Confidence

Via the brilliant Heather Gold comes this quote:

Confidence is about what you don’t need.

That’s part of why I encourage people to live below their means and save up. When you’ve got money in the bank and all your bills paid, your life is more filled with confidence top to bottom. Work on not needing things, and you get them in spades.

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Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.

3 thoughts on “Confidence”

  1. There’s a strange view in western society about what one’s means are. I was brought up to buy nothing I couldn’t pay for in cash. My parents only ever had a mortgage on a home once, and it was for 30 days. My mother nearly died of stress that month.

    No one else thinks this is normal, but it’s true that when your bills are paid and you know that you are able to take care of yourself, amazing things can happen.

    I’m in the process of taking a major step in changing my life to sail around the world for an undetermined amount of time. My partner & I are both barely into our 30s, and we won’t have any debt when we do it. There has been some luck involved money wise, but not as much as some would think. We did it by having confidence – the kind you’ve described here.

  2. Darush, that’s hardcore even for me. I suspect your parent’s strategy was only broadly doable in a long lost day of different real estate valuation.

    That’s cool about the around the world sailing. Be sure and stop here! We have ports for it and everything. All I ask is that I never see your face on any cable news channel during this escapade. You know, “A Canadian couple sailing around the world required the navies of four countries to rescue them from the worst storm in history…” sort of thing.

    But seriously, that is a fantastically cool sort of endeavor. Again isn’t the sort of thing that you could reasonably tackle if you had $100K in student loans and/or credit card debt to deal with. I used to be very free with the money until I had fiscal discipline imposed on me. I fought it at first, but I have come to realize it is the way to live.

  3. My parents were insane and had this odd habit/luck of living in really cheap places just before they took off economically. They were also crazy go nuts frugal, and even though we were eating the generic canned food at times, they saved for my education so I wouldn’t have student loan debt. Yay for them.

    Re: four navies – worry not! Navies don’t generally rescue stranded sailors – you’re pretty much on your own out there. On the other hand, people keep giving us books about horrible maritime disasters, and it’s so heartening because most of these people don’t know their jib from the head and some of them even lived!

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