Unpopular Opinion: Stop Worrying About Saving Money
…This might change the game for you!
Unpopular opinion alert… you should stop worrying about saving money in 2022 and pivot that focus and energy into making more money! (If you read this and think I’m crazy for saying it… don’t quit on me yet, read to the end… I promise I’m not entirely crazy!)
So, one thing I’ve learned over the last little while is that saving (while it’s a great thing to do) can only take a person so far. Why? Well because there is only so much money you can save assuming you’re on a fixed annual income. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t save. That’s not what I’m saying at all. What I am saying though is that I’ve noticed a mindset that a lot of people have that the focus should be to save by any means necessary.
Saving is great, don’t get me wrong. Saving and investing those savings is definitely a key to a prosperous future for us and our kids. But I’ve noticed that a lot of people go great lengths to save a buck… And I think in a lot of cases the time and effort spent trying to save a buck would be better spent in a potential revenue generating opportunity.
I’m not trying to say that we should all become careless with our money. Not at all. But I am saying that I think there’s an opportunity to really level up in life if we can pivot from becoming “serial savers” to becoming “serial income generators”.
Real World Example (to prove Mike isn’t going crazy):
Let me give you an example using a pretty common piece of advice:
Don’t eat out, always eat home cooked meals using groceries you pick up from the grocery store.
A meal for two people might cost $4-$8 to prepare at home, that same meal might cost $20-$30 if you order it on Uber Eats.
For someone with a “serial saver” mindset, spending $4-$8 on the home cooked option is a no brainer, probably not even a consideration to order from Uber Eats.
For the “serial income generator” they might look at it differently. Carving out time after work to go to the grocery store might take 30 minutes, but it could also take 2 hours depending on distance and time of day. Preparing the actual meal at home might take another 30–60 minutes. Cleaning up another 10–20 minutes. That’s a potential 2 hours or more spent every day to go the route of saving money.
A few hours every night is literally enough time to start a successful business on the side. It’s enough time to create a side hustle that pays you $100-$200 every night. It’s enough time to do a lot of things.
If you have it burned into your brain that savings is the way. Using our little example, after 1 year of “saving” on dinner you save about $8,030 (spending $2,920 for a year of home cooked dinners) vs. ordering food.
If you go the route of spending to save time, you might spend $10,950 to order food for you and your partner every night ($30x365). $10,950 for 1 year of dinners sounds like a lot, but what if you spent the 2 hours of time savings those meals earned you into building something. Creating new income streams?
Take me for example, I have a lot of things going on right now, but my general estimation of the ROI on my time spent for side hustle activities (freelancing, copywriting, YouTube videos, etc) is anywhere from $150-$250 per hour worked, and that doesn’t include any sort of income over time when it comes to YouTube videos that could go viral after I post them.
So even if I was only able to save 1 hour per day by ordering dinner, and use that time to do something productive like copywriting, creating YouTube videos, writing blog posts, building a business… that 1 hour per day can earn me $54,750 after 1 year.
Pretty crazy right?
So what would you rather do? Save $8,000 per year by making your own food, or earn $54,750?
I think that if I put a poll here the answer would be unanimous.
So yeah, STOP FOCUSING SO MUCH ON SAVING this New Year. Get something productive going in your spare time, and strategically trade money for time to allow you to grow something great that could really change your life!
Good luck my friends ;)
