Stress Reduction

• Voluntary simplicity involves placing your emotional and spiritual well being ahead of financial and social achievements. Making this choice can dramatically reduce your stress level by eliminating the need to worry about many of the issues that can complicate your life and divert you from your true passions. You will most likely be physically and emotionally healthier if you stop worrying about work and social pressures and start devoting your time and energy to living well and taking care of yourself.
  
  

Financial Savings

• Voluntary simplicity can save you money. If you restructure your priorities to emphasize intangible benefits such as relaxation and happiness rather than material things such as houses and cars, then you will not need to work as much because you no longer require most of the extravagant items you had been purchasing. Voluntary simplicity is the practice of learning to be content with what you have, rather than burning yourself out working to acquire things that most likely will not satisfy you anyway.
  
  

Financial Hardships

• Voluntary simplicity can have a financial down side: if you opt out of the work routines that cause stress and eat up your spare time, then you also sacrifice the financial benefits that come with working hard and earning a solid living. Even if you have chosen to forgo many of the luxuries to which you have grown accustomed, you may find yourself with longstanding financial commitments such as mortgage and child support payments that you cannot easily cancel.
  
  

Social Consequences

• If you have created a social life based on sharing activities and interests with a group of friends who are maintaining the lifestyle that you leave behind when you start on the path to voluntary simplicity, you run the risk of losing friends and leaving yourself without a support network. This be particularly difficult if you have determined that one of your core values is enjoying the company of friends.