Use the "5 Pillars Rule" to Change Your Relationship with Money Forever

Welcome to “Simple Finances,” a series of Tuesday essays about exactly that - simplifying your money. This is a paid subscriber-only essay. If you want in on the fun, subscribe here with a 7-day trial, free e-book, essays, and weekly waste-reducing recipes all for $5 a month / $50 a year. That’s just $0.32 - $0.38 per essay (and it could save you a damn sight more than that) ⬇

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“Sleep-Well-at-Night Finance series” essay list

• If You Want "Sleep-Well-at-Night" Finances, Stop Listening to The Noise™

• Focus on These 3 Financial Areas and You're Golden

• A Simple and Straightforward Take on the FIRE Movement

• Buying Time = Buying Happiness

• My Aggressively Simple Financial Strategies

• You CAN Live an Incredible Life on a Relatively Small Amount of Money

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The day I heard blogger Paula Pant’s phrase “you can afford anything but not everything” was the day my relationship with money changed forever.

It’s true - unless you’re a squillionaire, you will never be able to afford absolutely everything your heart desires. You have to prioritize.

As I talked about last week, back in my twenties, I never prioritized my spending. I flashed the cash willy-nilly, and thanks to credit cards, I often spent more than I had. This lasted until I discovered minimalism in my early thirties. As with many people who discover the movement, I took stock of my life, including where I was spending my money. It took me approximately five seconds to figure out that most of it had been wasted on stuff I truly didn’t care about.

Of course, that’s not unusual. Our world is designed to eek out every last dollar from us and we’re often only too willing to let it.

When I started to truly evaluate my spending habits, I noticed something. There were a few key areas in my life where I never felt at all guilty about spending money. The areas were parts of my life that “filled the tank,” giving me energy and focus and thus never felt like a waste.

Eventually, these turned into my simple living pillars which led to the “five pillars rule” which led to never feeling guilty about spending my disposable cash again.

Here’s how it works.