Minimalist Challenge #4: Eliminate a Bill

Those of us that wish to build ever-growing cash flow and wealth would do well to take a minimalist approach to life once in a while. We all try to keep spending in check, but I think it would be useful to try some positive challenges on minimalism once in a while.

So, here’s a sporadic series of articles outlining some challenges that we can take to improve our financial situation and even more importantly to increase our appreciation of other aspects of life.

Minimalist Challenge #4

Minimalist challenge number four is to identify one bill that you don’t need in your life, and discontinue it.

The average person has a huge assortment of bills. One has their mortgage or rent, their electricity, their gas, their water, their cable tv, their internet, their land-line, their cellphone, their various insurances, their debt payments, and random bills like satellite radio or Netflix and other forms of entertainment. Some of this, undoubtedly, must be clutter, and can be removed.

The Rules:
-Look through each of your bills and identify one bill that you feel is not important in your life, and have that bill discontinued. Obviously this won’t be something like a mortgage, electricity, or debt payments, but one of those fringe bills is a likely candidate.
-Instead, you can discontinue one aspect of a bill without canceling the whole thing. For example, perhaps you pay for cell phone service and have an expensive texting plan even though you never send texts. Reducing this bill by reducing or eliminating the texting aspect of the bill counts for the purpose of the challenge.

The Tips:
-In order to accomplish this, you might not even have to cut any useful products or services out of your life. In fact, that’s essentially the goal. Check out my article about financial automation to see what I mean. You might very well be paying for things you’re not even using.

Final Remarks:
-The purpose of this challenge is threefold. The first is to try to reduce clutter in your life by eliminating something that isn’t important to you. The second is to save money. The third, and most important, is to gain more awareness of exactly where your money is going. I know people that don’t scrutinize their bills, and instead they just pay them or even automate their payments. Not being keenly aware of your bills leads to waste, and can be avoided. Having a simple, streamlined cash flow in your life is a key element in building wealth.