Keep Yourself Poor to Make Yourself Rich

Mitch Bowler

— 2 min read

First, let's clarify 'Rich' because we'll all agree that our money doesn't go as far as it used to.

For this concept Rich means having more money tomorrow than you do today... and given enough time, this habit will lead to a brighter financial future.

I realized this concept at my first job. I worked downtown and there was a Subway sandwich restaurant down the street from the office. I liked Subway, but I wasn't making much money then... I was getting paid $11 per hour.

Being in my 20's I also liked going out to the dance club with my friends and drinking alcohol.

Eventually, I realized that those $6 subs, and going to the club were adding up fast and eating away at any ability to save, so I started bringing lunches from home to work and then limited my club nights to $20 per night (yup, back in those days you could get a stiff drink for as low as $1.50 on certain nights so $20 was enough)

Examples of Keeping Yourself Poor

  • Limit monthly subscription services EG: If you only gave yourself $20 per month that means you could cancel Netflix and Spotify, and instead just commit to the music and videos included with Amazon Prime
  • Limit buying meat only when it's on sale.
  • Only go on vacations that cost less than $1,000
  • Find where you can buy in bulk at a discount
  • Find replacements for indulgences eg: Pizza for delivery $20 vs Frozen pizza that tastes just as good for $4 bought on sale.
  • Wishlist video games and only buy them when they go below $10
  • Don't buy anything on credit.
  • Buy furniture or other items used (like on Facebook marketplace)

So How Do, You Make Yourself Rich?
Look at what you were spending before, and then do something positive with the difference. It starts small, so don't be afraid to get going, even with like $5 it will start building habits that lead to better things.

For example, let's say you're able to save $25 per month. You could then put that money to work and start investing that amount in the stock market and just see if you miss that $25 per month. Then after a few months of investing $25 per month comfortably, find some other ways to save money and see if you can push it to $50 or even $100 and keep just stepping things up from there as you are comfortable.

Then you simply let time work its magic while you continue to develop better and better habits of putting the money that comes to you to better use.

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