> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://book.moneyblind.net/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://book.moneyblind.net/the-book/2/2.2/2.2.1.md).

# 2.2.1: Expenditure is more important than income

One of the aims of this book is to get you investing like a non-idiot. To invest at all requires ‘saved’ money.\[1] Savings are built up by income, and worn down by expenditure. So that is where we’ll begin. How we think about income and expenditure is also the clearest illustration of the problems caused by believing money is about numbers rather than narrative, about having stuff rather than a participatory process of becoming, and how we get stuck in these deceptive false beliefs because of the temptations of unthinking over slowing down and thinking things through.

{% content-ref url="/pages/-MBUSUTgasA0esikA1JK" %}
[2.2.1.1: Universal basic instincts](/the-book/2/2.2/2.2.1/2.2.1.1.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

\---

\[1] ‘Saved’ being apt wording to describe redirecting your money from the dark internal and external forces that would keep you from your Good Life that we’ll look at in the coming chapters.


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