The new Netflix series, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, is getting rave reviews. Marie Kondo is the best selling author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The Netflix series brings Kondo into American family homes, where she teaches them the fundamentals of organizing their stuff.

Organizing your stuff and managing your finances have much in common. They both require you to evaluate your situation, think ahead and make choices. The foundation of Kondo’s approach to decluttering is to choose the things that “spark joy”, and jettison the possessions that don’t. This particular focus on the things that make you happy is also a good way to manage how you spend your money.

If you are not making the progress on your goals that you want, you need to change something. To save more, you must spend less. For many, this simple truth keeps them from facing their financial situation and taking a step toward a more secure future. It simply doesn’t seem like any fun to spend less.

Yet many of us spend money on things that are not important to us. Takeout food eaten on the go, clothes that never get worn, TV channels that never get watched are all expenses that do not enrich our lives.

For most, your choice is not between doing what you love and financial security. It’s more about not doing what you don’t love. If you approach freeing up room in your monthly spending to save more with this in mind, you may find that it is a fun challenge to weed out those wasted expenses.

Some friends, Lisa and Candice, asked me to help them get started on a strategy to meet their financial goals. The two love music, and going out to dinner. This type of entertainment really made them happy. But they thought they would have to give it up if they wanted to make progress on their goals.

However, a review of their spending revealed some expenses that were neither necessary or making their lives better. For one, they were subscribed to a home security service, but in fact never actually engaged the alarm system. This is clearly an expense they could avoid. Other expenses that didn’t “spark joy” were daily coffee runs and takeout lunches that they consumed at their desks alone.

It may not be just the small stuff either. Maybe you have an expensive car, where a lower cost model would do just as well. Or you have extra room in your home that doesn’t make you happy just sitting there empty.

It may be that you can’t fully meet your savings goals by getting rid of expenses that don’t bring meaning to your life. You may need to get creative, and perhaps you ultimately do need to cut back on the things you love doing. But that doesn’t mean you have to stop doing them altogether. You won’t be successful long-term if your only tool is to deprive yourself of the things that are important to you.

Short of earning a bigger income, you only have so much money to go around. You have to make choices about what you do with it. Make them intentionally. Choose the things that bring you safety, security and joy, and give up the things that don’t. Make sure saving for your financial goals is one of those you keep.

Photo by Preslie Hirsch on Unsplash

Save Yourself; Your Guide to Saving for Retirement and Building Financial Security, is available on Amazon.