Big Plays Come First

Saving money is often attached to endless penny-pinching advice.

From cutting grocery coupons to comparing per-ounce prices on bulk goods, a lot of attention is paid to paying as little as possible for the littlest things.

But attention, time, and energy are limited resources.

So if those real resources are finite, where should you direct them when it comes to saving and spending money?

And how many coupons and unit-price comparisons can you feasibly keep up with before the return just isn’t worth it?

If it takes the same amount of effort to save $1 as it does to save more, there’s a real limit to how much impact micro-savings can have. But if you direct your attention and effort toward opportunities that cut $100, $500, or even $5,000, you can see how much more quickly the math—and the momentum—changes.

It’s the same in business. I could earn $2,000 by making 200 sales at $10 each, or 10 sales at $200 each. Or I could make one big strategic move, like streamlining my multiple web software services, and save $2,000–$3,000 a year in overhead. This example is exactly what brought this to mind this week, because I’m in the process of doing exactly that.

This is what I call a “big play.” And in our personal finances—where everything competes for our time and energy—we have to choose wisely which financial plays we make.

Is it more effective to shop at three different grocery stores each week to save $50? Or to get rid of a pricey car lease and drive a 2010 Toyota?

The latter could save $20,000—the equivalent of roughly 400 weeks (nearly eight years) of multi-store grocery runs every weekend. Personally, I’d rather drive the old car than spend an extra 400+ hours of my life grocery shopping.

Don’t get me wrong: systems that keep routine costs low matter, because they add up over time. But not if they distract, first, from the bigger decisions that carry far more weight.

Sometimes the “big plays” mean uncomfortable choices—about the kind of home you live in, the schools you send your kids to, or the cars you drive. Other times, they’re mid-sized adjustments that still move the needle: switching to Aldi or Walmart for groceries, or even going vegetarian to cut the meat bill at both grocery stores and restaurants. These can also be about big plays in your earning potential, whether going full-time, starting that side hustle, or taking a leap on a new position or promotion.

Think of these as one-and-done choices that replace a hundred smaller ones.

When you step back and truly reassess your largest expenses (and earning powers) first, without premade assumptions and judgments, you can often find opportunities for space—the breathing room you’ve been craving in your financial life.

Because it’s rarely the coupons that change your trajectory. It’s the wisdom and resolve to make bigger plays.