The best thing I have ever done in my life was to save six months of expense money for my mental health.
It is not easy to do to save six months of expenses. I had to cut back on things I enjoy, stay home, and make sacrifices. But now I did it, and it feels amazing.
This is not to brag, but rather to say that eventually you can save money, and then a new world of possibilities opens. No longer are you a slave to a job that you hate. You don’t have to work in a toxic company because you have to pay your bills. You can find a new job, and no one can take that away from you.
I think part of the game of capitalism/materialism is the idea that things make you happy. Things don’t make you happy. Being able to choose makes you happy, and that is what rich people enjoy. Sure they have more things and nicer things but ultimately for the most part the same things. This means that for the most part, your experience and the rich only differ in regards to choice.
Once you save money you now have added choice to the list. You don’t have to work tomorrow because you don’t have to. It is a choice, and that makes everything different. In the past, we might have taken jobs to pay the bills, but once we have saved we are no longer in that situation.
Now listen I know saving money is hard. It is hard because random things happen once we have saved. However, saving is the single greatest thing you can do to be happy. Trust me when I say that nothing I have ever bought compares to having six months of savings knowing that when tough times happen, I will be ok.