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When it comes to saving money, hosts Matt and Joel of the How to Money podcast are all about educating listeners on best practices as well as debunking some common misconceptions on some personal finance topics.
The pair recently brought on Joshua Becker to discuss his journey with minimalism. Becker started the website Minimalist Living and has written several books including The Minimalist Home. As he tells Matt and Joel, minimalism isn’t a punishment, but a way to cut out unnecessary spending.
“Probably the biggest misconception that I think continues to pervade is this idea that minimalism is a sacrifice in some way, that minimalism will lead to a boring life,” said Becker. “The exact opposite is true; it's about getting rid of the things you don’t need so that you can spend more of your life in passionate pursuit of things that are most important to you.”
Becker said a minimalist’s lifestyle looks different from person to person. Adding that relationship status, age, location, job, and other factors determine what minimalism looks like for a specific person.
“When you were talking Joshua, this image popped in my head of a monk sitting in a cell,” said Joel laughing. “I think maybe sometimes that’s the idea I have had of minimalism. This idea of literally being devoid of possessions.”
The author said his journey to minimalism started one Saturday when he was cleaning the garage and a conversation with his neighbor made him pause. Becker realized he was missing out on time with his family because he was too busy sorting through things he never used.
“I said to her, ‘Well you know what they say, the more stuff you own the more it owns you,’” said Becker. “She responded by saying, ‘Yeah that’s why my daughter is a minimalist. She keeps telling me I don’t need to own all of this stuff.”
He realized his possessions didn’t make him happy and they were actually taking him away from the thing that did bring him happiness in his life. For Becker, it was his five-year-old son who was swinging on the swings by himself while his dad cleaned out the garage.
Listen to the full discussion on minimalism and how to get started on “Going Minimalist To Save More w/ Joshua Becker.” New episodes of How to Money are released weekly on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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