Simple Finances 101: If You Want "Sleep-Well-at-Night" Finances, Stop Listening to The Noise™
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Garden Coffee Lady has got the Twitterverse in a tizzy through a seemingly innocuous tweet:
The hate she’s received off the back of this has been both alarming, and very telling of our society’s predilection for listening to The Noise™.
The Noise™ is in its essence, societal pressure. Listening to what traditional media, your family and friends, society at large tells you is normal and what is not.
Garden Coffee Lady has riled up a lot of people because she’s not doing what is normal - she’s not listening to The Noise™.
The Noise™ would say the only way to live life is to have a 9-5, a house with a hefty mortgage, and perhaps a partner you’ve grown apart from because of those pesky kids. The Noise™ doesn’t have room for your garden coffee every morning and tells you the only way this is possible is if you’re rich, privileged, and childless. Aka, a hated figure.
The Noise™ tells you there is only one way to live. And that includes your finances as much as any other area of your life. If you want to whip your money into shape, the very first thing to do is stop listening to it every second of the day.
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I’ve been pondering about how The Noise™ dictates our finances on an everyday level. Let’s start with some easy ways:
Buy a starter home. Swap it for a bigger one as often as you can.
Find the maximum mortgage loan you can be approved for and use it all on as expensive a home as possible.
If you get a pay raise, spend it.
If you want something out of your financial reach, use debt to buy it - don’t worry, everyone does it.
Lease the biggest and most luxurious car you can.
The stock market is scary and best left to the professionals.
A 9-5 is the only way to ensure a secure financial future.
Working for yourself is risky.
All - to be very British about it - bollocks.
Over my time both working in my wine store (where I met hundreds of customers) and latterly during my time on the road, I’ve met scores of people who are living the life they want exactly because they stopped listening to The Noise™. In fact, the only people who live what I could call a successful life have rejected it.
And when I say successful, I’m not talking about wealthy. I’m talking about people who can sleep at night because their finances aren’t in a mess. People who choose time over money. People who enjoy their job. People who live with intention.
Because equating success with money is the biggest example of listening to The Noise™ out there.
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The Noise™ doesn’t have your best financial interests at heart. We are - alas - a society heavily influenced by corporations that prey on our evolutionary tendencies to crave comfort. You’re subjected to 10,000 daily adverts telling you that you deserve more. Social media algorithms always want to show you someone in a floaty dress sauntering along some tropical beach or another.
And we’re told the only way to access this charmed life is to pay for it. Only then will you have a shot at being happy.
I’m going to posit that, as you’re an S+S paid subscriber, you suspect there’s something suss about this. But as with any simple living discourses, it’s not easy to tune out The Noise™.
Back when I started my business 10 years ago, people told me it was a dumb idea. I’ll lose all my money, they said. It’s not stable. I’ll never make it.
The same went for when I sold my business (f**k you, naysayers) and house and started to travel the world and work online. What do you mean you don’t want the (mortgaged) white picket fence, the big car?
Learning to reject these social norms takes a monumental amount of intention and effort. But without making it, you may never get to a point of “sleep-well-at-night” finances.
***
Here’s the crux. Unless you’re Rockafeller or come from money, you were never destined to chase the McMansions, the $100k Range Rovers, or the tropical beach destinations that The Noise™ tells you are within your reach.
That may sound miserable, but it’s far from it.
As Garden Coffee Lady - and the bile directed at her - demonstrates, what most of us want is just the opportunity to sit in a garden for a few hours with coffee and a loved one. Most people listen to The Noise™ so much that they assume the only way she can do this is because she’s beyond privileged. We’ve got to a point where a simple act like a few hours of spare time is only for the rich.
I see it differently.
What I see is a woman who has decided to live outside the confines of The Noise™. She later tweeted that she is self-employed and lives minimally, thus can have mornings to herself.
When it comes to her finances, she’s chosen a different path and thus has time on her hands. Sure, she probably doesn’t live on the poverty line but as she says, she’s far from rich.
She’s just doing it differently - and reaping the benefits.
***
For the next few Tuesdays, I’m going to delve further into this idea of rejecting The Noise™ for you lovely lot because it’s the best way to improve our finances and live a life aligned to what we actually want - not just are told we should do.
For now, here are a few resources - from some tried and tested sources to get you started on your simple finance journey.
Resources
Book - Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez
Substack - Never Retire with Rocco Pendola
Substack - Making of a Millionaire by Ben Le Fort
Podcast - Afford Anything by Paula Pant
This article is intended for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered investment or financial advice.
You're absolutely right! Noise is just what it is. But to turn off the noise you might have to be quiet and listen to what's in your head. Too many people can't handle the quiet. Keep being inspirational!