Make ‘Into My Wallet’ Your Motto

This is post #4 from the 30 Day Personal Finance Challenge: Boost Your Financial Health with a Daily Tip!

I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say the MariKon^™ method has had a huge impact on my life! Marie Kondo is Japan’s expert declutterer and the world’s most organized person. She taught me how to free myself of tons of material and emotional baggage. I developed the right attitude towards material possessions. I believe it even took me a tiny step closer to my financial independence goal.

I have always been in the pursuit of less. Less in the “Less is more” sense. Things got real when I read Marie’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. It gave me a clear set of instructions and inspired me to keep only the things which spark joy. I will share my experience with the method in a separate post. For now, let’s start with a small, easy habit you can develop right away.

I previously had loose change spread all over my home. I had a euro or two in the bottom of my purse. A few more coins were ignored in boxes and drawers. Here’s what Marie says:

Despite the fact that coins are perfectly good cash, they are treated with far less respect than paper money.

I had many coins in a piggy bank – mostly euro coins, but also some exotic coins from my travels. I was ‘saving’ for something but I didn’t know what…

Frankly, no one I’ve met who saved pennies without a clear purpose has ever actually used them.

Here’s Marie’s advice:

I beg you rescue those forgotten coins wasting away in your home by adopting the motto ‘Into My Wallet’.

Just take them to the bank – the longer you wait, the heavier your haul will be, and the more bother to take it to the bank.

Now whenever I see loose cache lying around I treat it with respect and collect immediately into in my wallet. I can’t prove this habit has caused my wealth to grow. What I know for sure is the more I appreciate, the more money I tend to attract and keep.