resturant every evening with that same $15,000 salary - you are not financially free.

Sacrifice instant wants for future needs? I think thats a flawed argument, in my humble opinion.

True financial freedom is the ability of your finances to cover your needs and wants without the need to sacrifice. If you can't cover both - just limit your wants!. =)