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Speaker 1: Joel. How's it going, body, I'm excellent. By the time

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Speaker 1: this episode comes out, You're gonna be excellent, excellent, Tonte.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna have spent some time on the beach. You

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Speaker 1: and I were spending some time with our families on vacation.

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Speaker 1: That is why we are recording this Bestie episode. I'm

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Speaker 1: future Joel right now as we're recording this, and I'm

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Speaker 1: hoping that past Joel remember to put on the sunscreen.

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Speaker 1: Have you gotten your sunscreen? You can be such an

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Speaker 1: idiot sometimes, you know, Yes, of course I got like sunscreen.

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Speaker 1: We actually in the process of packing up the house,

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Speaker 1: like we shared with everybody this past Wednesday. You and

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Speaker 1: I were moving, we're moving our families, but we came

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Speaker 1: across the many, many, half empty bottles of sunscreen. We're

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Speaker 1: taking them all to the beach. By the way, I

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Speaker 1: don't think expired sunscreen is necessary. If it's like relatively

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Speaker 1: recently expired, not a big deal, still works. I think

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Speaker 1: I shared at one point I got a bunch of

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Speaker 1: sunscreen at the thrift store. It was like a dollar

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Speaker 1: per tube, and it was ever so barely expired that

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Speaker 1: the worst burn of your life. No, I worked just fine,

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Speaker 1: I would safe nice. Well, we wanted to to bring

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Speaker 1: this episode back for everybody, this bestie episode. This was

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Speaker 1: going minimalist to save more with Joshua Becker, and I

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Speaker 1: thought it was a good idea to bring this one back,

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Speaker 1: first of all, because it's summertime, and I think the

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Speaker 1: summer can be a great time to hit reset on

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Speaker 1: your life and reevaluate not only how does you're spending

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Speaker 1: your time, but the possessions that you're surrounding yourself with.

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Speaker 1: You know, one of the things I like about Joshua

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Speaker 1: is there there are a lot of minimalism people folks

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Speaker 1: in the space who focus mostly on the possession angle,

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Speaker 1: and Joshua takes like a broader approach to what minimalism

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Speaker 1: is and why he does it. His heart behind why

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Speaker 1: he wants to be a minimalist, and why he paired

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Speaker 1: down possessions so brutally um and and how it's impacted

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Speaker 1: his family in so many positive ways, how he's able

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Speaker 1: to being able to help other people start nonprofits and

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Speaker 1: really just make more of an impact with his life.

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Speaker 1: He gives so much credit to becoming a minimalist um

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Speaker 1: as as the reason for his ability to to make

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Speaker 1: more of a difference totally. Yeah, he takes a more

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Speaker 1: holistic approach towards minimalism, not just the aesthetic minimalism right

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Speaker 1: with them black t shirts, white walls, like that whole thing.

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Speaker 1: There's like this entire lifestyle that you could subscribe to,

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Speaker 1: and that's not necessarily what josh was going for. Um.

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Speaker 1: I also wanted to mention he's got He recently came

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Speaker 1: out with a new book too, Things that Matter, Uh,

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Speaker 1: and it's just about refocusing on the things that matter

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Speaker 1: in life. And actually, how that one queued up. I'm

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Speaker 1: planning to listen to that one on audio book during

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Speaker 1: some of these summer travels. If anybody out there has

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Speaker 1: listened to it and hit us up, let us know

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Speaker 1: if you enjoyed that one. But for now, enjoy this

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Speaker 1: conversation with Joshua Becker. Welcome to How the Money. I'm

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Speaker 1: Joel and I and that and today we're discussing going

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Speaker 1: minimalists to save more with Joshua Becker. We've all heard

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Speaker 1: about the minimalist lifestyle. Maybe you're picturing a bearded hipster

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Speaker 1: drinking coffee in his empty, perfectly white dining room, right,

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Speaker 1: It turns out that is not what minimalism is all about.

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Speaker 1: We've all been spending more time in our homes than

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Speaker 1: we'd probably like, and all that clutter might be getting

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Speaker 1: to you. And so here to talk with us today

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Speaker 1: about minimalist living is Joshua Becker. While beginning the process

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Speaker 1: of removing possessions from his life, Joshua started the site

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Speaker 1: Becoming Minimalist, and he's written several fantastic books over the years,

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Speaker 1: including The More of Less and The Minimalist Home. Not

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Speaker 1: only can a minimalist approach to life allow us to

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Speaker 1: spend less and save more of our money, but it

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Speaker 1: can have a positive impact in lots of areas of

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Speaker 1: our life. So Joshua, thanks so much for coming on

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Speaker 1: the podcast. Well, it is my pleasure. I'm delighted to

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Speaker 1: be here. Thank you from the invitation anytime, man, anytime, seriously,

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Speaker 1: if you want to come back next week too. And

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Speaker 1: and by the way, if there's a bearded hipster in

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Speaker 1: his dining room drinking coffee listening, I think that's fantastic.

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Speaker 1: So they might not need as many of your principles.

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Speaker 1: They might have applied them already. We'll see. But Joshua,

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Speaker 1: every week on the podcast, Matt and I drink a

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Speaker 1: craft beer. It's kind of our way of splurging on

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Speaker 1: something that we love now while also being intentional and

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Speaker 1: saving well for the future. So today on the show,

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Speaker 1: we're drinking a beer called I Feel at All by

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Speaker 1: Monday Night Brewing. And what's your splurge, what's your craft

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Speaker 1: beer equivalent? What is my well by the way Monday

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Speaker 1: Night Brewing. I think I've been there. I think you have.

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Speaker 1: You were here last time in Atlanta last summer, right, Yeah, indeed, indeed,

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Speaker 1: and uh and last fall we had had I've had

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Speaker 1: two events there in the past year. Your friends with

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Speaker 1: a buddy of ours, Jeff Schinnerbarger, Yeah, I think you've

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Speaker 1: done some events with him, and he's apply with people.

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Speaker 1: Is his organization? They do some amazing stuff for sure. Yeah, wonderful. Anyway, Yeah, splurge,

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Speaker 1: good question. I've I've kind of moved away from buying possessions,

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Speaker 1: buying things that I don't need, and I would say

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Speaker 1: that while I've replaced it with a number of different things,

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Speaker 1: one thing that we do like splurging on is trips, vacations, experiences.

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Speaker 1: My kids are seventeen and thirteen, and so my son's

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Speaker 1: a junior and my daughters in eighth grade. And I

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Speaker 1: think all the research that's ever been done that experiences

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Speaker 1: lead to more happiness than than possessions, I've found that

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Speaker 1: to be true. So while my kids are still at home,

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Speaker 1: I have always wanted to create good memories and fun stories.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of times those happens when we when

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Speaker 1: we go away together as a family. Well, with your

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Speaker 1: kids being older like that, Like, have you felt the

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Speaker 1: urge to kind of kind of squeeze in a few

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Speaker 1: more of these experiences before, you know, before your kids

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Speaker 1: kind of go off to school or whatever it is

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Speaker 1: they decided to move on to. I have, indeed, And

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it's an artificial urgency or not,

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Speaker 1: but I certainly feel it. You only get eighteen summers

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Speaker 1: with your kids, or at least ideally, right, and then

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Speaker 1: they're kind of moving on. And so Salem now is

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Speaker 1: a spring break for his junior year. And so yeah,

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Speaker 1: one maybe one or two more summers, one or two

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Speaker 1: more spring breaks when you can create some of those

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Speaker 1: create some of those memories. And from everything I can

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Speaker 1: tell talking to family, like it doesn't end there, right,

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Speaker 1: even when they're in college. They come back and you

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Speaker 1: do things. But you, I think you certainly feel that

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Speaker 1: feel that urgency. Yeah, for sure. Hey, Joshua, let's talk

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Speaker 1: about minimalism. And from everything I've read about minimalism, I

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Speaker 1: feel like you can be easily misunderstood. Everyone seems to

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Speaker 1: kind of have a different definition of what it means.

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Speaker 1: So kind of to set the stage for this conversation,

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Speaker 1: what's your definition of minimalism? Yeah, I think everybody, well,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if everybody has a different definition of minimalism,

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Speaker 1: but the way it plays out in a person's life

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Speaker 1: is always going to look different from one person to another.

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Speaker 1: Certainly there are different definitions of it. The one that

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Speaker 1: I have always used as this minimalism is the intentional

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Speaker 1: promotion of the things I'm most value in life by

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Speaker 1: removing anything that distracts me from it. In this way,

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Speaker 1: it's it's not about the goal of minimalism, isn't how

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Speaker 1: do I own the fewest amount of things as possible.

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Speaker 1: The greatest promise of minimalism isn't just owning less stuff.

