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Find the simple things that make you happy

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Sometimes when people are on a quest to simplify, it's easy to focus on what to get rid of, but forget to focus on the other side of the coin.  Find the small things that make you happy, and bring a few more of them into your life.  That might be blocking out an evening a month to get together with a group of friends, splurging on the "good" coffee or tea for your morning fix, or more evenings home relaxing with no agenda.  Whatever it may be, spend some time today figuring out what small changes you can make to bring a little more joy to your everyday life, and then do something about it.  You won't regret it. I've always found that flowers bring a smile to my face.  So in 2020, I've scheduled recurring deliveries so that I'll always have flowers around brightening my day.  What will you do?
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Sometimes a little financial complexity is a good thing

I've found that sometimes people focus too much on making things a simple as they can be, and lose sight of the forest through the trees.  When you focus only on making things simple, you don't always make them better, and can actually make your life more complex as a result. Personally, I've found this especially applies to finances.  As a result, I focus on making my life better and automating as much as possible, NOT making my financial setup itself as simple as possible.  Here are some personal examples: Number of Accounts:  I've found that having a few more accounts can actually make things much simpler than trying to use one for everything.  I not only have several accounts for different purposes, but have my paycheck autodeposit split between them so I don't have to do anything. Recurring expenses : I deposit enough to cover all of my recurring bills, and have them set to auto deduct from this account.  This includes things such as mortgage, utilities
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Decluttering techniques for the clutter challeged

I have a confession to make - I am not a neat person.  Clutter seems to spring up around me in record time.  Give me a clear, flat space, and it will be filled within days.  Despite that (or maybe because of that?), I love the feel of a neat, picked up house with open spaces. I've recently been focusing on reducing the amount of stuff in my house, which is helping me more often have the clean feeling I desire.  Here are some of the techniques I've recently found useful in my efforts to fight clutter - I'd love to hear other people's ideas as well! Devote an hour or three on Saturdays to uncluttering :  There are many techniques for picking up and decluttering your house.  Some people suggest picking one thing a day to get rid of, but I've found that to be ineffective - I need to get into a grove to really get things done.  Recently, I've been dedicating every Saturday morning that I don't have other plans to this.  In reality, this means one or two Satur
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Welcome!

Like many people, my life tends to be very busy.  I've recently been focusing a lot of time on ways to make life better.  In many cases, this translates into making life simple(r) - but not always.  Everyone is different, but I've found a number of things that I think others would enjoy.  I decided to share some of my thoughts in the hopes of helping other people improve their lives.  This blog will probably be part financial, part minimalist, and part my own ramblings on life.  I hope you find something useful here, and even if you can't use it directly, are able to find something to spark your own inspiration.  Enjoy!
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