Discardia_ More Life, Less Stuff - Dinah Sanders [77]
Think about the purposes of your living room, and then go in there and look at it with new eyes. Is it serving those purposes? What doesn't belong? Where else could it go? (Not the bedroom; you already decluttered that!) Move out of the way the things that hinder you from using this space. What's missing?
When I did this exercise some time ago, I realized that what I like is having friends over for meals and games. What I sorely needed was a table and enough chairs—the standing dinner party has never caught on for good reason. Fortunately, when I told one of my friends that I was thinking of going shopping for a good table, he said, “Oh, we have a great one in the basement and three chairs. They're yours!” Sometimes, all it takes is expressing a need for an opportunity to present itself. What would give your room what it needs to function well?
Could you rearrange things to better suit your favorite activities? If you like to sit and talk with people, have you arranged comfortable seating so that you are facing each other? Until recently, my current living room suffered from “theater seating,” which cramped conversation because everyone had to twist sideways to see each other’s faces. As soon as we brought our favorite seats closer together, we found ourselves enjoying more companionable moments.
What about things you use for other activities that you want to do here? Are they somewhere else in the house? Bring them where they belong. Once I got that table in my old place, I took all my board games out of a dresser drawer in my bedroom and put them out in plain view on a shelf in the living room—much more inviting and, I assure you, much more frequently used after the change.
Fine-tune your living room a little today and do some of those things you enjoy!
Be yourself, no matter where you are. No matter how small your living space is, honor your essentials.
Symptom #30: Balancing on the Edge of a Cliff
Solution #30: Savings Give You Options
Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, it’s just true.
—Conan O’Brien, comedian
Prepare for challenges and opportunities
Now that you’ve figured out some things you want, save up to make more of them real. To increase your savings, set up an automatic transfer from your checking to your savings account to take place the day after you get paid. If you haven't done it already, set up direct deposit of your paycheck. Streamline the process of your money going to work for you. If your company has a 401k retirement program, look into whether they match funds; it's the simplest way to give yourself a raise.
Sock away that safety net
Already automatically transferring money to savings or retirement funds every paycheck? Good. It's time to take a look and see how you can do more. Canceling memberships you don’t use, or changing to less expensive service plans on those you do, can free up some cash. Apply it first to high-interest debt or, if you've conquered that (go, you!), then increase the amount heading into retirement savings. Don't count on social security alone; economic turbulence and lengthening lifespans could upset some of the best-laid plans, so put your nest eggs in more than one basket.
Even if you're living paycheck to paycheck find a way to pull out $10 every check and automatically put it into savings. Figure out the things that would save you the most money (perhaps moving to a new apartment closer to work) or that would help increase your cash flow (maybe a good outfit for interviews and some nicely printed resumes), and do that as soon as these special savings allow.
A good way to begin is to create two savings accounts and autodeposit at least $10–25 per month into each. Use one to build up a general safety net with three months’ expenses, and the other as a project fund from which you regularly pull cash when you reach enough for your current special savings goal. Just