😨 Survival Budgeting Is a Trap - AVOID AT ALL COSTS‼️

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]There's something I want to say that is very important for anyone who's thinking of making a massive change to their life. And I mean mainly people who are planning and making the changes without having a big budget.

[00:00:14]And before I talk about this, I need to say this.

[00:00:18]Please don't even consider doing anything drastic without being totally realistic about your ability to actually live by the plan that you eventually come up with.

[00:00:29]You must be honest with yourself and you have to be prepared to change a lifetime of conditioning. You know, many of you have been watching my recent videos about what it really takes to put off a massive life change and reclaim your life, your peace, your freedom. And the message I'm getting from a lot of you in the comments are incredible. But there's a massive elephant in the room that some of the comments have highlighted to me that I need to raise and it revolves around money and specifically how much of it you actually need to survive on a budget when you decide to step off the treadmill when you decide to take that completely different path in life. And it's something I very much had to contend with way back six years ago when I was first sitting with pen and paper crunching the numbers trying to work out if it was possible for me to fulfill my own plan of walking away from all the noise for a simpler life. And I remember this very clearly initially after crunching the numbers. I thought I had it all figured out. And I'm not going to go into what changed, but I subsequently realized that there's a psychological trap, a trap that many people fall into unknowingly. And it's a trap that I had started to fall into myself. And what I realized wasn't at all what I expected.

[00:02:01]And it completely flipped my understanding of financial security on its head. So, I'm going to tell you exactly what that mistake is and the subtle shift that changed everything for me. But first of all, the mistake and the mistake is thinking you can live on a budget that only allows you to survive because survival budgeting is never sustainable long term. And let's be entirely honest here from right from the beginning. If you're seriously thinking about making a huge change to how you live, it almost always involves one major terrifying sacrifice, living in less income.

[00:02:45]And for most people, you can't dodge that reality. So whether your dream is to travel the world on a shoestring, scale back to a part-time job you actually enjoy, or downsize your home to get rid of a massive mortgage, or maybe to walk away from a toxic situation that isn't serving you anymore, you have to look very closely at the math. You have to face financial realities.

[00:03:14]And what I realized at that time, which was very early on in my planning, is that there are two very distinct ways of living in less money intentionally.

[00:03:25]And if you don't define them clearly before you make your move, you're setting yourself up for failure. And by the way, later on in the video, I'm going to give you a real life stark example of why this is so important to understand.

[00:03:42]But the two approaches I'm talking about, number one, just living on a budget.

[00:03:49]Number two, living happily or comfortably on a budget. And there is a massive difference. The first one, just standard raw living on a shoestring must be avoided at all costs. If you want your new life to actually last, unless of course that's what your plan is. Some people that's what they want to achieve.

[00:04:10]They want to live on practically nothing and that's fair enough. But if you're like me, you definitely don't want to live on a shoestring, right? So, first of all, let's break down why standard budgeting is a trap. And think about this. When most people think of strict budgeting, they immediately think of hardship and even misery.

[00:04:33]And make no mistake, if you try to live on this type of budget, it will be more difficult than you may think. Because really tight budgeting makes you have to think about every single penny, cutting out every minor luxury they enjoy or you enjoy and walking around with a constant heavy feeling of restriction. And I've heard this so many times and I call it a mindset of pure lack. And it's real and it happens to many people who haven't figured out the difference. And when I first started my planning, my own exit to an extent I was going down that same path. I looked at my bank statements, open up my spreadsheets and started aggressively crossing things out. I thought right if I just stop doing this and doing that and if I only go out socially occasionally and if I treat every penny like it's a life or death situation I can survive on next to nothing which is true and you know I was thinking this way initially because I knew my budget was going to be very tight and I was thinking like this right up until I had the realizations that I talk about in my I think it was my last video I quit work for a better life and I can't go into that now. If you want to see that just go back and and view it.

[00:05:57]But at that time I realized there were better ways to live unless without sacrifice and comfort. And at that time at that point my thinking changed direction totally. That all happened by the way in a matter of hours that realization and me starting to plan in a different way. So, if you're planning on making big changes, it's time to consider your reality. But first, let me ask you or ask yourself a very serious question. Is survival the goal? Because the whole reason some of you are watching this video, I believe, and the whole reason you're dreaming about changing your life in the first place is to improve it. You want to make your life better, lighter, and more peaceful in some way. So, you need to ensure you don't walk straight into another type of nightmare.