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Speaker 1: The greatest goal of minimalism is that I get to

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Speaker 1: pursue with more passion whatever My greatest priorities and greatest

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Speaker 1: values are. And one way I do that, certainly in

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Speaker 1: terms of physical possessions, is I stop wasting money on

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Speaker 1: things that I don't need. I stop wasting time and

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Speaker 1: energy not just pursuing, but accumulating and maintaining and managing

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Speaker 1: all the things that I own, and and begin directing

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Speaker 1: my most finite resources towards the things in life that

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Speaker 1: matter most. And of course that's going to look differ

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Speaker 1: from one person to another. Yeah, and so to you

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Speaker 1: at least, what are some of the maybe misconceptions or

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Speaker 1: like false ideas of what minimalism is that you've heard

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Speaker 1: people share with you. Yeah, so I was probably the

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Speaker 1: first blog entirely dedicated to minimalism. I started writing about

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Speaker 1: it twelve years ago, and so there were certainly a

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Speaker 1: lot more misconceptions twelve years ago, but but a lot

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Speaker 1: more people are talking about it now than than back then.

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Speaker 1: But I think some of the some of the major

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Speaker 1: ones still pop into people's minds, you know, like the

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Speaker 1: intro that's just for young young college kids. Um, that

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Speaker 1: it means no beauty in life whatsoever. But but it's

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Speaker 1: just bearn that that the goal is quite Yeah, that

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Speaker 1: the the goal is just to own the fewest amount

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Speaker 1: of things that you possibly can, or that there's a

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Speaker 1: certain number you can't own more in a hundred things.

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Speaker 1: I think that there are there are those misconceptions, but

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Speaker 1: probably the biggest misconception that I think continues to pervade

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Speaker 1: is this idea that minimalism is a sacrifice in some way,

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Speaker 1: that that minimalism will lead to a boring life, that

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Speaker 1: I have to get rid of all my things and

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Speaker 1: my life is going to be boring and stale because

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Speaker 1: of it, when the exact opposite is true. It's it's

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Speaker 1: about getting rid of the things you don't need so

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Speaker 1: that you can spend more of your life in passionate

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Speaker 1: pursuit of the things that are are most important to you.

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Speaker 1: So I think that's probably the biggest one. And then

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Speaker 1: you know, just as I mentioned before, it's it's always

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Speaker 1: gonna look different from one person to another. If you're single,

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Speaker 1: if you're have three kids, if you're an empty nest,

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Speaker 1: if you live in the city or you live in

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Speaker 1: the suburb or are in a out in a rural area,

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Speaker 1: if you're a farmer or a writer or a dentist, like,

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Speaker 1: all these things are going to change what you what

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Speaker 1: you own in order to be who you want to be,

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Speaker 1: or even where you live, and what you need in

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Speaker 1: order to live and get around. When you were talking

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Speaker 1: about that, Josh, what it kind of made me? It

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Speaker 1: gave this picture popped in my head, like a monk

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Speaker 1: in a cell. And I think maybe sometimes that's the

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Speaker 1: idea that I've had of minimalism, is is kind of

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Speaker 1: literally being devoid of possessions, and and yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: I'm interested to dive in a little more and here

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Speaker 1: kind of what how we think about what we keep

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Speaker 1: in our lives. And We've got some questions for you

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Speaker 1: about that, But I want to know first, like for

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Speaker 1: most people to even begin to explore the concept of

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Speaker 1: minimalism or implementing any minimalist principles into their lives, you

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Speaker 1: mentioned in your book that they need a tipping point.

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Speaker 1: So I want to know what was your tipping point,

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Speaker 1: what led you to kind of go down this path. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So for me, it was a Saturday morning yet twelve

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Speaker 1: years ago now, I was I was living up in Vermont.

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Speaker 1: My children were five and two at the time, and

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Speaker 1: we're gonna do our spring cleaning that weekend, and I

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Speaker 1: offered to clean out the garage because I thought my

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Speaker 1: five year old son would want to help me clean

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Speaker 1: out the garage. Obviously, what five year old son wouldn't

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Speaker 1: want to spend a day the garage, right, So he

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Speaker 1: lasted about thirty seconds, and he was in the backyard playing,

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Speaker 1: and I'm in the garage and one thing leads to another.

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Speaker 1: Hours later, I'm still working on the same garage. My

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Speaker 1: son's asking me to come play catch with him, and

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Speaker 1: I just keep pushing him off and almost done. I'm

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Speaker 1: almost done. Well, I strike up a conversation with my neighbor,

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Speaker 1: who was outside doing all of her yard work at

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Speaker 1: the time, and I think she noticed what was happening

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Speaker 1: on my side of the hedge, and she makes a comment, well,

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Speaker 1: the joys of home ownership, hunt Joshua, And of course

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Speaker 1: she'd been working all morning too, And I said, well,

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Speaker 1: you know what they say, the more stuff you own,

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Speaker 1: the more your stuff owns you. And she responded by saying, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, that's why my daughter is a minimalist. She

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Speaker 1: keeps telling me I don't need to own all this stuff.

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Speaker 1: And I remember looking at my driveway and there's this

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Speaker 1: pile of dirty dusty things. I pulled out of the

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Speaker 1: garage and spent all day cleaning, and out of the

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Speaker 1: corner of my eye, I see my five year old

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Speaker 1: son swinging alone on the swing set in the backyard,

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Speaker 1: and suddenly I realized my possessions weren't making me happy,

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Speaker 1: which I think all of us would say, right, we're

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Speaker 1: not looking for happiness and our possessions. But the further

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Speaker 1: realization was, not only were my possessions not making me happy,

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Speaker 1: my possessions were actually taking me away from the very

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Speaker 1: thing that did bring me happiness in life, and not

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Speaker 1: just happiness, but meaning and joy in significance and purpose,

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Speaker 1: And for me, that was the tipping point. I think

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Speaker 1: that that is the realization that a person has to make.

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Speaker 1: That everyone who pursues a minimalist life at some point

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Speaker 1: has that realization that not only our excess possessions not

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Speaker 1: making us happy, but our excess possessions are actually taking

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Speaker 1: us away from the very things that do bring us

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Speaker 1: happiness in life. Because you don't, you don't sit across

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Speaker 1: the table from somebody and ask them what do you

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Speaker 1: most want to accomplish in life? Nobody says, I just

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Speaker 1: want to own as much junk as I possibly can.

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Speaker 1: But somewhere along the way, society comes along and hijacks

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Speaker 1: our passions and we begin accumulating all these things that

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Speaker 1: we don't need. And suddenly there there comes a point

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Speaker 1: where we realize, what am I? I'm wasting my life

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Speaker 1: with those things when I could be doing far more

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Speaker 1: important things with my life. Right, yeah, what what a juxtaposition? Right?

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Speaker 1: Like you paint such a good image I mean now,

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Speaker 1: but in your book as well, when you kind of

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Speaker 1: contrast this heap of dusty, crummy junk sitting there in

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Speaker 1: the driveway and then you have like this youthful person

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Speaker 1: you know, your son, who you love and he's back there.

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Speaker 1: That really struck me pretty deep, having young kids about

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Speaker 1: that age as well. And I mean, this is what

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Speaker 1: you mean in your book too, Like when you say

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Speaker 1: that the payoff of minimalism, it's not a clean house.

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Speaker 1: There are these bigger benefits and and that that we realize.

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Speaker 1: Can you talk about some of these I guess, like

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Speaker 1: some of these universal benefits that pretty much everybody realizes

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Speaker 1: as they kind of go down the path of minimalism.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, As a matter of fact, every time I speak,

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Speaker 1: I uh whenever time allows, I always have the person

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Speaker 1: turned to the person next to them and say, start

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Speaker 1: making a list of all the ways your life would

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Speaker 1: improve if you own less stuff, and no one ever

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Speaker 1: struggle to answer the question. Like when when you ask

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Speaker 1: how would life improve if you owned less stuff? That

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Speaker 1: the list just grow, So they're right, there's we would

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Speaker 1: have more time, we would have more money, We would

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Speaker 1: do less cleaning, we would have less stress in life.

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Speaker 1: We would have fewer decisions that need to be made.

