How To Enjoy Life AND Build Wealth

A lot of people claim you can't enjoy life without sacrificing financially in the process. It depends, though. Within the first year of my career, I paid off my car and credit cards and traveled to multiple countries.

How was I able to do all of it? 

By aggressively saving and investing, living significantly below my means (my rent was $300 at one point), and focusing my spending only on areas that I valued most, which include:

- Food

- Travel

- Investing

There's not much else I care too much about. Caring less about things (i.e., minimalism) and keeping my spending low in other categories helps offset my overall spending.

What about you? What does enjoying life look like for you? What spending categories do you value most? How can you reach your financial goals while also still prioritizing enjoying life?

Step 1: Set A Strong Financial Foundation

Before you prioritize building wealth and enjoying life, you need to reach a financial disposition that allows you to do both. Otherwise, you will be shooting yourself in the foot by tackling two things at once. 

If you don't have a solid income, manage significant debt, and live above your means, it doesn't make sense for you to travel liberally, shop your favorite brands, maintain costly recreational habits (e.g., excessive partying, drinking, and drug usage), and buy things you don't need. 

Building a solid financial foundation is the prerequisite to building wealth and enjoying life. 

4 Tips to Setting A Strong Financial Foundation

1. Consistently elevate your income.

2. Live significantly below your means.

3. Create multiple income streams to avoid dependency.

4. Build up your emergency fund (3–12 months of expenses).

Never Quit This: Investing

Whether I'm traveling or rampaging on food tours, there is one thing I never stop doing: Investing.

I never cease investing, and I do this by automating my investments and staying open to other investing opportunities.

If you prioritize investing, you will always have money, you will always build wealth, and you will always create more financial flexibility for your present and future.

How To KEEP Building Wealth AND Enjoying Life

I say "no" to many things: furniture, high-end vehicles, top-branded clothes and shoes, yearly phone upgrades, storage, drinking, costly money-oriented recreational activities and habits, excessive giving, imprudent investment opportunities, and things/experiences I don't really want.

People and businesses are constantly trying to get you to buy things. It's a consumption-focused world. The less intentionally you consume, the less opportunity you will have to build wealth.

You must learn to set boundaries with yourself (deny your impulses), and you must learn to set boundaries with others. Once you set boundaries, you become the true controller of your money. Until then, everything and everyone else might be the determinants of how you're using your money.

And as Ryan Holiday states, "Be ruthless to the things that don't matter."

If you learn to be more thoughtful and intentional with how you use your money, not only will you have more of it, but you will also create more opportunities and options that accelerate your wealth game.

It all starts with you taking the first step.

Audit your money.

Start saying "no" more often.

And confirm what you value.

If you don't understand what you value, your money might be going to too many different places.

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This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.