[00:06:52]You don't want to enter some sort of self-imposed, miserable financial prison where you're constantly anxious and can't even enjoy a simple cup of coffee with a friend without worrying if you can afford it. Because if that turns out to be the case, then you haven't gained your freedom at all. You won't have broken out of the system. you will have just traded one harsh boss for an even harsher boss, your own spreadsheet. And that kind of budgeting is built on deprivation. And human beings are not wired to endure deprivation forever.

[00:07:31]Eventually, the snapback happens. The regret happens.

[00:07:36]The realization happens. You'll finally get tired of feeling restricted. You'll get tired of saying no to every single thing. You'll end up running right back to the old comfortable high stress life you came from just to escape the financial misery.

[00:07:55]So to make a massive life change work on a budget for the next 10, 20, 30 years, you have to learn how to live happily on that budget. And there's a massive world of difference between those two states of mind. Living happily on a budget only happens when you aren't sacrificing your quality of life. It's a shift from containment to expansion where you realize that true contentment doesn't require a massive price tag, but you still have to be realistic. You cannot fund a life of freedom on a budget so small that it forces you to live below a standard you'll actually enjoy.

[00:08:37]And this isn't some abstract theory or thought.

[00:08:41]This is a lived reality. And I see it play out all the time with a specific example that perfectly illustrates what I'm talking about. As some of you know, I spend some time every year in Southeast Asia, mainly in Thailand.

[00:08:57]And over the years, I've met many different types of people and talked to many different people about these sort of topics. And what always stands out to me that there are basically two different types of people who pack up their lives to go find their version of paradise. The first type of person is fairly comfortable. They have done the math. They have maybe a decent pension or a sustainable setup and they can afford to live pretty well because the cost of living is much lower than it is back home.

[00:09:31]This type of person usually lives on a budget, but a budget that's calculated to give them a lifestyle they enjoy. And that would be the vast majority of people. But then there's this second type of person. This is a person who doesn't have enough money at all, but they're desperate to escape their current life. They think if I just get out there, I can live a very basic barebones existence in the sun for next to nothing. Great weather and beautiful setting will make it work. But let me tell you that second type of person almost always fails. What happens to them? They get out there. Initial excitement wears off and the psychological reality of their new life sets in. They find themselves in this beautiful sunny active environment. But they quickly realize they can't actually afford to participate.

[00:10:26]They can't afford to eat out with friends. They can't afford to socialize properly and they're counting every single penny just to survive watching everyone else around them actually living and very quickly that paradise becomes a beautiful prison and this is really common this happens all the time a friend I have who lives in a place called John Tenne very knowledgeable about these things reckons 20% of the people the new people that he meets or that person and they end up after a while disappearing back home. So the restriction worries them down and they realize how miserable they are and they end up having to pack their bags and head right back home to the system that we're trying to run away from in the first place. So what they have done, they have made the exact mistake I'm talking about. They designed a budget of basic existence just to buy their ticket. So if you don't ensure your budget can actually fund the lifestyle you're going to enjoy, you aren't finding freedom at all. You're just relocating your misery and maybe making it worse. Right? So that's all the negative. Now let's look at the positive. How do you get out of the trap? And this is one of these things that's hard to explain, hard to put into words. So I'll try it this way. Let's look at the logic of how this works financially.

[00:11:54]When you drastically reduce what you consume, you must change your relationship with money entirely. I go on about this in my previous videos again. Go back and look at them if you want to know more. But let's look at what I mean. Say now in your current situation you need two to three,000 a month should that be dollar, pound, euro, whatever a month to keep your head above water because of your commitments, your debt, your subscriptions, your lifestyle maintenance. Meaning really, of course, that while you still have all that outlet, you're completely trapped.

