How many times have you looked at something, all puppy-eyed and uttered the words: “Oh well! I can’t afford it” and how many times have they actually come true? I for one, consciously try and not use these specific words – “I can’t afford it” because as they say – you think what you say. The more you say it, the more you will end up making it true, like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In this regard, one of the best blogs I came across was Afford Anything. Run by Paula Pant, the core philosophy of this blog is – You can afford anything, but not everything. Essentially, you need to know what is important to you, what does money mean to you and what do you WANT to afford.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT

Paula is a highly successful real-estate investor who makes no bones about it. In fact, if anyone wants to learn anything about real-estate investing, this is one amazing blog for the purpose. In fact, in one of her posts, she even talks about how a chunk of her readers come to the blog for her insights into real estate investing.

What I particularly like about her blog is that she is real, honest and upfront about what she writes. She also lives her philosophy to the core which can be seen as you read through her blog. Two such validating factors I remember very vividly are her decision to save her entire salary for a year and them living on her partners’ salary to be able to save up and invest in more of the real estate. The other instance was where she talks about living with roommates on one hand and investing in real estate on the other. If you read her blog, you would really understand how someone who knows what they want their money to do for them can live a vastly different life.

One big post:

There were just so many of the Afford Anything posts that I would want to talk about but when I put my finger to it, the one post that struck a chord with me was the post – Are you letting invisible scripts run your life?

Don’t get confused by letting multiple people and their opinions run your life

While Paula mostly talks about it in terms of money, the content of the post is good to be extrapolated in all aspects of life. People have their own experiences and to them, those experiences will hold true for everyone. If you end up listening to all such opinions, you are probably going to look like a pendulum swaying from one end of the spectrum to the other. You gotta dance to your own tune. Personally, if someone tells me I am making a mistake it sort of eggs me on. While that is definitely the other extreme, it really is up to you to find a balance. Whether it is through reading more or through talking to more people that you look up to, you need to make your own decisions that you believe in. You need to dance to your own drum beat

Other 2 personal favourite posts from Afford Anything:

  1. Drugs, Your Brain and Holiday Sales
  2. Don’t skimp on your health

You can reach her through her blog, Facebook or Twitter.