Inside: Saving money is easy, but if you need to get a whip your finances into shape, you’re better off trying to earn more money.
We’ve all seen those extreme couponing TV shows where overzealous shoppers meticulously collect, organize, and plan their coupon stack like a pack of hyped-up, giddy preteen boys with their Pokemon cards and pogs (oh wait, did I just give my age away?).
Saving money is a virtue, but if you take it too far, it can be a vice.
Why?
I’m glad you asked.
Saving Money Is Easier
Too many people focus solely on saving money (I’m guilty too). I totally understand why; it’s way easier to save a few bucks rather than to make a few bucks.
Don’t believe me? Which would you rather do: Clip a few coupons, or go and convince a total stranger to give you an equal amount of money, just because you so fine-lookin’?
I don’t know about you, but I possess a people-phobia the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Emily Dickinson. It’s one of the main reasons I used to live in the middle of Alaska!
My point is, saving money is easy (well, easier). All you have to do is look at where your money’s going. Too much in one category? Knock it off, hoser. There’s better uses for that money.
Making money, on the other hand, is hard. It involves developing a new skill set. Even if you charge for something you already know, you still have to learn how to market yourself. It involves developing communication skills so you can talk to—gasp—real people.
Before I launched my business, I’d also much rather have preferred to scrimp and save rather than sell myself to someone. How the heck could I sell myself to someone else when I didn’t even think I could sell me to myself?!
Saving Money Isn’t Enough
Here’s the real crux of the matter behind savings:
- The amount of money you can save is finite
- The amount of money you can earn is infinite
You will bring in a set amount of income each month. You can choose to dial back your spending, but you can only do so to a certain, limited extent.
Related: Overcoming Underearning: A Five-Step Plan To A Richer Life by Barbara Stanny (affiliate link)
Between me and my husband, we’ve dialed back our spending as much as we’re comfortable doing without risking our marriage. If I dial it back anymore I’m liable to send Zach running for the hills because I’ll be wild-haired, stinky, and covered in tattered rags.
He’s already taken to throwing my shoes away when I’m not looking (something about the soles bending all the way back to the heels, but I chalk it up to semantics…).
On the other hand, you have an infinite ability to earn money. You can earn money doing anything. Don’t believe me? These people make a living online selling taxidermied buffalo scrotums (would the plural be scroti? Asking purely out of biological curiosity).
Earning Money Is Harder – But You Can Do It
Earning money is difficult. That’s the basic concept behind how the world operates though—you get training through college, an apprenticeship, or some other means so that you can get a job and a paycheck. It’s tough enough to do just that, so a lot of people stop there.
Don’t stop, though. If you’re truly in need of more money (and you absolutely are if you’re in debt like me), find another way to earn it.
I was taught how to be a wildlife biologist. For me right now, that doesn’t pay the bills. I’m sure for some people it works, but not for me in this moment. But I know how to write (or at least my cat says so), and so I started working on the side as a freelance writer.
Related post: The Financial Reality Of Being A Broke Biologist
It scared the everloving bejeesus out of me (and it still does), but it’s done wonders for my finances. I made $75 in my first month of freelance writing, and now I consider it a bad month if I bring in less than $1,000. That’s about a third of my entire take-home pay for the month.
Thanks to my side hustle, I’ve broken out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, I’ve started saving for retirement, I’ve paid off all of my credit card debt, I’ve got a second job I stepped into after losing my full-time day job, and I’ve got a strategic game plan for how to ride this side hustle all the way to debt freedom.
I’m not magic (if I am then I want a refund on my powers. I want to fly, dammit). If I can do it, you can do it too. The biggest hurdle is getting over your own mindset.
Should I Spend All My Money On (Rugby) Hookers And Blow (Pops) Then?
NO.
Let me say it again: NO.
My budget couldn’t afford Grumpy Cat, so you get this instead.
This isn’t a free pass to an all-you-can-eat-‘MERICA-style spendfest.
I’m simply saying you shouldn’t make saving money your primary or sole focus.
If you need to move the needle on your finances (and do it like yesterday), you first need to focus on making more money. I’m sorry, but ain’t no amount of coupon-clipping alone is going to save you from the mountains of debt most of us are under.
Once you’ve developed a proper side hustle, then you can focus on optimizing your expenses.
You wouldn’t focus on putting a band-aid on the Titanic if you had a Super-Leak-Pumper-Outer 5000, would you? Let’s focus first on the things that will really move the needle, and then plug the leaks.
What do you think? #TeamSave or #TeamEarn? Leave a comment below!
I think this is something I’m struggling to overcome…we’ve done as much “save” as we probably can comfortably do. We’ve even gotten away from it lately with vacation and Christmas, because austerity is only sustainable for so long before you lapse, and if you aren’t making much, that can be extremely problematic. So I need to use my “hustle muscle,” and that’s harder to get moving if you haven’t exercised it regularly.
So true! It is weird to think about making money if you’ve never done it outside of your day job. But you’re a smart person, you can do it!
Great post Lindsey. Actually I think that you are right with the magic thing, maybe there is some witchcraft in the equation because since I read your guest post at M$M it seems you are reading my mind. Or maybe my identity crisis is so common that I come to the same conclusions you have learned from your experience. I am thinking about an identical transition, just don’t know yet which path to chose and exactly how to do that. But hey, life is full of riddles, if we don’t have to think it would be boring.
I’m sorry to hear you’re going through a bit of an identity crisis too. 🙁 It’s no fun right now, but as long as you carefully consider your options, you’ll look back later and be grateful for the path you chose. And remember, you’re not the only one going through this!
I’m tired and re-tired, so my urge to earn (versus save) has waned quite a bit. However I’m trying to revive it for 2017. I’m planning to start slow with selling my unwanted clutter and working my way up from there.
That’s a great way to do it – start slow and work your way up to whichever is most comfortable to you. And I totally get the tired thing; I usually come home from work most days just wanting to hit the hay and pass out already. But I’ll be glad down the line when my hard work has paid off. Keep us updated on how your money-making experiments go!
Preach!!! Agree and am totally on #TeamEarn – but that’s my perspective as a frugal person in a creative industry.