When I am working hard and making good money there is a little part of me that feels that I validate my hard work by buying stuff. Good food, toys for the kids, trinkets I don’t need, toys for myself, and on and on. I noticed this desire again recently, and I realized that I have learned to channel that desire into saving and that saving has become my new validation.

The key to building wealth, as I say over and over again, is about how much you save and invest, not about how much you make. Knowing this and feeling content with this are two different things. How do you make peace with it? The key is to invest yourself emotionally in what that savings account, as it grows, is going to give you. With me it’s about looking at a picture of my boys and my wife and knowing as my account grows, I am giving myself the option to spend more time with them.

As Family First Entrepreneurs we must invest ourselves in creating more options as opposed to obligations and the way to do that is with surplus money. The reward of available time spent with the people we love is so delicious, and emotionally it can overtake the desire to consume the things in life that seem so important in the moment.

Limiting consumption is not about scrimping and saving and living life without abundance. In fact, a family with two parents who have nearly unlimited time for their children is the epitome of abundance for a Family First Entrepreneur. The sooner that shows up the better, and the way to make it happen sooner, no matter how much you make, is to make piece with controlling consumption