you might think that minimalism means ditching the materialistic life altogether but for me it was
more important to redirect my resources towards the things that I truly value in life because
let's be honest money can enhance certain aspects of our lives and provide us with opportunities my
dream is to slow travel in certain regions of the world I want to buy a plot of land and build a
dream house with my husband and I want to work on a cool project that can somehow give back to the
community these goals are meaningful to me because they align with my values and they fulfill me in
a different way than buying clothes or a luxury lifestyle ever could but still I know it requires
money I believe that the simplest Joys and the deeper meanings in life cannot be bought
but having Financial flexibility allows us to build the life that we want so my goal was to
find a way to somehow combine the two and I feel like minimalism has helped me find that
way there are so many things that can distract us from our goals and I feel like if we're not
intentional it's really easy to fall into these traps I've talked about how much money I spent
on clothes that I never wore and taking these meaningless trips and outings that I really
didn't care about because I thought that as long as my bills were getting paid I was free
to spend my money on whatever I wanted but over the years I really did turn things around took a
lot of reflecting on what matters to me what sparks my curiosity and my passion and what
brings me genuine joy and now I keep my lifestyle pretty low maintenance so that I can prioritize
those things I love talking about this topic so I'm splitting the video into two different
videos today I want to talk about the expenses that I cut out from my life that made the most
impact on my finances and next video I'll talk about how I redirected it to invest in my dream
life the very first thing that comes to mind is keeping lifestyle inflation under control when
our income goes up I feel like it's only natural to think that we can afford to spend more or we
deserve something nice because we work so hard for it but this really conditions us to think that if
our income goes up we can buy more things that will make us happier so we continuously upgrade
our lives and seek happiness from external sources but when does that cycle end I found that so many
of these life upgrades were just not worth it especially when I think about how that expense
could have gone towards my other goals no matter how fancy the restaurant I honestly still prefer
Pizza nights at home no matter how cool or expensive the gym membership is I still prefer
doing it at home at my own schedule no matter how expensive that piece of clothes clothing is
it's not that much more different than the ones hanging in my closet already if we just slow
down and reflect on these new expenses I think we would figure out that spending more doesn't
always mean that we will be happier I think it's so important for all of us to figure out what is
our Baseline happiness and how much does that cost maybe you love getting your groceries delivered or
you love getting takeout so include that in the budget but having this rough idea will really
help us to be more intentional in our spendings and it will keep our lifestyle inflation under
[Music]
control having access to the city has been really cool if you are interested in culinary or sports
or theater the Arts it's all there and it seems like there's always something happening on the
weekend but surprisingly my life C hasn't changed that much maybe because I'm in my
30s but I just don't feel the need to spend hundreds of dollars just to go out for the
sake of going out this wasn't always the case I used to live in a really cool neighborhood
in San Diego and if it was a Friday night or the weekend I always felt like I had to do something
I spent a lot of money just trying to fill my time and distract myself and I feel like even
then I kind of need knew that these outings felt very empty there is so much pressure to be always
doing something booking the next holiday planning for the next big thing but are we really getting
value from this or are we just trying to distract ourselves I don't mind spending money if there's
something that I really want to do but I want these moments to be special not just a thing
I do every weekend I know this might sound crazy but I actually have a lot more fun organiz izing
my closet for example I love watching those 4K walking tours of a place that I've never been
something that I love doing on Friday night is taking my dogs for a really long walk and
Society might think that this is not fun but to me it is and it just feels like I am not
pretending anymore I'm not distracting myself but instead I'm loving my life and that is all that
matters my first car was a 97 Dodge pickup truck and that thing had so many problems but it got
me and my friends around town and that's really all that mattered and honestly my mindset really
hasn't changed that much as long as my car gets me from point A to point B then I'm very happy
I really don't care what size or color or brand my car is in a society that places so
much value on the things that we have I think it's only normal to want to flaunt or status
and who we are on the outside some people spend their whole lives working towards creating this
picture perfect life and I always wondered how much of that was for them and how much
of it was for everyone else to judge think about it if you were stranded on an island
with no one else around would you really care about what kind of car you drove what brand of
clothing you wore what school you graduated from if material things bring you Val and
jooy that's fair who am I to judge but I think it's worth looking at our spending habits and
kind of questioning ourselves to see if we are spending our money towards a life that we truly
value when I started decluttering I noticed the pattern and the things that I was getting rid
of I would say 90% of the stuff were things I bought on impulse souvenirs that I bought when
I was abroad Tech stuff that went on sale on Black Friday and even snacks and treats that
I bought um as I was passing through the aisle at a grocery store I think impulse purchases are
often overlooked because it's usually not a big Splurge but they do add up over time and it was
actually a really big reason why I couldn't save up for the bigger things in life I always talk
about setting up a barrier between you and the purchase so that there's a delayed gratification
but I do think the more important thing is to set up a financial goal for yourself it's really easy
to get suede and influence when you don't have a clear idea of what you want in your life but
when you have a clear idea of where you're going I feel like everything else feels like
a distraction so what are your short-term and long-term goals are you prioritizing Financial
Security Freedom experiences personal growth or maybe supporting your family and why is this
school important to [Music] you in my YouTube journey I have contemplated on maybe hiring an
editor or a videographer who can help me film because I wanted to make more videos sometimes
delegating your work to others or hiring a team is really helpful and it might be necessary but I
thought about why I started YouTube in the first place and I really wanted to do this because I
love creating videos from start to finish I actually really enjoy wearing different hats
even the hours and hours of editing and I really value the lessons that I learn along the way so
hiring a team gaining more responsibility to grow my profit and expanding this channel it
just didn't interest me a lot of us grow up in a society where more is better so we feel
the pressure to scale up that business business move into the bigger house and grow our social
media and say yes to all the opportunities but are we willing to deal with the challenges and
complexities that come with that as well and when is it okay to say that's enough
for me I'm definitely not saying that more isn't better sometimes it is I have an immense amount
of respect for people who are able to grow their business and be able to do it with integrity and
balance everything I think that can be done and it's amazing when it works but like with
anything I think mindfulness is key scaling up and expanding is really not the only way that we can
grow as cheesy as it sounds I think the biggest thing I learn from simplifying my life is that
we have to appreciate what we have now because if we don't we won't appreciate the next thing that
comes our way but if we're truly grateful for everything that we have we don't need anything
else and that is true abundance thank you guys so much for watching take care until next time