Want to live happily and in Abundance: Differentiate between NEED and WANTS

We all want to be wealthy and live happily, but the urge to splurge is something that is the biggest hurdle for long term wealth creation. For our better and secure future we all need to save regularly and enough so that we can live comfortably when we are not earning. The trick to investing, saving money, and reaching your financial goals is to make sure we are wisely balancing our long-term needs and short-term wants to allow us to live well, but frugally, and find joy and satisfaction in life.

So how to differentiate between need and wants?

Double chocolate chip ice cream? It's a food, so can mark it as a need. That designer T-shirt that fits you perfectly? Well, you need more shirts, so why shouldn’t it count as a need, too. Well It's easy to mix up wants and needs, break your budget, and lose sight. So what should we do ?

The basic definition of need is “Something which we have to have”; Like home, food & water(to maintain health), clothes (to remain comfortable and appropriately dressed), Basic health and hygiene items,

Want is “Something which we would like to have”  Everything that goes beyond the things mentioned above like - a big house, name-brand clothes, fancy foods and drinks, and a new car—is a want.

BASIS	NEEDS	WANTS
Meaning	Needs refers to an individual's basic requirement that must be fulfilled, in order to survive.	Wants are described as the goods and services, which an individual like to have, as a part of his caprices.
Nature	Limited	Unlimited
What is it?	Something you must have.	Something you wish to have.
Represents	Necessity	Desire
Survival	Essential	Inessential
Change	May remain constant over time.	May change over time.
Non-fulfillment	May result in onset of disease or even death.	May result in disappointment.

Simply put, needs are the things which are essential for one's survival while wants are those things which make one happy but are not essential for survival.

So to live a rich life first we need to distinguish between needs and wants and second rule is to apply that knowledge in our daily life.

There is one good way to identify need and wants; if we want to buy something take 2-3 weeks’ time before actually buying that item. Over this intervening period, if you are able to carry on with your life comfortably, then the thing you were eyeing was not a 'need' but a 'want'.

Have a budget, and come up with a plan, and act on it. Even if it takes long time, just working toward a goal is empowering. It makes us feel capable, instead of deprived; it makes it easier to tune out all those things we don't need, and it puts ourselves in charge of where we will go next.

Take time to reflect on all the ways that we have been blessed. Then, decide what's really important to, and go after it. Once we become better at differentiating between wants and needs, we will probably see that we have been able to fulfill more of our wants over the years than we realized. And that can be a major turning point.