Are you stressed about money? Do you have a hard time saving or investing money? Do you have credit card debt? If you get a raise or a bonus do you find new ways to spend that money? Are you not sure where exactly your money goes?
If you answered yes to any of the above you might be stuck in the consumer trap. The consumer trap is designed to keep you on a money treadmill for your entire life. It feeds on your anxiety, shame, guilt, and fear to extract the most money out of you as possible. I’ve been right there with you, unable to build wealth, spending money as I get it, and buying the new whatever, whatever it is.
Would you like to be free of this? Imagine having plenty of money in the bank, plenty of money invested, with no need to spend it. Your money keeps you secure, and your happiness comes from your relationships, your work, your self worth, your hobbies, your community. Let’s talk about how we can get you from here to there.
The Consumer Trap
Let me first say that money can be a wonderful thing. You can use it to buy time, facilitate life changes, moves, family, improve your health, and more. My position is not that money isn’t bad. What I’m saying is there’s a societal force out there that wants to take your money from you, and if you don’t protect yourself, you won’t have your money, you’ll hate yourself, and you’ll have a bunch of stuff you don’t really need. They don’t have your best interest.
Who is “they”? Who is behind the consumer trap? It’s large organizations like major corporations and the government. They win when you spend your money.
Corporations receive your money when you by stuff. They use marketing to try to convince you that you need what they’re selling. While they may use positives in their marketing messages, they lean heavily on negative emotions like shame, guilt, and fear. A basic example of this is creating shame in the way that you naturally smell and look. If they create this state of shame they can sell you a whole suite of hygiene, cosmetic, clothing, and more for the rest of your life. “Lather, rinse, repeat”. They may create a fear that you will be uncool if you aren’t a certain way, have a certain look, use a certain thing, or own something. You might not find a mate and be ostracized by society. Medical companies might try to diagnose you with an illness and rather than help you become healthier use that fear to sell you prescriptions medicine. Look everywhere and you’ll find marketing messages that will be trying to trigger your most negative emotions and magically offer you a solution. This is how they get your money.
Governments receive your money through taxes. They want to keep the money flowing so they can slice off more bits of it through taxes. The more economic activity, no matter what it is, the better for them. This is a reason they like to have inflation, which is at a record level for the past 40 years. When your purchasing power is declining, consciously or subconsciously it creates an incentive for you to spend your money faster, and even makes it rational to take out more debt. In general, the more inflation, the more economic activity, the more you spend, the more taxes the government collects. They like it when you spend your money. They don’t like it when you save it or invest it and never touch it.
Now that we know who “they” are and what tools they are using to get your money, let’s go over some solutions.
Be Okay With Yourself
If corporations market to you based on fear, shame, and anxiety, if you are okay with yourself, you won’t need to buy what they’re selling. I’m here to tell you that you’re okay. The way you look, how you are, how you like to spend your time, the way you smell, the way your body is, the way you think, who you are deep down inside, it’s all okay. It might not be perfect, and you might want to grow and change in certain ways, but you don’t need to go buy something to fix it. You are who you are, and that’s totally okay.
If you can accept yourself and love yourself for who you are, then you will find much less of a need to spend money, and you’ll start to see your accounts grow. As your accounts grow you’ll have more power to make changes or make an impact in society outside of yourself. Everyone wins when you build wealth from a place of acceptance and self-love.
Invest Your Money
If the government uses inflation to get you to spend money, if you have investments that outpace inflation you’ll experience the opposite effect- you’ll want to save more and spend less. Once you start investing money and you realize that your purchasing power will increase over time, it makes it much more fun to save money for the future. This is a subtle but powerful change.
Even a simple small investment can change the way you think about the world. This can shift your thinking to be more long term oriented for everything- the way you spend, the way you eat, the way you cultivate relationships, the way you care for your body, and so on. When you are long term oriented everything improves for the better.
There are many possible investments and I’m not going to recommend one for you here, although I have my own preferences. The important thing is investing in something which will change the way you think about money for the better.
Enjoy the Free Things in Life
The things that make us the most happy in life aren’t expensive, don’t cost money, or might even pay you. Money does matter, but it’s one thing out of a long list of many things. Having committed relationships, community, good health, work that you enjoy, spending time in nature, having a dog, going to church, volunteering, sharing good meals with friends, having a hobby, getting sunshine, good sleep, and so on. The best things in life are not a long list, and they aren’t things that anyone can sell to you. They’re cheap, free, or even pay you. Start to tap into these free resources, start to love your life, and watch your need to spend and buy slowly disappear without you even noticing.
Base Your Status on Character
It’s totally normal to care about your status in society. You want to feel respected, appreciated, liked, and so on. You crave community and deep friendships. These things are all normal. Humans are very social creatures that thrive on social relationships, and your social status is important to your mental health and quality of life. This isn’t about being better than people, but feeling like you matter in society.
As your income increases you will become increasingly vulnerable to status marketing attacks. You’ll be made to feel that you’re still missing something- a fancier car, a nicer house, nicer clothes, a nice watch, a certain hair style, a kind of lifestyle, and so on. If you want status, you have to spend money.
The truth is people can see and smell through these things. We’re wired to be astutely aware of the way people talk, carry themselves, hold eye contact, and how they make us feel. These are a portal into the inside- your soul, your character, your integrity. When you base your status on your ability to keep your word, your ability to manage your emotion, your leadership, your work ethic, and so on, it encourages you to improve your status by growing as a person, not by spending more money. Again, money is great, but spending it isn’t the solution to fill a void in your soul. Focus on leveling yourself up on the inside. You will be noticed.
Be a Producer
You might not be able to change the world, but you can change your relationship with the world. Become a producer. Create something to sell or to give away. Grow food, raise animals, write a book, start a blog, make videos, make art, build buildings, make furniture, stitch clothes, do something. Becoming a producer will create an abundance mindset in you as you realize that you can make many of the things you need. You can provide. It will give you confidence in contributing to the world, improve your self image, and help you be okay with yourself. All of these things will help you stop consuming things you don’t need. Start small. Fix something, make something, join in on building something.
Financial Freedom
We love to talk about financial freedom and think it’s something that requires a huge amount of wealth, that it’s only for a select few people, or you’re about to be sold a money making scam. I’m here to share with you a different idea of what financial freedom is. You don’t have to be a high earner (although it helps) or have a huge bank account (although this also helps). You simply have to spend less than you make, and do it while enjoying yourself, your life, and all the things you have to offer. I wish you make a huge amount of money for yourself, but if you don’t figure this out you’ll find new things to spend it on and be in the same stressed out spot. Plenty of high earners aren’t financially free because their spending grows with their income. The change has to come from within you.
There’s another way to live this life, and I’m glad to share the idea with you. Now I ask you what this looks like. What is your ideal day? Who do you spend time with? What work do you do? What do you eat? Where do you go? What of these things are free, affordable, or even pay you? Please share them with me, I would love to hear.
Much love fam,
Travis
P.S.
Please let me know if you found this helpful and useful by leaving a comment. I appreciate you.
5 star post trav, really see the wisdom in all of these points! I've been behind 1 and 5 my entire life, and 3 has grown on me quite a bit in these recent years! Still working on 2 and 4, 2 in particular has been a challenge lately. Hope you are doing great, mashallah much love and big ups!
5 star post trav, really see the wisdom in all of these points! I've been behind 1 and 5 my entire life, and 3 has grown on me quite a bit in these recent years! Still working on 2 and 4, 2 in particular has been a challenge lately.