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Speaker 1: It would be a better life for the environment. We

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Speaker 1: would be a better example for our kids. It would

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Speaker 1: be easier to find things in our house. We wouldn't

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Speaker 1: need to constantly upgrade the size of our house. The

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Speaker 1: average American home has tripled in size in the last

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Speaker 1: fifty years and still ten percent of American's rent off

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Speaker 1: site storage. It would pave the way for for more contentment,

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Speaker 1: and more generosity and more gratitude. There's less comparison that

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Speaker 1: we have with other people. Were able to own higher

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Speaker 1: quality things. Um right, If I'm gonna own fewer anything,

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Speaker 1: I can own a higher quality pairs of pants, watches,

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Speaker 1: whatever I mean, whatever it is, Um fewer means I

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Speaker 1: can own higher quality less work for someone else. I mean,

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Speaker 1: everything we own has to be dealt with at some

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Speaker 1: point by somebody. Might as well do the work now. Sure. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and uh, Joshua, you've also given minimalism credit for your

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Speaker 1: ability to start a nonprofit, which is called the hope effect.

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Speaker 1: You did that with your wife, Kim, So can you

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Speaker 1: tell us about the hope effect? And how is minimalism

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Speaker 1: responsible for your ability to do more good in the

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Speaker 1: world around you? Too? Yeah? How long do I have? Um?

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Speaker 1: As as time as you want? Man? Yeah. The I

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Speaker 1: guess the medium length story is I started blogging becoming

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Speaker 1: Minimalist dot com. It was just going to be a journal,

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Speaker 1: a diary of what I was getting rid of and

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Speaker 1: what I was keeping, and it's uh, it quickly grew.

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Speaker 1: We have over two million readers every single month, and

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Speaker 1: the social media reach as in the tens of millions

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Speaker 1: that that cr CR posts each and every week. And

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Speaker 1: so at some point publishers come calling and they say, hey,

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Speaker 1: can you can you write a book? And I actually

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Speaker 1: had nine offers from publishers at the same time, and

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Speaker 1: so I asked my agents, I said, what do we do?

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Speaker 1: And he said, well, now they've been against each other

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Speaker 1: to to see who who's going to pay the most

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Speaker 1: for your book. It became pretty clear pretty early on

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Speaker 1: that I was going to get offered a lot of

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Speaker 1: money to write a book about how buying stuff won't

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Speaker 1: make you happy and the irony and that for sure. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and so uh, we had cut our lifestyle down quite

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Speaker 1: a bit. We had moved into a smaller home, so

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Speaker 1: our our mortgage was less, we weren't buying a lot

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Speaker 1: of things, and we just didn't need a lot of

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Speaker 1: money to live our life. And in conversations with Kim,

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Speaker 1: we're like, what are we? Like, what are we gonna do?

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Speaker 1: We're not going to buy bigger screen television, are we?

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Speaker 1: And so we decided to to solve a problem in

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Speaker 1: the world. And man, there is decades worth of research

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Speaker 1: that traditional orphanages are actually pretty harmful for kids. When

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Speaker 1: you picture the four walls, a bunch of kids and

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Speaker 1: workers coming in and out like little or like most

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Speaker 1: people when they picture an orphanage, which is still used

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Speaker 1: in most developing nations, that seventy to children that grow

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Speaker 1: up in orphanages end up in homelessness, in prostitution, or

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Speaker 1: incarcerated because brains just don't develop correctly outside of the

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Speaker 1: family unit. And so our our mission with the Hope

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Speaker 1: Effect is to to change how the world cares for orphans,

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Speaker 1: um by by helping orphans children get placed into families

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Speaker 1: where they can receive the attention and affection that they

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Speaker 1: should as opposed to being in an orphanage and just

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Speaker 1: to set like an orphan is just better than nothing,

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Speaker 1: better than growing up on the streets. It's just not

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Speaker 1: the the best way for for children to be raised.

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Speaker 1: And so we so we work in Honduras and we

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Speaker 1: work in Mexico. We just signed um sign an agreement

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Speaker 1: with the with the Mexican government to to be one

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Speaker 1: of the leading nonprofits to to help recruit and train

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Speaker 1: families to care for orphan children. So that's what the

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Speaker 1: whole Effect does. And because I buy less, because I

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Speaker 1: don't need to spend money on on stuff, I'm able

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Speaker 1: to uh to do something like this with it, and um,

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Speaker 1: it's really exciting. I can't think of a more fulfilling

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Speaker 1: way to spend my money than help help orphan children

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Speaker 1: have a chance at life. Yeah. Yeah, seriously, man, thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for sharing the mission You've got there. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's amazing that through minimalism you've been able to do

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Speaker 1: something big, right, like big and lofty, And I mean

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Speaker 1: that's essentially the goal that that you've set for within

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Speaker 1: your books, is that like, hey, like through this lifestyle,

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Speaker 1: like through taking a different approach, you can implement these

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Speaker 1: practices that you know, some of these tips, and you

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Speaker 1: can completely change what it looks like to live in

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Speaker 1: our world today from one of consumption and doing unwise

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Speaker 1: things with our money to not only being financially responsible,

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Speaker 1: but then to be able to go beyond that and

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Speaker 1: do something amazing, like what what you're doing. Um, yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: we'll ask you for some links here at the end

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Speaker 1: of the end of the episode where folks can go

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Speaker 1: there if they're looking to to donate and er up. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and support you for sure. But um but at the

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Speaker 1: very least, we do want our listeners. You know, hopefully

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Speaker 1: there'll be lots of nonprofits started after this conversation, maybe

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Speaker 1: you know, years on the road. Yeah, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean they don't even need to be started, like, like,

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Speaker 1: there are a lot of nonprofits are doing a lot

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Speaker 1: of good work. And and that was you know, the

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Speaker 1: first question that we had to ask ourselves was do

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Speaker 1: we do we start something new or do we partner

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Speaker 1: with someone who's already doing good work? And it was

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Speaker 1: it was out an easy question to answer, and we

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Speaker 1: got asked a numerous times, and I'd like to think

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Speaker 1: we fell on the right side of it. And you

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Speaker 1: don't have to sign a big book deal to start

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Speaker 1: helping out either, you know, so exactly, yeah, well, like so,

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Speaker 1: at the very least two we want our listeners to

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Speaker 1: be able to have changed their life through minimalism hopefully

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Speaker 1: uh to be able to contribute, to be able to

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Speaker 1: get themselves in a better position financially. And so we're

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Speaker 1: gonna talk more about ways to better ourselves when it

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Speaker 1: comes to personal finance. We'll get to that after the break.

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Speaker 1: All right, we're back from the break and we're talking

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Speaker 1: with Joshua Becker, who writes about minimalism on his website

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Speaker 1: Becoming Minimalist, and he's also written some great books. To Joshua,

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Speaker 1: you mentioned in your book that Americans spend one point

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Speaker 1: two trillion dollars annually on non essential goods, and you

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Speaker 1: talk you mentioned too that we spend three thousand, six

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Speaker 1: d and eighty hours of our lives looking for things

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Speaker 1: we've misplaced. I swear I spent half of those hours

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Speaker 1: just helping my wife find her cell phone. Um, so

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Speaker 1: what kind of effects do you think frugality and minimalism

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Speaker 1: have on each other? Like? How closely related are they? Oh,

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Speaker 1: that's a good question. Um. When I typically explain minimalism

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Speaker 1: to people, I usually make a point to say that

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Speaker 1: minimalism and frugality are not the same thing. Uh. There

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Speaker 1: are a lot of people who pursue minimalism because they're frugal,

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Speaker 1: but that's not always the case. And someone can pursue

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Speaker 1: a minimalist life and spend just as much money even

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Speaker 1: on physical possessions as they did before. If they're just

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Speaker 1: buying a lot higher quality things with their money, then

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Speaker 1: they can still spend just as much money. So in

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Speaker 1: some ways, I believe very strongly that most people who

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Speaker 1: pursue minimalism end up saving money in the long run.

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Speaker 1: But it's not automatic that everyone who does that will

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Speaker 1: start saving money. There still has to be the Okay,

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Speaker 1: how if I want to save money, how can I

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Speaker 1: pursue minimalism in a way that that allows me to

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Speaker 1: do that? And if you if you start with that assumption,

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Speaker 1: then certainly that you just you can see it all

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Speaker 1: over right, I'm just I'm just buying less stuff. I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm taking care of less stuff. We moved into a

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Speaker 1: smaller home because we realized we didn't need as much

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Speaker 1: square footage as we had, and so we saved a

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars a month on our mortgage. Like there are

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Speaker 1: there are very significant ways that that you can do that.

