Abundance and Frugality: Should You Earn More or Lower Your Spending?

When you have to pay off your debts, you have a decision before you: do you earn more or do you lower your spending? Both of these choices have their own pros and cons. Ultimately, your choice will depend on what you are willing to sacrifice.

Earning more will help you keep the lifestyle that you got used to living. By increasing your cash flow, you get to have more money to pay off debts. You don’t have to change your hobbies and you still have enough to support the usual entertainment activities that you and your family do. You don’t have to tell your children that you can’t afford to buy them the things that they want and you don’t have to force them to let go of the things that they loved to spend on. However, deciding to earn more will cost you more time and energy. Usually, you need to spend more time working to earn more. When you allot more time working, that means you eat up the time that you spend resting and relaxing. It also means you spend less time with family and friends.

On the other hand, lowering your expenses will help free some of your limited funds for debt payments. Normally associated with frugal living, it basically entails living within or below your means. It does not automatically prohibit you from enjoying life with your family and friends. All it does is configure the way you spend to lower your expenses.

Instead of bringing the whole family to the movies and dinner on a weekend, you can opt to rent a movie online and cook home food for everyone to enjoy. You save up on gas, tickets and food yet you are still able to bond and enjoy the company of your loved ones. Another is whenever you feel the urge to shop for new clothes, you can look at your old clothes and see how you can accessorize them to keep them looking new. In lowering your expenses, you get to enjoy more time with your family in a more creative and fun way which helps you re-define quantity and quality time.

To choose between the two, you have to consider what you can afford to give up or sacrifice. Do you want to sacrifice your time or your extravagant lifestyle? For those who love to work, earning more may be the best option. If you can find a great source of passive income, this is a great way to earn more without affecting much of your quality time. But for people who recognize that the root of their financial problems is their way of living, they choose to spend less. It helps to include the whole family and ask their help in the decision. After all, they will be highly affected either way you choose.

You should also consider applying both to increase your cash flow. If you think about it, spending less will teach you how to be a wise spender. It will also mean you don’t have to spend too much time working just to make ends meet.

Any form of debt relief involves a certain amount of sacrifice. Consider your choices carefully and make sure that you can commit to whatever you will choose to follow. If you need further reduction on your debts, know that there are debt relief programs that you can enrol into.