An idea: as you get richer, lower your standard of living?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example: as I’ve become richer, I’m less dazzled by the hype of expensive stuff. I think I can gauge my own sincerity more truly now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I prefer “bang for the buck” value over how fancy something is. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
For example, I’ve become more simple in my food (and coffee) preferences. I don’t care to eat fancy food (I’ve already eaten all the best foods). Similarly with coffee, even though I know what really good coffee is, a simple drip coffee now suffices me. For example if I had the option to have a phenomenal $4 espresso (single origin), or a free (average) drip coffee, I’d take the free drip coffee (especially if I can have as many cups as I want). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simpler living <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, as I’ve gotten richer, I’ve simplified a lot of my life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- No more Amazon prime subscription for me, which means I buy less stuff. The stuff I really need I’ll buy it at the store. <\/li>
- I don’t buy books anymore; I only read ancient Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and tragedy-plays via “epub” format (typically Project Gutenberg). Or reading Nietzsche. <\/li>
- Preferring to live in a small apartment: Lots of money saving on rent. Also no desire to buy a house (one less thing to worry about). <\/li>
- No need to buy new clothes: I already got all the Merino wool clothing I need, and I only prefer to have “one of everything”, which prevents me from accumulating superfluous stuff. <\/li>
- Not owning a car: No expenses for gas, parking, insurance, repairs, etc. Living without a car has made life 10x easier and better. Now I walk a lot more (increases my happiness and mood), and just Uber or public transit everywhere. I still admire automotive design from a sculpture and innovation perspective; I no longer desire to actually “own” it. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
I’m never going to go broke <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Dre calls it “fuck off” money: having your money arranged in such a way that you can go “fuck off” (no longer work for money for a long time), and never go broke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My biggest epiphany was when living in Vietnam in 2017:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can maintain my simple lifestyle and earn money faster than I can spend it. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This really changes how you think about life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only doing what you want to do, not doing anything you don’t want to do. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
I feel this allows you to gain more economy over your life; not wasting any of your previous human metabolism on bullshit or “fake work” \/ “busy work”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Increase your income, lower your expenses <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This is the simple formula for indefinite wealth. You’ll never go broke. And your savings will only ever go up; never go down. Money which defies the rules of gravity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the truth is this: you don’t need a high income. You must simply have less expenses than your income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example if you’re earning a billion dollars a year yet your expenses are a billion and one dollars a year, you’re in the negative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you earn 20,000 a year but you only spend 10,000 a year in expenses, you’re in the positive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pursuing and living a more ascetic, simple, and minimal lifestyle seems the best thing you can do for your personal freedom, happiness, and thriving! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An idea: as you get richer, lower your standard of living? For example: as I’ve become richer, I’m less dazzled by the hype of expensive stuff. I think I can gauge my own sincerity more truly now: I prefer “bang for the buck” value over how fancy something is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Screen-Shot-2019-10-14-at-5.04.20-PM-resized.jpg?fit=1694%2C1312&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179647"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179663,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179647\/revisions\/179663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}