The Real Price of Buying Anything

Minimalism is a word that has come to rise in last 10-15 years. I encountered it around 5 years ago from a YouTuber called ‘Matt D’Avella’. I was intrigued by the idea because I had just landed a new job and paid off my student loans, giving me the chance to splurge after years of frugal living in college.

Minimalism profoundly transformed my life. It wasn't just about saving money by avoiding unnecessary expenses, but more importantly, it shifted my mindset towards valuing different experiences—ones that proved far more meaningful than the pursuit of material possessions.

See most people have to work to make money, which is why I want to bring in the idea of “Life energy”.

Life energy is all the hours that you’re alive to do things—and whenever you work, you spend some of that finite life energy. Most of us make money by giving our time, maybe to a job or a business. So any amount of money you’ve earned through your work represents the amount of life energy you spent earning that money.

So even if you earn $40 an hour, spending that $40 also means spending an hour’s worth of your life energy. Basically you are trading life energy for the money you spend.

This concept of life energy really comes in handy when you spend money on things, especially unnecessary things. But we are not here just to earn and save money you know, spending is the best part of it.

This concept helped me to be more conscious of my spending and shifted my energies in the right directions as well.

Spending on experiences rather than material things. Many psychological studies have shown that spending money on experiences makes us happier than spending money on things. Check it out yourself and see what makes you happier?

This doesn’t mean not spending money on things. Spend on anything that makes your life easier. But before spending on anything remember what you are trading it for? Life energy.

Well there’s one contradiction, what if I do what I love? Even when you love something there are still a lot of times you are doing things that you don’t want to.

There are two reasons I bring this concept to light. One to bring awareness about spending hard earned life energies the most conscious way. Second,

What’s the best way to allocate our life energy before we die?

I will talk about in next edition of this newsletter. Until next time.