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Speaker 1: I think probably the most helpful connection that people can

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Speaker 1: see is that most people already have enough stuff already,

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Speaker 1: Like there are enough clothes in your closet already, there's

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Speaker 1: enough cookware in your kitchen, there's enough tools in your garage,

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Speaker 1: you have enough hobby gear already. And as you start

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Speaker 1: donating clothes from your closet, the mind shift becomes, wait,

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Speaker 1: I don't need to go buy more clothes. I had

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Speaker 1: more than I needed. I don't need to go buy

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Speaker 1: more cookwear. I'm getting rid of cookware. I don't need

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Speaker 1: more towels. I'm getting rid of towels. And so the

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Speaker 1: the consumption mindset that I that I need to go

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Speaker 1: buy more things starts to change as we realize, wait,

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Speaker 1: I I have more than I need, not I have

428
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:48,359
Speaker 1: to go buy more stuff already, someone who wants to

429
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:53,160
Speaker 1: be frugal will find plenty more opportunities to be frugal

430
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,480
Speaker 1: pursuing a minimalist life. I guess it's probably what I've

431
00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:59,399
Speaker 1: should have said. If someone doesn't want to be frugal, like,

432
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,040
Speaker 1: it's still for sue minimalism and spend even more money

433
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 1: than they did before. But but someone who who wants

434
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 1: to embrace those principles will find it easier to embrace

435
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,399
Speaker 1: those as they pursue a minimalist lifestyle. For sure, those

436
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:15,679
Speaker 1: powers combined are excellent. Yeah, yeah, well, I guess like

437
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,640
Speaker 1: an example I can think of, Joshua, is that kind

438
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: of kind of counter that that sort of the opposite

439
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: of that. It was, like, I'm thinking of maybe someone

440
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 1: who has a bunch of stuff around right like that

441
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 1: they're keeping unused or barely used things maybe in their

442
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 1: attic or down on the basement in case that they

443
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: need them, or maybe in case like they want to

444
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 1: pull it out for like that one time of year

445
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:38,400
Speaker 1: that they might use it. And so like, I feel

446
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: like that's an example where someone wouldn't necessarily consider themselves

447
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,879
Speaker 1: a minimalist if they're hanging onto all those things, and

448
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,119
Speaker 1: their argument would be that they are saving money to

449
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:52,800
Speaker 1: not have to purchase those things again. Okay, right, I

450
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: could see that, right. The counter acting thought would be,

451
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:01,440
Speaker 1: do I really have to go buy that thing if

452
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:04,359
Speaker 1: I need to use it again? So kind of the

453
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:07,399
Speaker 1: classic examples are is our folding table. We got rid

454
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:11,119
Speaker 1: of our folding table and chairs, and then we decided

455
00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: we're going to host a party on Halloween, and we

456
00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 1: didn't have the folding table, and it took me about

457
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:21,200
Speaker 1: thirty seconds to call my neighbor who has a folding table,

458
00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 1: and we could we could borrow their's certainly, especially in

459
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,879
Speaker 1: this sharing economy world that they were living in. Right, Like,

460
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,800
Speaker 1: being able to find something that I ended up needing

461
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 1: isn't nearly as difficult as it might be. If it

462
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:40,679
Speaker 1: is something that is rare and my neighbor is not

463
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,080
Speaker 1: going to have it, and it's really expensive and there's

464
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: a really good chance that I'm going to need it

465
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 1: in a couple of months, then then I think you

466
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:50,879
Speaker 1: hold onto it. But if it's yeah, I don't I

467
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:54,880
Speaker 1: might need it some point, then there there becomes two

468
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: costs to that. There becomes the everything we own takes

469
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 1: up physical space and our home, but it but it

470
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:04,600
Speaker 1: also takes up mental space in our in our mind,

471
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: and so storing all those things, it's constantly there in

472
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,440
Speaker 1: our space, and we know it's there and we think

473
00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 1: about it. Plus how our how our mind begins to

474
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:23,040
Speaker 1: shift when we start realizing how much excess we have

475
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:25,919
Speaker 1: and when we start seeing all the things that we

476
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: can get rid of, and life still goes on and

477
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:34,680
Speaker 1: life even becomes more enjoyable by owning less. Then that

478
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 1: brings about maybe an abundance mindset as opposed to a

479
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: scarcity mindset that I that I need to hold onto

480
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: these things. That it just begins to change the way

481
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:48,440
Speaker 1: I see the world and the way I see my things.

482
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,440
Speaker 1: Realizing that I actually have more than I need, not

483
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:56,439
Speaker 1: that I don't have enough stuff and so I have

484
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,840
Speaker 1: to keep holding onto an accumulating things. Yeah, on that

485
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:01,879
Speaker 1: On that note, Joshua, have you seen people kind of

486
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: dip their toes in and then they kind of start

487
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:06,320
Speaker 1: to see how good it can be, and then they

488
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:08,879
Speaker 1: just kind of start to go go whole hog with

489
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:12,880
Speaker 1: it because they realize that starting to get there, fixing

490
00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:15,439
Speaker 1: you know, one aspect of their life in regards to

491
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:20,040
Speaker 1: minimalism and starting to declutter and and change their mindset.

492
00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:22,880
Speaker 1: Have you seen people just kind of go a little

493
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 1: bit and then feel realized, Oh man, I gotta go

494
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,399
Speaker 1: the whole way? Or or usually is it? Does it

495
00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: happen quickly or does it usually? Is it usually a longer,

496
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,080
Speaker 1: more drawn out process? Oh? I think it happens in

497
00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: in any in every possible way, depending on a person's

498
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 1: personality and family and uh starting point and what they're

499
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 1: thinking about and stage of life and any number of

500
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,360
Speaker 1: different things. But to answer your question, yeah, I think

501
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:51,360
Speaker 1: people certainly can can sample it a little bit and

502
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 1: begin to see the benefits of it. In fact, it's

503
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:57,560
Speaker 1: it's the approach that I take when I encourage people.

504
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 1: How do I start applying these staples in my home

505
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: and in my life? My My first thought is go

506
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 1: to the easiest room that you can minimize the possessions

507
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 1: in and and complete that area. So like, go go

508
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: to your car first and take everything out of your

509
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 1: car that doesn't need to be there, or go to

510
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 1: your living room and take everything out of your living

511
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 1: room that doesn't need to be there, and when you

512
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 1: sit down in that space, it feels calmer and more peaceful,

513
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: like you're able to focus on the people in the

514
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: room rather than all the stuff around you. And and

515
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: you'll find that you want that feeling in other areas

516
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 1: or in other spaces. Or if someone were to like say, hey,

517
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:46,400
Speaker 1: I'm going to minimize my my clothes for example, so

518
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 1: like go to your closet and and pull out half

519
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:51,680
Speaker 1: of the clothes, and you don't have to burn them, like,

520
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: just go put them somewhere else for a little while

521
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 1: and just keep your your favorite half of your clothes

522
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: in your closet. And the very next morning, when you

523
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: open your closet, you're like, this is kind of nice.

524
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,520
Speaker 1: Everything hanging here. I love, And I don't have to

525
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,520
Speaker 1: waste time deciding what to wear. It's easier to get ready.

526
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 1: It feels less stressful to get ready. So where else

527
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 1: can I apply these principles of owning less? Right? Yeah,

528
00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 1: I mean part of what drives consumption, especially when it

529
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 1: comes to clothing Oftentimes, I think are these different desires

530
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 1: that we have, and when we seek to satisfy those

531
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:32,200
Speaker 1: desires with purchasing with stuff, with material things in our lives.

532
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 1: Can can you share you know what you feel some

533
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 1: of these different desires are that we have, and then

534
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,480
Speaker 1: how can we keep ourselves from trying to satisfy them

535
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 1: with spending? Wow? You know, I noticed it. And when

536
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: I started donating things and taking things to Goodwill. I

537
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 1: took a vanload of stuff to good Will and it

538
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: was great, And the second vanload was great. By by

539
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:59,960
Speaker 1: about the third vanload of boxes and bags of things

540
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 1: that I was dropping off at Goodwill, I I started

541
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: to ask myself some pretty difficult questions, starting with why

542
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 1: in the world did I have three van loads of

543
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 1: things in my house that I didn't need? Like why

544
00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 1: when you get to the heart of the question, why

545
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 1: do we buy more stuff than we need? Like what

546
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: could possibly be motivating us to buy more things than

547
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:31,640
Speaker 1: we need to own in order to live our life?

548
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 1: And so I started asking myself that question, like the

549
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 1: more bags I filled and the more closets I opened

550
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:42,360
Speaker 1: and boxes I went through, and I don't know, I

551
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 1: always say I didn't really like what I started to

552
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 1: find out about myself that I was probably motivated by jealousy,

553
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 1: you know, trying to impress people with the things that

554
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:57,240
Speaker 1: I owned, or trying to prove that I was successful

555
00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:03,520
Speaker 1: to my parents or or my brother that maybe less secure,

556
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 1: maybe a little more discontent in my life. Maybe I

557
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:11,480
Speaker 1: maybe I really was looking for possessions to bring about happiness.

