Being Frugal, aka Minimalist, Is Good

image: minimalisti.com

For those of us who, while growing up, read Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and L'Avare (The Miser) by Moliere, you will have grown up with the mentality that being frugal is very bad. You will have the word "miser" and "stingy" in your working vocabulary.

Well, today, I am going to give you a shocker. Being fugal is now cool. In fact, it has become a movement and is now heavily hyped/recommended. To reflect its coolness, it has been given a new name -- "Minimalist".

There are now books like "Less Is More: How To Live With Less Stuff For Greater Health And Happiness" and "Discover Minimalism"

What is my personal opinion?

I think having less stuff in one's life is very good. And for someone like me who has problem juggling many non-tech tasks, I find that I end up wearing same set of clothes and shoes that represent less than 1/3rd of all the clothes and shoes I have. I often forget that I have some things. I just use what I see around all the time, whatever is not within my immediate view gets neglected.

So what I now do is simply buy very few very high quality things and use the heaven out of them. Then replace. Saves me money and brain space.

I avoid having many of anything. And I have taken this now quite far. I no longer buy books I won't read or not sure I need. I don't accept gifts I don't need. I don't give attention to too many things. I am more deliberate and frugal in all I do now.

And I think it is good.