I Care More About What You Spend Than What You Earn
Expenses are the foundation; income is only the shadow upon.
Income is the usual starting point — salary, side hustle, trading gains. Progress is measured by inflow.
My starting point is different. I begin with expenses.
What is spent defines reality more than what is earned. It shows what is maintained, what is required, what is asked from the world just to exist here.
Spending vs Creation
Spending is not only outflow — it is creation. Each expense fulfills a will, a wish, a choice. It builds the structure of life, sets the rhythm of days, and drives existence forward.
My Model of Layers
It took time, patience, and re‑structuring of existing concepts to uncover something that connects money schemes with lived reality.
The result is a framework where expenses are organized in layers — each one a threshold, each one a way of living:
Obligations — the foundation: bills, taxes, services, communication. What keeps life functional and connected.
Survival — the essentials: food, heat, hygiene, shelter. What sustains the body and the day.
Emotional — the pulse: moments, social contact, movement, air. What refreshes the mind.
Growth — the stretch: learning, travel, practice, experience. What expands the horizon.
Nice-To-Have — the comfort: upgrades, extras, refinement. What makes life smoother, not necessary, but felt.
Lifting Life by Reaching Thresholds
Each layer carries its own threshold, which serves as a target for a particular stage of life. When passive income covers one layer, the weight on that part of life quietly lifts.
Know the Spending Number
Wealth is not the requirement. The requirement is knowing the number — and building toward it.
So Why to Spend?
What is spent, matters more than what is earned. Expenses are the architecture towards the one specific feeling: “The Covered Day“. Income only matters once it has something solid to rest upon — and that is what matters to me.
In next article I’ll reveal Obligations — the first layer of expenses. In my case, it’s €90 per month, and I’ll explain why these costs are sacred.