558
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:16,280
Speaker 1: Maybe I was a a sucker for sales. Um the

559
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 1: best buy ad that used to come in the Sunday

560
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:22,240
Speaker 1: paper would compel me to go buy things, Like there's

561
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:29,000
Speaker 1: a for some people with loneliness or boredom or overcoming stress. Like,

562
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:35,959
Speaker 1: what are these triggers that cause us to go buy things?

563
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 1: It's probably where I separate myself a little bit from

564
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 1: some of the other writers on the topic, because a

565
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:47,320
Speaker 1: lot of writers want to blame advertisers and marketing and

566
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 1: society and culture, and certainly there's a a role that

567
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 1: they play. We see like five thousand advertisements every single day,

568
00:32:55,280 --> 00:33:00,560
Speaker 1: and so certainly those ads are but they're feeding into

569
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:06,840
Speaker 1: some internal unhealthy motivation that's that's causing us to go

570
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 1: to go over consume, and and they vary from person

571
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 1: to person. So how do you how do you overcome them? Um?

572
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 1: I think that's a hard right, Yeah, And certainly the

573
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 1: first step is realizing what they are and being able

574
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:28,280
Speaker 1: to recognize them and articulate them. Probably the most helpful

575
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:32,760
Speaker 1: way that I've seen people get to that step is

576
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:37,920
Speaker 1: by embracing a shopping ban of some sort, whether it's

577
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 1: a two month shopping band. Some people go a whole year,

578
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,720
Speaker 1: but that's pretty long. But most people I think could

579
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,440
Speaker 1: could go for four to six weeks without buying anything

580
00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:51,760
Speaker 1: other than food, I guess, but just saying, Hey, I'm

581
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: gonna spend the next two months and I'm not going

582
00:33:54,040 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 1: to buy anything other than food or consumable toilet three items.

583
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,080
Speaker 1: And every time I have an urge to shop, I'm

584
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:06,120
Speaker 1: I'm not going to and I'm just gonna kind of

585
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:10,560
Speaker 1: sit in that desire. What Why do I feel like

586
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,000
Speaker 1: I need to go shopping right now? Why do I

587
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 1: feel like I need to go buy that newest, latest,

588
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:21,200
Speaker 1: greatest thing? Is it? Is it a healthy motivation or

589
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,640
Speaker 1: is it unhealthy? What is what is sparking some of

590
00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:27,719
Speaker 1: those things. One lady one time told me she she

591
00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:30,920
Speaker 1: had gone on a two month shopping band, and she

592
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 1: said she started to notice every time she had a

593
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:37,839
Speaker 1: bad day at work, she really wanted to stop at

594
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,839
Speaker 1: the mall on her way home, and usually she would

595
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 1: just stop at the mall. She said, I didn't always

596
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:46,840
Speaker 1: buy anything, but sometimes I just walked through the store,

597
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:48,400
Speaker 1: walk through the hallway that a lot of times I

598
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 1: bought something, but not always. But for two months, when

599
00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:54,600
Speaker 1: I said I couldn't stop at the mall, I started

600
00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:59,279
Speaker 1: to notice what days I felt that urge, and I

601
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 1: started to realized that when I was really stressed at work,

602
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:08,760
Speaker 1: I would go try to alleviate that stress by buying

603
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:12,600
Speaker 1: something on my way home, or whenever I felt lonely

604
00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 1: or board, I just want to fill the time by shopping. Um,

605
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:19,200
Speaker 1: whenever there's extra money in my bank account, I just

606
00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:23,080
Speaker 1: want to go buy something. And recognizing what those are,

607
00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:25,000
Speaker 1: I think that shopping band is probably the best way

608
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: to do that. And then how you overcome it probably

609
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 1: depends on what exactly it is that you're you're discovering,

610
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:34,359
Speaker 1: but but typically there is a better way to meet

611
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,400
Speaker 1: that need in your heart and in your life and

612
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:40,600
Speaker 1: in your soul than than buying something, certainly a longer

613
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:43,879
Speaker 1: lasting way to fulfill it. Man, I feel like we're

614
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 1: demystifying some of those classical things. Maybe the parodies of

615
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 1: minimalism that people have in their minds were really I mean,

616
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:54,080
Speaker 1: that was some really really good stuff there, Joshua, And

617
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:56,560
Speaker 1: so yeah, for for people who want to get started

618
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 1: actually going through the process of becoming a minimalist. We

619
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:02,960
Speaker 1: want to ask you questions on that subject, and we'll

620
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:14,280
Speaker 1: get to a couple of those right after the break. Alright,

621
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: we're back from the break and we're talking about minimalism

622
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 1: with Joshua Becker, and so Joshua, let's go ahead and

623
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,719
Speaker 1: talk about, like how we can implement these principles. How

624
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:26,040
Speaker 1: do we actually implement more minimalism into our lives? Right

625
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 1: if we, like a lot of folks are swimming and stuff, like,

626
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:34,239
Speaker 1: how do we even begin the process of decluttering our homes? Well,

627
00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:36,919
Speaker 1: I would take a step back, and I would say

628
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:43,880
Speaker 1: that the first step is for people to articulate their

629
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:49,279
Speaker 1: bigger reason why they want to pursue minimalism. When I

630
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:51,160
Speaker 1: wrote my first book, The More of Less, and I

631
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:52,960
Speaker 1: met with a publisher and they said, what do you

632
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 1: want to call it? I said, becoming minimalist and she said, well,

633
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,239
Speaker 1: you can't name it that, And I'm like, oh, that's

634
00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:05,680
Speaker 1: how this that's how this works. But she says, the

635
00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 1: reason you can't title it becoming minimalist is because becoming

636
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:14,120
Speaker 1: minimalist is the process that gets you to the promise,

637
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 1: so that the goal of minimalism isn't to become minimalists.

638
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:22,879
Speaker 1: The goal of owning less is is something bigger. So

639
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,360
Speaker 1: name your book the promise, and then I mean, what

640
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:29,360
Speaker 1: is the promise of minimalism? That's that's what you should

641
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 1: title the book. And so we tell that the more

642
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,319
Speaker 1: of less, finding the life you want under everything you own.

643
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:37,759
Speaker 1: And so the first step I think for people is

644
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:42,439
Speaker 1: to say, Okay, why does this appeal to me right now?

645
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:46,080
Speaker 1: What is it that I want to get out of minimalism?

646
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:49,160
Speaker 1: And it could be something as simple as I want

647
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:51,120
Speaker 1: to get out of debt. And so I'm going to

648
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:53,600
Speaker 1: pursue minimalism so that I can get out of debt.

649
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:55,799
Speaker 1: Or I'm going to pursue minimalism so that I can

650
00:37:56,640 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 1: finally get ahead of my paychecks. Or I'm gonna pursue

651
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 1: minimalism so that I can reach a million dollar net worth,

652
00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:09,759
Speaker 1: right Like, yes, Tom, I'm gonna pursue minimalism so I

653
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:11,480
Speaker 1: can spend more time with my family, so I can

654
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,239
Speaker 1: do more traveling. Like there's any number of different things

655
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 1: that somebody might might pick. So I think it starts

656
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:20,080
Speaker 1: there and realizing it and then and then from there,

657
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:22,640
Speaker 1: certainly if you have a family, Uh, there's a conversation

658
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 1: to be had, um that that you're hoping to make

659
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:28,839
Speaker 1: some changes in your life and and in your home.

660
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 1: And the greatest problem there is that it's easier to

661
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:35,279
Speaker 1: see everyone else's clutter than it is to see your own.

662
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:38,480
Speaker 1: So if you're listening to this podcast and and you

663
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:42,040
Speaker 1: want to pursue minimalism, you don't get started by having

664
00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 1: your husband or wife get rid of all their things

665
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 1: like you, you get rid of your stuff, and you

666
00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: look for a common ground um with your spouse and

667
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:51,680
Speaker 1: with your partner. And then, like I mentioned a little

668
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:54,080
Speaker 1: bit earlier in the podcast, don't don't fall into the

669
00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:57,120
Speaker 1: trap of I'm going to tackle the hardest thing first.

670
00:38:57,280 --> 00:38:59,360
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start in my garage. I'm gonna start in

671
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:01,560
Speaker 1: my basement. I'm gonna start by getting rid of my

672
00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:06,719
Speaker 1: sentimental things. Um, start easy, starting your lived in areas

673
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:10,840
Speaker 1: that you can complete and finish and notice the benefits

674
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,520
Speaker 1: of owning less in one area of your life, and

675
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 1: then you'll feel motivated and you'll have momentum to go

676
00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 1: tackle the next area and the next area. Jeffua, you

677
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:23,120
Speaker 1: you kind of talked a little bit earlier in the

678
00:39:23,120 --> 00:39:27,799
Speaker 1: show about how as you were unpacking, unpacking boxes and

679
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 1: bags and going through stuff, you were kind of going

680
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:34,440
Speaker 1: through this personal existential sort of thought process about stuff

681
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:36,719
Speaker 1: owning you. Well, what was the process like as you

682
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:39,880
Speaker 1: were kind of navigating it with your family and with

683
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:42,200
Speaker 1: your kids and with your wife. What were those conversations

684
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 1: like and how difficult was that? So my kids were

685
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:48,239
Speaker 1: five and two, um, and I have noticed that there

686
00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:52,239
Speaker 1: are there are three types of relationships that emerge from this.