[00:12:31]you have little choice but to stay in that job, tolerate that boss or partner and are really hostage to your overheads. So, you want to get out of the trap. And of course, you can't get out out of the trap just by wishing for it, just by wanting it, you do it by systematically dismantling those overheads, clearing the debt. Should that take? Maybe you've got a lump sum. Maybe you've got a property to sell. Maybe you haven't and you just need to work longer hours for the next two to three years. Get rid of all your debt. Save up some equity. Get rid of all the subscriptions. Downsize your living space and strip away the lifestyle maintenance, the eating out maybe all the time, the drinking all the time, whatever. So that when you're completely done with that, you're left with a completely clean slate. And some of you who are in that position may be thinking I don't want to wait two years, I don't want to wait 3 years. But I assure you once you start planning and start seeing success, debts getting cleared, etc. The planning is half the fun, the waiting is half the fun because you've got a dream and it's ahead of you and it's 100 times better than what you're leaving behind. So it really becomes worth it. For me, lockdown kept me behind. then I'm glad it did because that gives me at least 18 months to think and plan and look forward to. If your situation's different that you're in a bad relationship and you want out of it, that's different thing. You have to find your way to deal with that. But don't do anything without thought. So let's say after you've done all that and you've done a bit of planning, a bit of looking ahead to what you need to live financially, then look at your situation with radical honesty.

[00:14:15]What if you realize for example that you can live comfortably on let's say 1,200 a month suddenly the math of your whole life has changed and the barrier to entry for freedom drops significantly.

[00:14:29]And by the way, you don't need a multi-million pound pension pot to escape. You don't need to win the lottery to change your life, although that would be nice. You just need to realize that true freedom costs a hell of a lot less than society has conditioned us to believe. And believe me, when your financial target is low, your options explode. A strict budget when approached with the right mindset certainly isn't a cage. It's a solid foundation that funds your absolute freedom if you do it correctly. Right now, we need to address another massive unvarnished fact before wrapping this up. So, as I've just said, not everyone's going to be able to just up and change their life tomorrow because the end of the day, you have to be able to actually afford it. You have to have a realistic way to fund your transition.

[00:15:28]And I'm in pain to say this. Sorry, it's 9:30 in Spain and it's already very warm, which is fantastic. Where was I?

[00:15:40]Yes, I'm at pains to say this constantly and I do, but do not do anything drastic until you've cleared all your debt.

[00:15:51]Number one, top of the list thing. Every single penny of it, right on Q. My camera just stopped overheating, so I've had to let it cool down. Right back to where it was. Yes. Every single penny of debt must be cleared. And understand that debt, something we're all sort of used to, is the heaviest chain of all.

[00:16:14]And you can't build a life of freedom if there's still debt involved in your life. And again beyond that you need to build up as much savings as you possibly can to give yourself that life and a safety net. And also for a lot of people being able to afford a happier life on less income doesn't always mean stopping completely. It means being prepared to adapt. It might mean shifting gears and working part-time, doing something you actually enjoy rather than staying chained to high stress full-time career just to pay for a life you don't actually live. When you, let's say, you do what I did and you've got an ambition to move abroad. Part of my plan was I had a set amount of money and I had my YouTube channel which I knew would bring in some money and not very much, but that has to last me to my pension age.

[00:17:10]So, I had worked out a system that there would come a point probably that I would need to get part-time work. And I was actually coming up to that before my circumstances changed about 2 years ago.

[00:17:21]I'll explain that in another video. But that's what you have to be willing to do. And a lot of the people I'm friends with here now that live here full-time all have part-time jobs and bars, restaurants, etc. There's no shame in working as long as that work is serving your life rather than your life serving that work which is how most of us live and you know this is how I've come to see life and how I moved forward in my life but at the end of the day this isn't a blueprint and it doesn't just apply to one specific type of dream my example is just what I dreamt of and did but The people watching this channel, you have a vast array of changes they want to make. Maybe you want to improve your relationship, get away from your relationship, get away from a toxic environment, downsize your home.

[00:18:15]Maybe you want to just find some peace or to dive deeper into a personal passion. There are a million reasons why people want to change their lives. But whatever that change looks like for you, it always comes back to the same financial reality. You do not need a lucky break or inheritance to reclaim your existence. You just need the clarity to see the system for what it is and the courage to change what you value. Look at your own situation with total honesty. Look at it today and if you still decide to make a massive leap tomorrow to fix whatever it is broken in your life, what kind of future would you be building for yourself? Would you be designing a miserable, restrictive prison sentence based on fear or lack?

[00:19:08]Or are you ready to completely transform your relationship with money and happy to live on less? Think about it. Right.

[00:19:18]Thanks for watching. I appreciate you taking the time to listen. I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope you get something from the video. If you know anyone else who may get something from this video, please share it. Of course, give it a thumbs up. I'm always asking that all YouTubers are, but it's so important. If you did it now, it would take you one second. There's no consequence, and it really helps the channel. Please get involved in the comments and subscribe if you want more.

[00:19:42]But I'll see you next time. Bye.