Do not confuse scarcity thinking with being financially responsible.
You can be financially free at $0 income just as easily as you can be living paycheck-to-paycheck making $500,000 per year.
How do you think about spending your money?
Financially free people purchase what brings them joy. They do not use shopping as “therapy” and they do shop only the clearance rack (although there is nothing wrong with getting a great deal!). And they definitely do not wait until they are debt-free before enjoying life (because they will never be debt-free- they are leveraging debt to grow their wealth).
When it comes to spending, what are some of the thoughts that immediately come to mind? Do they feel expansive and exciting or restrictive and constrictive?
The simplest way to make this mindset shift is to take a predetermined amount of your income, whether dollar amount or percentage, and move it to an account specifically for buying whatever you want.
I call this my “Play” account. You can name it what you want.
Whatever you call it, this is the amount you can use to buy whatever you want without guilt, shame, or regret.
You can use it to buy your daily coffee at your preferred coffee shop, massages, mani-pedis, new shoes, dining out, or anything else that does not fit into any of your other budget categories.
Doesn’t this sound more fun than trying to figure out where the money will come from or feeling like you have to deprive yourself until you are debt-free?
Just a word of caution: make sure the amount you allocate to your “Play” account is equal to your other accounts (Education, Future You (Investing), Savings, and Giving/Tithing). You want to be balanced. 😉
*** if carving out part of your income for fun sounds impossible, let me know and we can discuss how you can make this work for you***