Want to Get Rich? Stop Living Beneath Your Means

Living below your means sounds like a pretty good piece of financial advice. Obviously, you should spend less than you make.

But people who adhere to this are operating with the wrong type of mindset. It’s the mindset of scarcity. You’re not living in a world of aspiration you’re living in a world of, “I can’t afford that.”

And maybe you can’t afford it right now, but words have immense power.

Tell yourself that often enough and that’s all you’ll see. You see it as a world of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and you’re firmly in the latter group.

Most successful people were in the ‘have not’ group at one point. Do you think they told themselves to always live beneath their means and the world is one full of scarcity?

I think not.

How Can You Increase Your Means?

If you’re constantly telling yourself about the things you can’t afford, you don’t see a world of abundance. You’re not seeing the world for what it is.

Don’t focus on living below your means, focus on how you can increase your means.

That doesn’t mean you need to start spending like crazy on booze and hookers. Such spending habits are reckless and dangerous.

I’m not saying you should never save money. I’m saying it shouldn’t be your main focus. You should be thinking about how to increase your means.

Let me tell you, the poor, scrimping mindset becomes damaging after a while. I’ve missed out on a lot of opportunities because I was determined to permanently live beneath my means.

Money attracts money. The more you increase your means the more opportunities present themselves in life.

There are Consequences to Living Beneath Your Means

Have you ever turned down an invitation to dinner with friends because you wanted to save the money? What about that vacation with friends? Or maybe you drive a piece of shit car where the handbrake barely works?

You know what all this is?

Stress. Frustration. A lack of fulfilment.

Life cannot be just about saving as much as you can. It has to be about balance and it has to be about abundance.

The rich differ because they don’t believe in strict limits and miserly conserve everything they can like Fagin from Oliver Twist. They think about how they can make things happen and how they can multiply what they have.

You’re Limiting Your Potential

The old saying goes that you have to spend money to make money. That couldn’t be more true. Everyone who has been successful in the long term has done so by risking something, by investing something.

Hate your job? You can’t build a business without investing at least a little in it first.

Hate where you live? You can’t move to a better place without increasing your means.

Hate your body? Even getting fit and healthy requires a small investment in a gym membership or home equipment.

Living beneath your means doesn’t allow you to change your life in any meaningful way. The poor are trained through generations to save every penny they have.

It sounds intelligent, but really all they’re doing is limiting their potential. You must be willing to invest whether you have a little or a lot.

Sure, it might fail catastrophically and you’ll slip down the ladder of life, but it might also succeed and give you the life you’ve always dreamed of.

Don’t Pass This Lesson Onto the Next Generation

The system works against the poor, there’s no doubt about that. But the pervading idea that you have to live beneath your means has a toxic effect on the generations ahead.

It leaves a mark on everyone who grows up poor. They take the lessons of their parents and, unsurprisingly, they continue to be poor without ever having seriously tried. Instead, they rely on luck to hopefully make it big one day.

Well, if that’s your plan, good luck with that.

What Do You Need to Do to Change Your Mindset Today?

Alter your mindset so you can live within your means. Maximize every single dollar you can so you can take control of your life and at least have a shot of success.

You can always make more money. It comes and it goes. Trying and failing isn’t going to kill you because you can always try again.

The scarcity mindset is what will keep you poor forever, so ask yourself how you can turn what you have into something more. The answer will differ for everyone.

For me, I realised I could buy real estate, precious metals, and different currencies when I started making money. Doing so has made me thousands of dollars, which is far more than I normally make as a writer.

If I’d have stuck with a scarcity mindset it would have remained in the bank earning minimal interest and doing nothing.

That’s how wealthy people make money fast.

Do you have a scarcity mindset when it comes to money?