687
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:56,520
Speaker 1: There's the there's the spouse who says, hooray, where you've been,

688
00:39:56,760 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 1: let's let's go. Um. There's a there's a spouse that says,

689
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:06,359
Speaker 1: i'm I'm in I agree, but they differ on what

690
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:09,840
Speaker 1: that looks like in their home. And then the trickiest

691
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 1: one to navigate is the spouse who says you can't

692
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:15,799
Speaker 1: get rid of anything in the home. And that's a

693
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,839
Speaker 1: pretty small percentage, but that's the toughest one. But for

694
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:21,440
Speaker 1: me it was my wife was in the second boat,

695
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:24,279
Speaker 1: and so she was like, yeah, I think you're right,

696
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,959
Speaker 1: we we should make some changes here, which is where

697
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,799
Speaker 1: most people tend to be. Uh. It was just that

698
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 1: we disagreed on how much stuff we were going to

699
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 1: get rid of, and so if she wanted to get

700
00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:40,839
Speaker 1: rid of, I want to get rid of. And so

701
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:44,839
Speaker 1: the first fifty felt pretty good. Um, and then I

702
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:48,359
Speaker 1: wanted to keep going, and she's like, I think we're

703
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 1: at a good spot right here, right. So that's so

704
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:55,560
Speaker 1: I could still focus on my own things. I could

705
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:57,520
Speaker 1: get rid of my my own things. In the end,

706
00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:00,960
Speaker 1: we get rid of about sixty of our possessions over

707
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,720
Speaker 1: about a nine month nine month period. But my kids

708
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:09,920
Speaker 1: were five and two, and again I tell parents, you

709
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:12,160
Speaker 1: you can't go home and make your kids get rid

710
00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:16,280
Speaker 1: of all their things. First you do your own rooms,

711
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 1: you do all your own stuff, and then you start

712
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:23,680
Speaker 1: putting these expectations on your kids. And the younger they are,

713
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 1: the easier it is. By the time we got to

714
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 1: my kids toy room and bedroom, like he had seen

715
00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:34,080
Speaker 1: us for months taking boxes of things outside the house

716
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,279
Speaker 1: and we've explained over and over again, this is why

717
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:39,239
Speaker 1: we're doing it, this is what we're hoping will come

718
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:41,080
Speaker 1: from that. And by the by the time we got

719
00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:44,719
Speaker 1: to their their toys and their bedrooms, they knew it

720
00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:47,920
Speaker 1: was coming and we were able to I think set

721
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:52,720
Speaker 1: some rational physical boundaries for them, Like, we're not getting

722
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 1: rid of all of your toys. They just need to

723
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,440
Speaker 1: fit against this wall or they need to fit in

724
00:41:57,440 --> 00:41:59,839
Speaker 1: this closet, and you get to decide what to keep

725
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:02,760
Speaker 1: want to get rid of. It's certainly leading by example

726
00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 1: is a way to ease your family into it, And

727
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:07,400
Speaker 1: I think that's so smart. Well, Joshua, you like, so

728
00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:09,759
Speaker 1: you're mentioning kind of going room by room basically and

729
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:11,840
Speaker 1: kind of working your way through your house. Like what

730
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:14,319
Speaker 1: you said, you said, start with the easier rooms, Like

731
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:16,239
Speaker 1: what are those easier rooms? Like what rooms do you

732
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:18,840
Speaker 1: recommend for folks to begin with when they are looking

733
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:23,200
Speaker 1: to make that change in their house. Well, they'll they'll change, Uh, they'll,

734
00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:26,400
Speaker 1: they'll change from from home to home. But the way

735
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:31,000
Speaker 1: I usually say it is easiest to hardest starting with

736
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:35,399
Speaker 1: the most lived in areas first. So what is the

737
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:39,799
Speaker 1: easiest most lived in area of your home? And I

738
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:43,960
Speaker 1: know two superlatives isn't always helpful, but so, like, the

739
00:42:44,040 --> 00:42:48,440
Speaker 1: living room is a great example for most people because

740
00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:51,920
Speaker 1: some living rooms becomes a storage area for a lot

741
00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 1: of things. In that case, it's not an easy room

742
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:56,640
Speaker 1: to start in. But for most places that most people, uh,

743
00:42:56,680 --> 00:42:58,279
Speaker 1: the living room is a good place to start, and

744
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:00,840
Speaker 1: you spend time in there, so you can finish it

745
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:04,440
Speaker 1: in an afternoon or in an evening, and you can

746
00:43:04,520 --> 00:43:07,520
Speaker 1: notice the benefits the next time your family sits in

747
00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:13,080
Speaker 1: that room. The bedroom is also a usually somewhat easy

748
00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:17,359
Speaker 1: place for for people to get started. Bathrooms like those

749
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:20,160
Speaker 1: are easier places, at least they were for me than

750
00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:26,359
Speaker 1: the kitchen, the home office spaces that I use. But

751
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:29,120
Speaker 1: we're going to require a lot more time and effort

752
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 1: and thoughts in order to experience the benefits of them.

753
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:35,680
Speaker 1: And Joshua, you know we're we're a money podcast, and

754
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:36,960
Speaker 1: so a lot of times when people are getting rid

755
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:38,759
Speaker 1: of stuff, they might say, you know what I want

756
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:40,680
Speaker 1: to I want to sell some stuff and make some

757
00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:43,319
Speaker 1: money based on the used things that I have that

758
00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:46,040
Speaker 1: I'm no longer going to to have in my life.

759
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:49,200
Speaker 1: So when we're talking about the question of donating, selling, recycling,

760
00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:51,200
Speaker 1: or tossing in the trash, sounds like you were loading

761
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:53,520
Speaker 1: up the van and taking things to the goodwill. How

762
00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:55,960
Speaker 1: do you suggest people think through what they do with

763
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:58,880
Speaker 1: those things as they're parting with them. Well, probably a

764
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,799
Speaker 1: few things to think through. My my typical advice is

765
00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:05,800
Speaker 1: if you don't need the money, then then just donate

766
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:09,240
Speaker 1: the stuff. But since it's The Money podcast and people

767
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 1: are probably a little more focused on those things. So

768
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:16,000
Speaker 1: the problem becomes if you have a lot of stuff

769
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:18,600
Speaker 1: to go through, if you've lived in your home for

770
00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 1: twenty years and you have boxes and boxes of things,

771
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:26,840
Speaker 1: trying to sell all that stuff really as a lot

772
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:31,799
Speaker 1: of burden and time and stress and usually frustration to

773
00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 1: the process and doesn't usually bring back nearly as much

774
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:41,839
Speaker 1: financial reward as we think it's going to. There's some exceptions,

775
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:45,200
Speaker 1: things that are really expensive or things that are really

776
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:49,640
Speaker 1: large and you can't haulm away by yourself. Like there's

777
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:54,719
Speaker 1: some easy selling winds along the way, in which case, yeah,

778
00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:58,200
Speaker 1: sell it, make the money along the way. But there's

779
00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:02,400
Speaker 1: there's a certain joy that comes generosity that that's selling

780
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:06,200
Speaker 1: items can't can't bring. I think the generosity tends to

781
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:10,080
Speaker 1: motivate people when they when they're getting rid of So

782
00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:12,600
Speaker 1: my daughter was too, and so we were getting rid

783
00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:17,239
Speaker 1: of all of the baby and newborn and maternity items,

784
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:21,160
Speaker 1: and we stumble across the care Net Pregnancy Center in

785
00:45:21,160 --> 00:45:25,160
Speaker 1: downtown Burlington, Vermont, and it took like one phone call

786
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 1: with them to realize how much need there was in

787
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:34,520
Speaker 1: my city for those clothes and those baby supplies that

788
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:37,840
Speaker 1: were just being stored in boxes in my basement, like

789
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 1: families who legitimately needed those items. It like sparked us

790
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:46,640
Speaker 1: to get rid of even more. I'm like, well, let's

791
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:49,040
Speaker 1: go back and find even more things that people in

792
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:53,759
Speaker 1: our community can use and need. So I tend to

