Living within a smaller budget does not necessarily mean living a joyless life. After eliminating their debt, these individuals realize that their lives are now more peaceful, relaxed, and have greater flexibility when it comes to making decisions. As a result, their lives may become simpler, and all that extra pressure surrounding their bills will disappear. Life becomes more straightforward when the burden of carrying debt is no longer present.
In short, living on a smaller budget does not prevent someone from enjoying life. An excellent example of this would be a townhome located in a calm community; the space is limited in size but allows for enough room to work, live and feel relaxed, without all the other stress that would accompany having outstanding debt. As a result, square footage is less significant when a person has no debt.
While becoming debt-free isn’t going to create more money for you, the opposite happens: There is less money coming in, but the quality of life is better than before becoming debt-free, which is usually not something most people expect to experience.
Picture a household that primarily relies on a single income due to the ongoing impact of the worldwide pandemic. No weddings have taken place, no events are happening and no projects have been able to move forward. However, they continued to be stable. This stability isn’t the result of luck but rather due to the lack of debt pressure.
Prior to the chaos brought on by COVID-19, there had already been an internal understanding of living below the radar as opposed to jumping on every trend that came along. Fewer costly habits and more intentional choices for entertainment. Entertainment did not cease, it simply pivoted to cheaper forms of entertainment (i.e., movie nights at home, borrowing dvds, walking long distances, hiking, and establishing seasonal traditions that had no monetary commitment).
On a monthly basis, rent became the largest character in the storyline, with groceries as the second-largest character, followed by the regular occurrence of insurances. Despite paying these large bills monthly, there was always enough left in the budget monthly for consistent savings (not a large amount, but consistent savings). Consistent savings add up quickly.
A truism that many find ho-hum yet pivotal to making all the difference is: The absence of a car payment and the presence of two older vehicles owned outright (not too glamorous or photogenic on ‘gram), but just fully functional vehicles. With little to no time driving during this time, the freedom of no car payment becomes invaluable.
Food played another role that surprised many in this respect. With a smaller budget, eating healthy did not go away; it simply changed over to more sensible ways (weekly grocery shopping, simple meal preparation, cooking from scratch, high vegetable consumption, adequate protein consumption, and dining out as a choice rather than a tent).
In between budgeting and becoming bored, hobbies served as a filler to fill a void in many lives. Gardening has turned my back yard into a place of pride while providing me with fresh produce for cooking, whereas brewing beer motivated me from just being curious to actually referring to brewing beer as science while having lots of fun along the way with it. Neither of my hobbies require lavishness, just patience and interest.
The change in lifestyle for me was not about working for more money; it was about having less debt. Once I got out of debt, I was free to negotiate my other choices. My income was no longer my story.
Fast forward again to my next goal. Once again, it is pretty much boring. This next goal is space—more work-friendly space; a yard that provides great sunlight; a location where my hobbies can develop and grow, both literally and symbolically. My path to owning a house will not be done out of impulse, but by planning.
What made this happen for me was not extreme frugality, perfect discipline, or being ultra-focused. It was about alignment between the type of spending I do and my values. I enjoy what I do while still adhering to the limits I put on myself concerning how much I spend; money is no longer the focal point of my life.
If you can take away one point from all of this, let it be that you do not have to earn a large income to create a good life, but you will likely not be able to do so if you have debt to carry with you. That is the quiet strength of being debt-free.
