Is A Life Without Bills Possible?

Pexels. CCO Licensed.

Fed up of paying all those bills? What if it was possible to do away with them all? By investing more up front and doing away with what you don’t need, it is possible to achieve a life with very few bills. This post explains more.

Own more, rent less

Buying a home or a car can typically be a lot more expensive upfront than renting it. However, when you own something via a loan, you have the option of one day paying it off. When you rent a home or car, you must continuously pay for it until you decide you no longer want it.

This is why ownership is typically better than renting – especially when it comes to items that hold their value such as property. One day you may pay off your mortgage and be free of this bill. Rent meanwhile is a bill that you pay forever, regardless of how long you live in a property.

Buying a home of course is no easy task. Check out this home buying guide for tips on how to achieve home ownership.

Become self-sufficient

What about energy bills? And what about water bills? Do I still have to keep paying these? Just as it’s possible to eliminate rent from your life, it’s also possible to eliminate most utility bills (although it does depend on where you live).

Investing in solar panels can allow you to harvest your own energy, which in turn can prevent you from having to pay an energy provider. Many people take out a loan to pay for solar panel installation, but this is something that can be paid off in the long run. As for harvesting your own water and managing your own waste, this can be done by either collecting rainwater or pumping water from a well before putting waste into a septic tank. Like solar panels, such a system isn’t cheap to implement, but could free you of having to pay water bills.

Pay off your debts

While debts are necessary for owning expensive items like property, you should work on paying them off as fast as possible. For many of us, over half of the bills we pay are debts, which could be anything from finance on furniture to credit card bills. If you’ve got lots of different debts, consider whether you could work towards paying some of them off. The snowball method is the best way of dealing with debts and involves paying off the smallest debts first, before working on the biggest ones.

Cancel unnecessary subscriptions

Subscriptions are also a form of bill that many of us overlook. There could be some subscriptions in your life that are necessary such as medical prescriptions, your phone bill and your internet bills. However, there could also be subscriptions that you’re making use of such as gym membership fees for a gym you barely use or subscription fees for a streaming service you rarely use. Think about whether it’s time to cancel these subscriptions.

Understand your limits

The reality of living bill-free is that it typically involves living an extreme lifestyle. Some bills are compulsory if you want certain freedoms. For example, if you want to drive, you need to pay auto insurance. There’s also no legal way of doing away with taxes.

That said, even if doing away with all bills is unrealistic, we can all still benefit from taking steps to cut out unnecessary bills from our lives. Every bill you eliminate is extra monthly disposable income to use at your leisure. Think about which bills you could eliminate from your life – whether it’s a streaming service you barely use or an unnecessary debt – and work towards getting rid of these bills rather than constantly adding new ones.