793
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:58,640
Speaker 1: to defer to the donating side because I think it's

794
00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:03,000
Speaker 1: more fulfilling. Um, but there's space for selling. One time

795
00:46:03,080 --> 00:46:07,120
Speaker 1: someone was they were they were minimizing. There were new

796
00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:09,880
Speaker 1: new couple and they just moved to a new city

797
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:13,200
Speaker 1: and they needed like bicycles to get around in the

798
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:16,040
Speaker 1: city to work, And oh my god, I think that

799
00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:18,840
Speaker 1: would be a great goal. Like you sell your items

800
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,440
Speaker 1: until you make enough money to buy the bicycle that

801
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:23,520
Speaker 1: you can use to get you around to where you

802
00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:27,439
Speaker 1: need to go. And um, so there's certainly freedom in that,

803
00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:32,960
Speaker 1: but the hard part becomes bogging ourselves down with that pursuit. Nice, excellent,

804
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,200
Speaker 1: Joshua Man. This is this has been great stuff. I

805
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:38,279
Speaker 1: think our listeners have hopefully been able to glean a

806
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:40,080
Speaker 1: lot of what you're saying here and not only apply

807
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:43,040
Speaker 1: it to their physical life, right as far as just

808
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 1: the possessions they have in their home. But you know,

809
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:47,600
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of parallels when it comes

810
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:49,879
Speaker 1: to our money as well, you know, as far as

811
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:52,439
Speaker 1: how we approach what it is that we're seeking after

812
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:54,480
Speaker 1: you kind of mentioned earlier on how we need to

813
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:57,000
Speaker 1: start with the Essentially, what I interpreted is that you

814
00:46:57,000 --> 00:46:58,879
Speaker 1: said to start with the end in mind, and if

815
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:00,640
Speaker 1: you can kind of figure out the the type of

816
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 1: life that it is you want to live, that can

817
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:07,520
Speaker 1: kind of shape minimalism, right, Like, minimalism doesn't have to

818
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:10,320
Speaker 1: look the same for you as it does that the dentist,

819
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:12,640
Speaker 1: you know, like all the different examples you gave, And

820
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:14,799
Speaker 1: I think that the same can be so true of

821
00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:17,439
Speaker 1: our money. When we have the end goal in mind

822
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 1: and what we want to do with that money, then

823
00:47:20,239 --> 00:47:23,160
Speaker 1: that kind of that drives us and feeds our soul

824
00:47:23,480 --> 00:47:25,920
Speaker 1: to finish the task and not to get you know,

825
00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:28,680
Speaker 1: not to fall off the wagon along the way. Yeah,

826
00:47:28,719 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's essentially about intentionality. It's about being intentional

827
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:35,880
Speaker 1: with with my money and my time and my pursuits

828
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:39,680
Speaker 1: and and making sure that all of my resources are

829
00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:43,000
Speaker 1: aligned with um my values and the person I want

830
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:46,520
Speaker 1: to be and the life I want to end up living. Well, Joshua,

831
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:49,400
Speaker 1: we really appreciate you taking your time to spend with

832
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:52,400
Speaker 1: us and and sharing all your wisdom with our listeners.

833
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:55,919
Speaker 1: This was an excellent conversation for folks that do want

834
00:47:55,960 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 1: more information, that are really interested now in at least

835
00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:02,600
Speaker 1: thinking about minimalism a good bit more. Yeah, how can

836
00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:04,800
Speaker 1: they find out more about the stuff that you've written

837
00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:08,640
Speaker 1: and what you're up to? Becoming minimalist dot com is

838
00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 1: the home base for everything that I do, And there's

839
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:17,439
Speaker 1: certainly books and um the Hope effect, Hope effect dot com,

840
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:20,160
Speaker 1: but becoming Minimalist dot com is the home base for

841
00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:23,080
Speaker 1: for everything I do, and you can find anything else

842
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:27,520
Speaker 1: I'm doing and where I can be found from from there. Well, Joshua,

843
00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:30,319
Speaker 1: thanks again so much for coming on the podcast. I

844
00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:33,279
Speaker 1: pleasure thanks for having me on. Yeah, Matt, that was

845
00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:35,960
Speaker 1: an excellent conversation. I think I say that every time

846
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:38,320
Speaker 1: because we have just the best guest Whoever does the

847
00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:40,400
Speaker 1: guest booking for our show is awesome. Who does that?

848
00:48:40,440 --> 00:48:43,240
Speaker 1: By the way, I think it's you and me. We're awesome.

849
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:45,919
Speaker 1: But there's ls on the back, but Joshua was even better,

850
00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 1: And so I want to know from you, like, what

851
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:51,479
Speaker 1: was your big takeaway from from our conversation with Joshua. Well, Joel,

852
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:54,120
Speaker 1: you know how I am about goals right, goal setting,

853
00:48:54,360 --> 00:48:57,560
Speaker 1: knowing the big picture, having an understanding of why it

854
00:48:57,640 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 1: is that I'm doing something like that is so important

855
00:48:59,719 --> 00:49:02,600
Speaker 1: to me as a human being, whether it be you know,

856
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: just like a little project that I'm doing outside. You know,

857
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:07,319
Speaker 1: I'm the question I'm asking myself is how is this

858
00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:10,279
Speaker 1: contributing to my larger plan, like the larger goal I

859
00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:13,160
Speaker 1: have for the yard, right, and it goes all the

860
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,239
Speaker 1: way to minimalism, Like Joshua was mentioning, how we need

861
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:18,719
Speaker 1: to start with our our goal in mind, and that

862
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:21,920
Speaker 1: kind of dictates what it looks like to be a minimalist.

863
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:24,200
Speaker 1: And I think it so applies to our money as well.

864
00:49:24,239 --> 00:49:26,440
Speaker 1: We talked about this all the time, how how we

865
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:29,040
Speaker 1: need to start with the why behind our money, because

866
00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:32,200
Speaker 1: if we don't really have a clear goal of what

867
00:49:32,239 --> 00:49:34,719
Speaker 1: it is that we're trying to achieve, then it's gonna

868
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:37,319
Speaker 1: be difficult for us to do the hard work of

869
00:49:37,640 --> 00:49:39,960
Speaker 1: not spending our money. But when we are informed and

870
00:49:40,080 --> 00:49:42,480
Speaker 1: we have a clear goal that we're chasing after. That

871
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 1: makes everything so easy. And something Joshua mentioned in his

872
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:46,880
Speaker 1: book that we actually didn't talk about but was. He

873
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:49,720
Speaker 1: talked about how it's important to revisit these goals as well.

874
00:49:49,880 --> 00:49:52,279
Speaker 1: A lot of times we don't exactly know what it

875
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:55,320
Speaker 1: is that we're seeking after because bottom line, our taste changed,

876
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:57,960
Speaker 1: like our opinions change, we have different goals. Our goals,

877
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:00,879
Speaker 1: you know, our cheese gets moved and it takes time

878
00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:03,560
Speaker 1: to sort of recalibrate a little bit. And that's also

879
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:05,680
Speaker 1: true if you don't necessarily know what your goals are

880
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,160
Speaker 1: right now. Just because you don't know what your financial

881
00:50:08,160 --> 00:50:10,960
Speaker 1: goals are, that doesn't mean that you fail to do

882
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:14,320
Speaker 1: smart things with your money, because eventually, through this process,

883
00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:16,000
Speaker 1: you will figure it out what it is that you

884
00:50:16,040 --> 00:50:18,400
Speaker 1: want to spend your money on. They'll come to light, yeah, exactly.

885
00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:20,640
Speaker 1: And the same thing with minimalism. You may not necessarily

886
00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:23,320
Speaker 1: know what it is that you're trying to to achieve

887
00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:28,480
Speaker 1: by having fewer possessions, but through the process of minimizing

888
00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:30,560
Speaker 1: your possessions, you're going to figure out what it is,

889
00:50:30,560 --> 00:50:32,759
Speaker 1: whether it's more time with your family or maybe that

890
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:35,160
Speaker 1: means just having more mental space because you have fewer

891
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:38,040
Speaker 1: things kind of clouding your judgment. It still makes sense

892
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:39,960
Speaker 1: to do the smart things that we talk about a

893
00:50:40,040 --> 00:50:41,759
Speaker 1: lot of times here on the show, even if you

894
00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:44,120
Speaker 1: don't yet know what it is you're seeking after. Yeah,

895
00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:46,800
Speaker 1: and I really identify kind of with the more stuff

896
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:49,279
Speaker 1: taking up more mental space. Ye, Emily, And I've been

897
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:51,520
Speaker 1: kind of taking some of these things to heart based

898
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:53,440
Speaker 1: on reading the books and lead up to this interview

899
00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:56,399
Speaker 1: with Joshua, and it's making a difference already. I can

900
00:50:56,400 --> 00:50:59,319
Speaker 1: tell the lack of clutter is really bringing some mental

901
00:50:59,360 --> 00:51:01,279
Speaker 1: clarity way. And we're hanging out in our house and

902
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:03,680
Speaker 1: that's so nice. I think my big takeaway from this

903
00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:07,719
Speaker 1: episode was that you won't necessarily save money as a minimalist.

