About

Welcome to But Wait There's Less. You've probably guessed what inspired the name.

It starts with the infomercials

It's their catch-phrase. "But wait, there's more" they say, knowing how that lures us in.

Does the "more" bring any extra value. It seems not to matter. We've been conditioned to think that more must be better - so out come the credit cards.

They say it every time because it works every time.

The "more" world

It seems there's no problem for which the answer is not more. Buy more stuff, you need more space. Buy a bigger home, you need more debt. To pay off more debt you need to work more. More income also means more of it goes in tax.

More work means more time away from friends/family. More spent on childcare. More of our life traded away for dollars. More of our life spent complaining about the boss/work we don't like.

Does "more" make us happy?

Often we just have more clutter, more maintenance, more debt, more stress and more worries. Perhaps it's time for a different way.

A life of less

We've reached the point of realising that generally less is better. Less clutter. Less stuff. Paying less for a home. Spending less time at work. Less stress. Sounds good doesn't it?

Who are we?

My name is David. My wife and I discovered just how much stuff we had (way too much) when we got married and combined our apartments into one. How on earth did we accumulate so much stuff?

Jerry Seinfeld is right - it makes senses that the words garage is almost the same as garbage. It's the place we put those things that will be handy "someday" (ie. never).

Our declutter

We discovered joy in decluttering: extra space in the home, the cash from selling unwanted items (grab my free ebook of tips), and the joy of someone else appreciating the item we give them. It's been said that decluttering is getting rid of what you don't want, minimalism is discovering how little you need. That's probably where we are now.

Minimalism

It's not about depriving ourselves, it's about discovering what brings us value. Spending less time and money on things that don't really add value to our lives (even if advertisers insist they do) frees us up to focus on the things that do.

Finance

Recently I've also been sharing what I learn about finance. The better we manage our finances and invest our savings, the less dependent on work we can become. It's amazing the difference that a few small changes can make.

If you'd like to follow our journey, subscribe to my monthly-ish email or follow us on facebook.

Comments

What to do with 128 pens?

I never need buy a pen again. Ever. The pen round-up. I searched the house for pens and gathered them up. We had 128. Woah - that's more than I expected. Then it was test-time. (You can get a lot done watching summer sport ;). Good ones went on the table. Broken ones in the box. Pen operations I saved a few 'broken' pens, by taking working insides and matching them with functional outsides. Particularly much-loved pens, for sentimental reasons, were given a life-extending 'ink transplant'. Final Tally We ended up with 67 broken pens and 61 good ones. And about 10 pencils. What to do with 67 broken pens? In my city Biome recycles pens . It's as easy as taking them into the store and dropping them into the giant collection box. Decluttering and recycling together - I love it. A lifetime of pens An average pen writes 45,000 words. So that dedicated shopping list pen on the fridge could write a 20-word shopping list for 43 years. Our 61 pens repre...

The real cost of owning a car

It's been about 10 years since I've owned a car. My wife doesn't own one either. "You must save a lot in petrol" That's one of the frequent reactions when someone discovers we don't own a car. "Of course, but it's just the tip of the iceberg" is the usual theme of my reply. Many people I've talked to just aren't fully aware of the real cost of owning a car. Or even that there are six different costs of owning a car. Six? Really? Yes. Occasionally a work colleague or friend will boast their car only costs $X per week. Of course it turns out only some factors have been counted. Sometimes it's just petrol alone. To some people, that feels like the only cost they pay each week. Why does this matter? You might be questioning the need for a second car in the household (or even having one at all). Or you might just be choosing which car to get next. Either way, to make an informed decision we need proper information. So let's look at...

Why millionaires don't "feel" rich

We're wealthier than ever - so why don't we feel like it? Australia has gone almost three decades without recession. The stock market recently hit a record high. Our wages are record highs. Home loan rates are at record lows. We live in one of the richest countries in the world at the richest point in history. So what's wrong? Comparison Wealth is relative. So what do we compare to? Where we expect to be? "When your wages growth is only 2 or 3 per cent, you don't feel as well-off as when it's going up 10 per cent. That's that nominal distortion that people often suffer from" , says economist Shane Oliver, and that "expectations have grown a lot faster than reality." We're earning more than last year, but we want even more. So compared to our imaginary situation, we see ourselves as worse off. What we see around us? Shane Oliver again. "If you think about it - Australians today are a lot wealthier. They're living far ric...

But wait... there's less!

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