This blog is a proof of concept. Can a lady who is cautious af with few practical skills achieve financial independence?
You won’t find many people like me among the dude-bros (men AND women…) of the financial freedom world. I ride my bike with the seat all the way down at a speed slower than most people jog. I’ve used a drill a few times at a 50% success rate. I’m not a candidate for gardening after killing multiple batches of ‘easy to grow’ succulents last year… If I can make my way to financial freedom, anyone can.
Frugal Kite focuses around mindful spending. I’ve chosen this approach to address for the following reasons:
- The truth is that your savings rate — not your income — is the ONLY determinant of how many years to retirement
- In general, it is easier to decrease your spending than to increase your income
- People who spend less and save more are happier
- There are lots of blogs on how to earn more money. There aren’t many on responsible spending
- Being frugal is fun! I rise to the challenge by replacing spending with creativity. I want to get more people in on it
- Above all, I love walking and riding my bike. Next to my relationships, it’s the thing that makes me happiest in life. I hope more people will give it a try and enjoy the satisfaction with me. I hope people will get outside and start to rebuild our communities.
So let’s talk about spending. Spending isn’t about math. At all. So much for that excuse.
Looking back on my dumbest purchases, I had to ask myself why I made these mistakes even though I knew better.
Why did I buy that expensive backpack when I’ve already got a backpack?
Why was I too lazy to return the humidifier that didn’t fit in my space?
Why do I sometimes get into these moods where all I want to do is zone out in front of amazon?
Looking back I noticed a pattern:
Every time I spent a huge amount of money, I was in a particularly difficult period of my life. The thoughts and feelings fell into a few categories: really stressed, hopeless about the future, angry, or sad.
At the time, buying things was the only thing in my life that made me feel in control of something. Buying gave me hope as I waited for my packages to arrive in my mailbox. Shopping helped me continue my chronic zoned-out existence.
I started to see that my spending problem isn’t some kind of math test I’m failing. The urge to buy stuff is deeply tied into the fabric of my life circumstances.
As JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly says, “The math of personal finance is simple: spend less than you earn and invest the difference. We all get it. Instead, it’s controlling your habits and emotions that’s difficult.”
This blog is about the things that hold us back from financial freedom. The places where we listen to pain and try to spend it away. The place where the entire day has sucked and we need to soothe with a purchase.
This blog is about the place where our thoughts and feelings meet our wallets, and what happens when we address the inner turmoil that is holding us back from success.
This blog is about making our lives better, freer as we let go of the need to swipe and tap. It’s about recognizing the riches we already have and weaning ourselves off the spending treadmill. About how to stop saying “more” and start saying “enough.”