904
00:51:08,200 --> 00:51:10,120
Speaker 1: But I gotta say for our how the money listeners,

905
00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:13,839
Speaker 1: you will write the way our people, Yeah, the way

906
00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:16,839
Speaker 1: our listeners are peeps, the way they approach money. If

907
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:19,640
Speaker 1: they begin to kind of consider the concepts of minimalism

908
00:51:19,680 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 1: and begin to declutter and be generous with the things

909
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:25,080
Speaker 1: that they have that they're not actually using and they

910
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:28,120
Speaker 1: buy fewer things, I think they will save money. Implementing

911
00:51:28,120 --> 00:51:32,440
Speaker 1: a shopping ban for a month or two, like Joshua suggested.

912
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:34,160
Speaker 1: I mean, those are those are ways that we're going

913
00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:37,080
Speaker 1: to actually implement minimalism and save money at the same time.

914
00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 1: And I think that's the best of both worlds. If

915
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:41,200
Speaker 1: we begin to at least at minimum take some of

916
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:42,919
Speaker 1: these concepts. You don't have to go all the way

917
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:44,719
Speaker 1: full minimalist, and I think we address some of those

918
00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:46,920
Speaker 1: misconceptions too. But if you can take some of the

919
00:51:46,920 --> 00:51:50,000
Speaker 1: good or all the good for minimalism either either way,

920
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:52,120
Speaker 1: however far you want to dive into it, I think

921
00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:54,600
Speaker 1: by embracing that at the same time, you will if

922
00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:58,000
Speaker 1: you're how to Money listener be embracing frugality their cousins,

923
00:51:58,000 --> 00:51:59,640
Speaker 1: they're not the same. But if if you kind of

924
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:01,759
Speaker 1: take oath hand in hand at the same time, man,

925
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:03,960
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna have a big difference, a major

926
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:06,560
Speaker 1: impact in your life going forward. Yeah, totally, man. I

927
00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:08,480
Speaker 1: think that the shopping bands, it's a good way to

928
00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:10,359
Speaker 1: kind of self experiment a little bit and figure out

929
00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:12,480
Speaker 1: how you're gonna take to it a little bit, and

930
00:52:12,480 --> 00:52:14,040
Speaker 1: hopefully you will be able to see that there are

931
00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:16,320
Speaker 1: some amazing ways that you can save money that way.

932
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:19,040
Speaker 1: But do. Let's take it to the beer. On this episode,

933
00:52:19,040 --> 00:52:20,759
Speaker 1: we had I Feel at All, which is a beer

934
00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:24,359
Speaker 1: by Monday Night Brewing. This is one that's actually this

935
00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:26,200
Speaker 1: is one of the three beers that we gave away

936
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,120
Speaker 1: the Instagram actually a few weeks ago. So if you're

937
00:52:29,120 --> 00:52:31,399
Speaker 1: not following us on Instagram, look up how to money pod.

938
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:33,080
Speaker 1: If you're not following us on Instagram, what are you

939
00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:35,600
Speaker 1: doing with your life? But but Joel, what were your

940
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:37,640
Speaker 1: thoughts on this beer? Well? Man, this beer is called

941
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:41,239
Speaker 1: I Feel at All. I felt the hops. Uh, it

942
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:45,600
Speaker 1: really did have hop concentrate, sort of levels of hoppingess

943
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:48,279
Speaker 1: going on. But man, and for me in a good way.

944
00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:51,560
Speaker 1: I know some people can get hopped out, can be overhopped,

945
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:54,560
Speaker 1: and I'm not one of those people. I've not found

946
00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:58,239
Speaker 1: a beer yet where it's been too hoppy, and so

947
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:01,640
Speaker 1: this was a ridiculous amount of hops in there. I

948
00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:05,360
Speaker 1: felt it was like super green, super tasty, super alive,

949
00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:08,120
Speaker 1: and I loved it. I think the green little alligators

950
00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:10,480
Speaker 1: on the label they're kind of lends itself to like

951
00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:12,920
Speaker 1: the herbal nature of hops as well. Yeah, you know,

952
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:15,680
Speaker 1: like the La cost Uh, that's totally like it's kind

953
00:53:15,680 --> 00:53:17,319
Speaker 1: of like that, but it's like this repeating batter. I really,

954
00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:19,680
Speaker 1: I really dig this design, but yeah, this is a

955
00:53:19,719 --> 00:53:21,920
Speaker 1: hazy New England style I p A. So when we

956
00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:23,560
Speaker 1: board it, man, it was super cloudy, like you could

957
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:25,799
Speaker 1: not see through it at all, and it had more

958
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:28,279
Speaker 1: of that sort of sharp hot flavor. It makes me

959
00:53:28,320 --> 00:53:29,759
Speaker 1: think of cheese, right, like you've kind of got your

960
00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:32,359
Speaker 1: mild or medium, like your regular cheddar cheese, but then

961
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:34,680
Speaker 1: you get the sharp stuff and it kind of has

962
00:53:34,719 --> 00:53:36,680
Speaker 1: like this, like it bites a little bit, you know,

963
00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:38,680
Speaker 1: like it's sharp cheddar, and you kind of feel it

964
00:53:38,719 --> 00:53:40,719
Speaker 1: on your tongue a little bit more. And I feel

965
00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:42,439
Speaker 1: like that's how it is with hops sometimes, like when

966
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:43,880
Speaker 1: you have some of these New England style I p

967
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:46,480
Speaker 1: A s that do have a lot of hops, sometimes

968
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,960
Speaker 1: it feels like a sharp cheese. And this isn't the

969
00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:51,960
Speaker 1: first time I've alluded to cheese before when it comes

970
00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:53,880
Speaker 1: to these bears, but this one had a similar thing

971
00:53:53,880 --> 00:53:55,520
Speaker 1: going on. I really dug it, and I'm glad that

972
00:53:55,560 --> 00:53:57,240
Speaker 1: you and I got to share this one today. Buddy

973
00:53:57,440 --> 00:53:59,920
Speaker 1: man pick that up at the beer's release at my

974
00:54:00,040 --> 00:54:01,840
Speaker 1: Day Night Brewing. Oh yeah, man, we're big fans. We

975
00:54:01,920 --> 00:54:03,560
Speaker 1: go out once every six months, and this is one

976
00:54:03,560 --> 00:54:05,920
Speaker 1: of those times. Exactly. Well, man, that's gonna be it

977
00:54:06,000 --> 00:54:08,000
Speaker 1: for this episode. Our listeners can find our show notes

978
00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:10,640
Speaker 1: up at how to Money dot com. Yeah, man, we've

979
00:54:10,640 --> 00:54:12,759
Speaker 1: had so many great reviews from our listeners. But I

980
00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:15,440
Speaker 1: do want to ask if you have a friend that

981
00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:17,919
Speaker 1: could use a kick in the pants when it comes

982
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:21,719
Speaker 1: to living a minimalist lifestyle spending less money, saving more

983
00:54:21,760 --> 00:54:24,200
Speaker 1: of what you make, well, then we would suggest letting

984
00:54:24,200 --> 00:54:26,439
Speaker 1: your friend know about the How the Money podcast, maybe

985
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:29,240
Speaker 1: sneaking their phone, hitting a subscribe button for them, whatever

986
00:54:29,280 --> 00:54:31,319
Speaker 1: it takes, Okay, just hold that phone up in front

987
00:54:31,320 --> 00:54:33,160
Speaker 1: of their face so it gets that facial recognition into

988
00:54:33,239 --> 00:54:35,640
Speaker 1: this slipeo a podcast, real quick, make it happen. And

989
00:54:35,719 --> 00:54:37,439
Speaker 1: especially with this episode, man, this is such a fun

990
00:54:37,480 --> 00:54:39,880
Speaker 1: conversation that we had with Joshua Becker. I think this

991
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:42,440
Speaker 1: canna be a kind of a soft introduction to personal

992
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:45,200
Speaker 1: finance where it's not so money on the nose, not

993
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:47,239
Speaker 1: too in your face. But all right, Matt, that's gonna

994
00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:50,239
Speaker 1: do it for this episode. Until next time, Best Friends Out,

995
00:54:50,280 --> 00:55:02,480
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, m BO