Frugality: Going Beyond Survivalist “Needs”
Yesterday, The Simple Dollar ran an article on “Taking a Deeper Look at Wants Versus Needs,” discussing how mistaking a “want” for a “need” can lead to serious financial trouble. Trent noted that he needs food, shelter, clothing, and health for himself and his family, and the means to provide the former. Some of the readers who commented on his blog took issue with statements by him or other readers, quibbling over what exactly a human really “needs.” Implied was the addendum, “to survive.”
Although I agree with the article’s main point, I commented there and will elaborate here that there is more to living than just being alive.
In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow published a classic paper called “A Theory of Human Motivation” discusses the complexity of human needs. His ideas have since been codified into Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, arranged in two basic categories called Deficiency and Growth.
Deficiency needs are those we consider essential to survival. They include basic physiological needs (food, sex, air); safety needs (from violence, from destitution, from illness); social needs (friends, family); and esteem needs (self-respect, acceptance from others).
People who are truly impoverished struggle to meet their physiological and safety needs, the minimum for physical health. Most of you reading this have already meet those needs, or you wouldn’t have access to the internet and time to read blogs like this. To ensure emotional health, however, humans also need to fulfill social and esteem needs. You may or may not feel satisfied with how well you’ve met these needs. Many a counselor, psychologist, and self-help author has made a fortune helping people satisfy these two deficiency needs.
The next three needs in the hierarchy are Growth needs, which take into account the human need to learn and develop. It’s difficult to fulfill growth needs if you’re scrambling to put food in your stomach or keep yourself alive, but once even the most basic community has developed, we find humans fulfilling these needs through storytelling, art, dance, song, philosophy, religion, and other activities. Growth needs include cognitive needs (exploration, explanation); aesthetic needs (enjoyment or creation of beauty); and self-actualization needs (fulfillment of one’s human potential). Maslow noted, “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write…” That’s self-actualization.
So, where does money fit in? In the U.S., money is necessary to fulfill the most basic deficiency needs, even if you only spend enough to buy the land and tools needed to chop down your own timber to build your homestead. Most personal-finance and frugal-living writers have no problem with spending money on food, shelter, and clothing; or on less material safety nets like health insurance or retirement plans; or even on cognitive needs like a good education or those tools necessary for one’s career (like a blogger’s computer and internet connection).
However, for some reason there’s a group of frugal writers — like some of those who commented on the post at The Simple Dollar — who balk when it comes to spending money on aesthetics and self-actualization. It’s as though they believe that saving money is a goal rather than a means.
As many personal finance writers and all voluntary simplicity proponents realize, money isn’t an end, it’s a means to an end — self-actualization. Even those PF writers who trumpet that they’re saving to become a millionaires or to retire at age 35, but don’t explain why, are presumably doing so in order to engage in work or activity that they’ll find personally meaningful. That is, self-actualizing.
What you need is more than the bare minimum for animal survival. You also need what’s necessary for your personal growth and development. And what is that? If you don’t know, take some time to figure it out. Write out a list of your top five life priorities so you’ll understand what it is your money is going to buy you. Time to pursue a hobby? Time with your family? A trip around the world? What’s your dream? Your passion? Your life goal? Frugality and personal finance are tools, but if you don’t know what you’re trying to build with them, you’re likely to end up with a real mess on your hands.
Once you know, save up your money so you can pursue those goals without going into disastrous debt. It’s okay to spend your money on that which will help you realize your dreams and potential. Don’t let the survivalists tell you otherwise.
drupagliassotti @ May 6, 2008