“3 Weeks of Thankfulness – Week 3″

If you follow along with our blog on a weekly basis you will know that we have been focusing on the idea of Thankfulness and how it can impact our financial situation.  If you haven’t had a chance to follow along, then check out week 1 and week 2 first.  In our final segment of our 3-week series we will be looking at how thankfulness promotes feelings of contentment.  In an age where social media makes it easier than ever to see the best side of everyone’s lives, being completely content with our situations is difficult (Understatement of the year).  I’ve also been guilty of thinking that contentment means I simply have to settle for something “lesser” and to force myself to not be mad about it.  However, as you’ll see in this post, contentment really can lead to a more meaningful life and allow you to focus your time and resources towards what really matters.

Contentment pushes back on developing a “new normal”

Social scientists and others, from early Medieval religious writer St. Augustine on down to Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman pointed out that we quickly become used to a “new normal” when it comes to money and possessions.  Someone gets a $10,000 raise at work and miraculously finds out how to spend $10,000 more on “stuff” the following year.  Sometimes this might not be a conscious decision but rather something called “lifestyle creep” which slowly takes over our budgeting and spending efforts.  Unfortunately, this new normal tends to produce feelings of satisfaction that are short lived because our expectations have adapted and something that was a luxury before is now commonplace.  Tomorrow we will invariably want something else or wish we had even more money and the vicious cycle continues.  Making a consistent attempt to focus on contentment and resist these short-lived urges for “more” can help with longer term goals.

Contentment promotes a more minimalistic approach

We have written about the intersection of minimalism and finance in previous posts and the reality is that having a “minimalist” mindset isn’t always about having fewer tangible things around your house.  Minimalism could be something as simple as combining old retirement accounts which might be spread across various services from multiple jobs.  Minimalism could look like setting 2 to 3 goals to accomplish in the first quarter of 2020 rather than thinking about the 10 things you want to get done in the year.  Being content and giving a higher value to what you already have can stave off the temptations to acquire new things (tangible or intangible) and ultimately help to de-clutter your life.

Contentment doesn’t equal “giving up”

I personally like Tony Gaskins quote on the subject, which says “being content doesn’t mean you don’t desire more, it means you’re thankful for what you have and patient for what’s to come.”  I love this thought because it doesn’t have to be one or the other when thinking about what you want to accomplish vs. being content.  We encourage our clients to have big goals in their financial plan, but to appreciate what they currently have and to adopt a patient mindset when thinking about the future. 

We hope this mini-series on thankfulness has helped you in some small way and that you have found actionable insight for your own life.  Take time this Thanksgiving to appreciate the people around you and to adopt an attitude of thankfulness around your personal finances.

November 29th, 2019