Building wealth, being rich is not an admirable goal by itself. Collecting money for the sake of collecting money is not a good thing. “Money is the root of all evil”- I think that means that money for the sake of money is the root of all evil. Greed is bad. Wealth corrupts.
So why do I write about personal finance? Why do I spend so much time dealing with my finances, saving money, budgeting and preaching to other to do the same?
This week on Twitter I let off a little rant. (I hope you are following me!)
I saw that there were some personal finance bloggers making fun of a frugal tip: a video showing how to make your own dish washing soap to save costs.
The point that they were making: Its stupid to spend time trying to save a few dollars on dish washing soap. The return on these types of hacks is small and negligible.
In a way, they are right. Making your own dish washing soap will not save you more than a few dollars. Those few dollars will not make you rich. It won’t let you retire earlier (which has slowly become the ultimate goal for many bloggers). It gives you very little return for your efforts.
This is all true but missing a very key point. There are some people who actively choose to live frugally. They are frugal-by-choice. But there are very many people out there who aren’t lucky enough to have a choice. They are being frugal-not-by-choice. The difference between the two is vast.
A question I see raised very often on various forums and social media sites (which I spend way to much time on) is some form of the following explains why so many people are budgeting backwards:
“I’m trying to create a budget and…
How much should I spend on… food or eating out or clothing?
How much does everyone spend on these categories?”
This is a question that comes up again and again usually by people who are attempting to get their finances in order and are trying to start living on a budget.
But they are asking the wrong question.
