Whenever I tell people about my simple life and enthusiastic money saving tactics, they often ask me why? What is the point of saving so much money when I could be driving a new BMW, eating fancy sushi and living in a luxury apartment?
There are a lot of immediate benefits I gain from my daily habits. Walking/biking everywhere keeps me in great shape. Cooking my own food is a skill I take pride in, and helps keep me healthy. Not having unlimited data on my phone helps me stay engaged and present in the world around me.
But the most important reason for all of this is simple:
I want to maximize the amount of time I spend on intrinsically motivated activities and minimize the amount of time I spend on extrinsically motivated activities.
The basic definition of an extrinsically motivated activity is a behavior you engage in for external rewards such as money, admiration, or avoiding punishment, while an intrinsically motivated activity is a behavior you engage in for internal rewards such as personal enjoyment.
I’ve developed a simple test to see if what I’m doing is intrinsically motivated. I ask myself, “Would I still do this if I had to wake up at 7AM on a Saturday, do it for free and no one would ever know about it?” I would answer that question with a “Hell yeah!” for spending time with family and friends, hiking, biking, walking, exercising, spending time outdoors, playing music, playing basketball, traveling and teaching people about things I’m passionate about.
While I love my job and the people I work with, it would be tough to convince me to wake up early on the weekend to work in an office without getting paid or receiving some other reward. Hopefully at some point in my life an office job could be replaced with family time, deep conversations with friends or climbing mountains.
My life goal is not to have the most dollars in my bank account, but to spend the most hours doing things I love.
#MoneyGoals
Pictured: Engaging in an intrinsically motivated activity, kayaking with good friends. Mora, Minnesota / June 2019.