Minimalist Lessons from Lockdown: The Art of Balance

Times have been hard for many during the recent Covid 19 Pandemic and many readers of this site have contacted me about their struggles and how to manage their lives for the better.

 Lessons from Lockdown

The overriding realisation of living in lockdown has been learning to live with less because of loss of income and employment.

Many have been learning to live with spending less than they make, which would seem a reasonable behaviour for most conscious of their financial budgeting.

Since social opportunities have been less for the past couple of years, many have learned the value of living a simpler life with simpler pleasures and the realisation that money and spending does not necessarily bring you more joy.

Yes, we need money to provide us with a safe cushion from the impact of poverty, to provide us with food and shelter.  No, we don’t need money for over-indulgence as over-indulgence is a short-term pleasure often followed by an addiction for more.

In a simplistic way, you can see your financial life like a see-saw, teeter-totter, or balance scales.

1.    Saving more than you spend.

2.    Spending more than you earn.

3.    Or spending the same as you earn.

There is one big reason that habit 1 and 2 simply won’t work:

Emergencies

We have seen the impact of Covid-19 on our population and are still seeing the consequences of the event.  Many families have gone into debt due to a loss of income and are struggling to get their lives back together.

Emergencies come from those unexpected expenses related to our health, rises in home energy, loss of income and employment, and the consequences of paying back debts for goods we have bought, which we could survive without – Luxuries! Yes, luxuries are the source of many people’s financial emergencies, yet they will argue that their luxury is a necessity!

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, our survival needs are meeting our physiological requirements and safety, not buying a new fashionable pair of sunglasses, at an exorbitant price, that we have to pay in instalments, and then pay interest on! We set ourselves up for financial self-sabotage when we buy stuff that isn’t worth the cost of the materials they are made from, and we simply do not need.

Before, during and after the pandemic, studies have shown the following:

• Over half of us in western countries spend more than we earn.

• Over half of us have no saved funds for emergencies.

• Over half of us are in debt and paying interest for goods bought on credit.

• Our number one stress is not having enough money.

When we are constantly flooded with advertising and social media that reflects a better life, it is difficult to resist trying to emulate these images in our own lives.  This takes spending… on our part!

Advertisers and marketers make money from our desire to keep up with everyone else.  We are impressionable.  We are easy to lead into spending on things we just don’t need.

We all want a better, improved life, and we are constantly presented with clever copy, snapshot images and video shorts that push us to spend more than we have. From the moment you are born into this world, you are driven by survival, for improving your conditions, for getting more.

By realising there is great comfort in living a simpler life of simpler pleasures, you can begin to build that buffer of finance against emergencies.

Learning to live within your means has been the way our ancestors have always lived.  Spending beyond your means has become a promoted company tactic to make money. All companies are profit-driven!

Instead, look to other models and realise that simple pleasures bring similar feelings as extravagant living, but not the debt that accompanies it:

• The ancient Greeks taught moderation as a way of life.  Any imbalance or extravagance in the long-term brought tragedy.

• The Buddhists teach non-reliance on materiality as it only brings suffering.  Happiness comes from within, not from without.

The pandemic has brought us into a see-saw/teeter-totter state: our world sits on a balance-point of safety and emergency.