Although I am frugal by nature, thank you Grandpa for passing it down to me, I am not frugal to the point that I stop living. I was reading a blog post by Laura Vanderkam about Not living Simply. She encouraged her readers to not live simply, but rather take advantage of the life that you have now.

A perfect example of this is my oldest sister. She currently has 5 kids, and this is their last few weeks of summer break. She could have kept them home for the last few weeks before school, because it’s hard to go do anything with 5 little ones. Instead though, she decided to head out by herself with the 5 munchkins and go to Papa’s farm. Money, time, effort, and lack of sleep were all good excuses for not going, but she knew that a week on the farm with Papa would be lifelong memories for her children. Those 5 kids are only children for so long, so its important to make the most of that time.

Money should not stop you from enjoying life or experiencing life. If you are at the point that you’re obsessing about money to the point that you’re unhappy, give it all away. People can live on very little money all over the world, and still have extreme joy for the life they have. Don’t let money hold you back from really living. Americans have a skewed perception about needs and wants, and it can be easy to look around and feel like you have very little to be happy about.

Go camping, go fishing, go to the beach, throw a frisbee at the park, have a bbq at your house, invite people over for a meal, and allow yourself the freedom to enjoy life despite your financial concerns. If all a dog need is a comfy place to lay, a long walk, and some good food, then I think we can find ways to live abundantly with very little money.

-Matt