The quote “Comfort is the enemy of progress” – is in fact nowhere to be found in the works of P.T Barnum however he had somewhat of a similar idea in one of his books called “The Art of money getting”. Barnum explains that many of us confuse our ideas of comfort and the notion of luxury, opting for the latter to impress others and never saving enough money to own any sort of investment, real estate or gathering enough funds to start a business.
Post it every day or week in two columns, one headed “necessaries” or even “comforts”, and the other headed “luxuries,” and you will find that the latter column will be double, treble, and frequently ten times greater than the former. The real comforts of life cost but a small portion of what most of us can earn. Dr. Franklin says “it is the eyes of others and not our own eyes which ruin us. If all the world were blind except myself I should not care for fine clothes or furniture. Excerpt from The Art of money getting by P.T Barnum
Who was P.T Barnum?
Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in United States, in a small town named Bethel in the state of Connecticut. When a young boy he was sharp, could do rapid math calculations in his head and enjoyed intellectual pursuits. His father Philo Barnum was a farmer, tailor and an innkeeper, he used Phineas to help out with his chores which consisted of looking after and maintaining the family farm and later managing a small store as a clerk.
Barnum was never fond of hard labor as means of making money so he preferred to be employed at small stores as a merchant. While Barnum exceeded in his chosen trade, having a talent of being a good salesman and skillful negotiator, some of his trades were borderline unethical or even fraudulent at times. As he grew older he started his own store which proved to be a success, then went into the lottery business and eventually ended up in showmanship, the trade we know him by today.
What is the meaning of the quote?
This quote can mean several things, a commonly mentioned idea is that if we do not take risks in our lives and push ourselves, we will forever be stagnant, life will pass by quickly and ten years later we are still at the same job, on the same salary or perhaps even worse, we get replaced by someone younger and more eager to work.
Still another idea, which is expressed in Barnum`s book is that many people have their expenses match or even exceed their income. Without any disposable income we cannot invest, cannot buy a house or have an ounce of independence, if downsizing happens, we are left without a job or any savings to cover our food or rent expenses.
Barnum`s views on wasting money on comforts
In his book “The Art of money getting” Barnum noticed that most people can never make financial progress in their lives as they keep spending their full income. A noticeable majority of us spend their money in order to appear richer than what they really are to impress others. Unfortunately, this becomes a never-ending trap and one you should avoid unless you want to lead a life of misery and unfulfillment.
Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.
Will Rogers
How to avoid creating comfort at the expense of progress
Comfort can mean many things, for now lets define it as pursuing short term pleasures by spending vital resources such as time or money (or money and time).
In this day and age, we are being constantly bombarded by social media where you see celebrities buying expensive beauty products or overpriced gym supplements for a “discounted” price of $99.99.
You see your friends on social networks who flaunt their new overpriced cars, expensive vacations or spend their every day partying whilst taking pictures with their cutting-edge phones and of course your own phone starts looking a little bit old, a little bit out of fashion!
As a result, some are overcome by their feeling of pride others by their envy. What you must understand is that those advertisements are catered to you, they are designed to make you jealous, to make you yearn for things which do not benefit you but benefit the seller. They have created a need in you, and now they are trying to fill it. This is not some conspiracy theory, it is simply called the art of salesmanship.
Unfortunately, today’s technology has put salesmanship on steroids, to combat this we need to draw a clear line between comforts and necessities. Here are a few of few ideas to help you get started:
- Make a list of your current expenses and divide it into luxuries and comforts
- Impulse buying
- Recognize sales tactics
- Analyze your largest expenses
Here is a small list I have put together based on my experience
| Luxuries | Comforts |
| Take away food. | Cooking in bulk at home. |
| Designer merchandise. | Non branded items. |
| Gambling (online casino/lottery tickets etc ..) | *Don’t gamble, its loose-loose endeavor in the long run. |
| Video Game Micro-transactions. | Paying a one off price for a good game with positive reviews. |
| Credit card overdrafts. | *Don’t buy things you cannot afford and cap your credit card limit way below to what the bank is offering. |
| Latest/Branded mobile phones. | Any phone which can do the job. |
| Take away lunches at work. | Bringing home cooked food into office. |
| Smoking/Vaping. | *Don’t adopt unhealthy and expensive habits. |
Were you ever in a situation when you absolutely must buy something online, as if it is actually a necessity. If so, leave it in the shopping cart for 24 hours. If when you come back to it, you still need it, then buy it. You will be surprised at how many times you actually don’t need to because you realized it`s a waste of money or thought of a cheaper alternative.
Today salespeople are trained to exploit out natural cognitive biases repeatedly in order to transfer that hard earned cash from our pocket to theirs, not all of them are like that, but most of them are. Fortunately, if we are aware of these biases, we can figure out the game the salesmen and saleswomen are playing and beat them at it.
This may come as a surprise but analyzing your rent expenses and transport expenses is just as important if not more important then everything else mentioned above. A lot of people are living in places and locations they just cannot afford, whether its living in a city center or renting a one-bedroom apartment when a studio (bachelor) would suffice.
Furthermore, plenty of people cannot afford a car, I happen to be one of them. When I added up the expense of monthly costs for insurance, for parking, for gas, road tax and yearly maintenance I realized it would wipe out half my monthly savings.
Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with course and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: ‘Is this the condition that I feared?
Seneca
Why minimal comfort and rewards are important
Previously we focused on how we should do away with expensive comforts which do not enhance our lives in the long term. That being said, it does not mean we must get rid of all of them at once. It`s ok to sometimes get a take away especially after a long day at work, to grab a coffee with work colleagues or friends is equally important as long as it doesn`t become a daily habit.
Similarly, not all “luxury items” are made equal, for example I work on a computer 9 hours a day, many times this also includes weekends. Having a good office chair and a good desk is an absolute necessity for both my spine and my sanity.
How to invest your freed up income to make progress
Now that you have changed your lifestyle and accumulated some savings, the question is: what do you do with it? Well, I will not be giving any financial investment advice partly because I do not know enough about it but I will throw a bunch of ideas at you which helped me advance in my career as well as some of my personal goals.
- Rainy day funds
- Learning
- Creating a small business
Any sort of misfortunes are bound to happen in life, downsizing, unexpected illness, divorces etc.. Whilst you cannot always prevent these events you can create some sort of a safety net to make sure you and your loved ones are not homeless or going to bed hungry. To do this, calculate how much it would take to sustain yourself and any dependents for one month and multiply this by four. This will give you an estimate of how much you need to last for four months in a relatively stress-free environment.
To advance your career or increase your paycheck, you must constantly pick up new skills relative to your specialization, this will give you a greater negotiating power when bargaining for salary with your employer . Learning is usually cheap, your average book costs as much as two Caffe lattes at your local coffee shop, but raises can vary from 2%-30% depending on the field you are in, so make your decision wisely.
Any business has some start up costs, even running a blog has business expenses. However, with enough persistence it will eventually pay itself off, either with valuable experience or monetary profit. Nonetheless, without any start-up capital this avenue of money making will be forever closed.