Budgeting Finance Money Share Tweet Kaizen is essentially the application of small, incremental lifestyle changes that add up to bigger changes that can improve your life for the better. Kaizen is a popular term right now in business circles but it’s also a highly popular concept in self-development, fitness and finance. In regards to finance, the ultimate idea of kaizen is often to look at how small savings can add up to help you save large amounts of cash with time. In fact, though, this is only one aspect of it and other elements include finding ways to supplement your income in small ways and ways to get things for cheaper. Using these principles in conjunction, it’s almost possible to actually afford pretty much anything you could ever want. Read on and we’ll look at some of the ways that this is possible… Every Little Helps… One of the easiest ways to afford something you want and to avoid making it feel like you’re spending a lot of money is to think about something that you want to buy and then think about when you want it by. Now just divide the value of the item by the number of days until you want it, and you’ll have the small amount of money you need to save each day. So say you have your eye on a new computer that’s going to be released in three months. That’s 90 days to buy a product that will likely be $1,000 maximum. $1,000 divided by 90 is just over $11. To save $11 a day and you’ll have the money within 3 months. This is actually a very small amount of money to save but it can make a gigantic difference to your perception of what you can afford. Adding to the Pot Similarly, you can also use other ‘kaizen’ inspired strategies to help these sorts of pots grow. If you can’t afford to save quite the $11 you need a day, then make it $8 but add to this plan the intention to save any spare change you have in a pot and to add this to your cumulative score at the end. Likewise, you could find small items you can sell and add those as well. Maybe this would mean your old computer or maybe it would just mean a bunch of DVDs. Again, kaizen tells us that every little bit helps! Better yet, look at places you can save money. Instead of buying that morning coffee, take the money you would normally spend on that and add it to your pot as well. If you normally buy a new item of clothing every month, just forgo that for the next three months (are t-shirts really that exciting anyway?). Combine these techniques and you’ll find there’s almost nothing that you can’t afford in a short amount of time!