When people hear the word minimalist, they imagine somebody that is so frugal and spartan that they eat nothing but porridge and live in the most basic of conditions.

Though there are plenty of people who do actually live this way by choice, the reality is that it is missing the point of what minimalism really is. And embracing the philosophy or way of life as you approach retirement can improve your life in ways you would have never imagined.

It can help when it comes to investing for retirement and even making sure that your savings stretch further.

In this article, I will go over several of the benefits that you may enjoy about minimalism as you get ready to retire.

Being frugal vs minimalism

Before we get into the benefits, let’s take a look at what minimalism actually is. It can be confused with being frugal as they are two sides of the same coin. If you are frugal you do things like find ways to save on gas for your car (In fact you should take a look at Money Monarch to see how you can actually do that as it is helpful!) or you look to cut your spending on eating out.

Minimalism is a bit different. It is more about cutting out the unnecessary aspects of life that are holding you back. It could be that you are spending based on emotions and that is holding you back financially. Or, it may mean that you are in an endless loop of spending that is making it take longer to retire.

Frugality can help you save money. Minimalism can help you declutter your life. In other words it’s about balancing priorities. You can still spend money as a minimalist, but you are choosing the right things to spend it on and making decisions that allow you to do so.

Decluttering is destressing

As we get older it becomes harder to let certain things go. And this ends up cluttering our lives. Both literally and figuratively.

Your house may just have too much unnecessary and low quality junk. And always trying to clean it up and find ways to store it becomes a headache.

Alternatively, there are also things that happen in our life that clutter in a more figurative way. Having to run around and buy more stuff or having to maintain the things that you have to keep them working is also clutter.

Clutter is stressful so getting rid of it will help to destress your life.

Downsize

When you live as a minimalist and spend your money on experiences instead of things, you can live in a smaller space. Which in turn saves you even more money. Which, in turn, leaves you with more money to do the things you love.

Downsizing allows you to travel more and spend more time with family and friends and do things that are important as we age.

When you realize how much you are paying to basically store things you no longer need, you will be amazed that you didn’t take on this lifestyle earlier.