 |
| Frugal ≠ cheap! Never feel bad for valuing your time or your dime. |
...budgeting. Not living beyond my means. Not stealing from my future self's needs to afford things my present self wants.
While I don't bring in much money each month, I'm not in any debt whatsoever & have never had a spending problem like many of the (bipolar) people in my family or many Americans in general. That's a good feeling for someone with an addictive/obsessive personality, I tell you wuht.
When you're working to "pay something off," whether it's a loan or a piece of financed furniture, the maker of that thing actually owns you as every hour of work you contribute toward paying it off is time & effort you can never get back. Working to pay for something you already bought puts you behind the eightball. You're working FOR the maker of that thing in a sense, not for money to put in the bank as savings or use for some other want/need. And as any owner of a car, home, pet or human body knows, there's always an emergency arising with one of those things that must be paid for immediately. Hence the need for savings.
Some debts are unavoidable (medical, student loan) but others are just poor investment choices--that shiny new iPhone or [current year] car depreciates the minute you drive off the lot with it. You could definitely stand to get a slightly older and much cheaper model car or, in the case of the Apple spy device, a different brand altogether. (My rule of thumb: If you can't pay it off in one lump sum/down payment, you probably don't need it unless it's a house, car or lifesaving medical device/treatment). Also: Newer doesn't necessarily = better. It's all about the model, the make and brand. Do your research and shop around before making a big purchase. Small everyday purchases like dining out and having your hair or nails professionally done also add up big time so considering whether it's a 'want' or a true 'need' before splurging is something all smart spenders do. (I've included some links to durable, "Buy it once for life" items at the end of this article). 👍
Worse, there are people who write hot checks, skip out on child support, cheat on their taxes, don't pay them at all or commit other forms of poorly thought-out financial fraud in order to have more money "now". It's only a matter of time before they get caught & end up getting their wages garnished or thrown in the clink. What good is having extra money in the moment if you end up totally bankrupt, in the hole & humiliated down the line? It's this lack of forethought & short-sighted "live for the moment" behavior that gets people in big financial trouble. The same applies to running up massive credit card debt, putting your bank account in the hole/getting overdraft fees or other kinds of debt that comes with interest. Eventually you'll be forced to turn to credit unions & check cashing institutions that take a huge cut of your checks just to cash them, which is a racket unto itself. As they say, it's expensive being poor.
Non-Financial Budgeting
Of course money isn't the only thing we must budget in this life. Our time, specialized skills & energy are other precious resources we must give out judiciously & they're directly linked to money because we exchange them for it every day at work, occasionally giving them away for free as gifts. But this can eat up too much of our lives if we're not careful. Workaholism is an addiction like any other--not a virtue. (Read that again, Type A's). At best it's a poor coping skill; a form of escapism or a justification for a materialistic lifestyle. But make no mistake: The pursuit of money & things can easily turn a well-meaning, high-achieving person into a hamster on a wheel to nowhere. In its most unrestricted form it can turn you into a monster like Diddy, Jeff Bezos, Jeffrey Epstein or George Soros--wealthy in the extreme yet never satisfied; willing to commit violent, exploitative acts to continue increasing your net worth & power.
You can either have extra time & extra space or extra stuff. I've always preferred the former but I seem to be the odd man out in that regard. Americans love their poorly-made trinkets and that's their prerogative. But if you choose extra "stuff," be warned that it comes at a high price: your solitude, creativity, rest & recreation as well as time with loved ones... time you can't get back once it's gone. The stress of always working & often losing sleep catches up eventually, taking a toll on your health, looks & sanity. You drink (or binge eat, or whatever unhealthy habit is your vice) far more than you should to deal with the stress which further worsens your health. Marriages & family relationships suffer & before you know it, you look up and you're 70 & don't even recognize the sunken eyes staring blankly back at you in the mirror. You have a strained relationship with your (adult) kids, you've long since divorced your spouse & barely know your grandchildren. And for what? To make some slave-driving boss or CEO rich? To keep up with the Joneses? To live up to the capitalist propaganda of what a "good worker" looks like?
But at least you have the biggest house on the block! It might even be paid off before you die. Doubtful, but miracles do happen. I think Publisher's Clearinghouse still exists, right? 🤷🏻♀
All That Glitters...
Quit glorifying literal villains.
Maybe it's because I've seen the super-wealthy up close all my life that I'm not impressed by money and "stuff"... people so well-off they've never worked a day in their lives, live off the interest generated by the $$$ in their savings accounts and at one point drove a party bus that gets 6 miles per gallon from Bible Belt USA to Vegas. THEIR party bus. That they own. 🤦🏻♀ Those are just a few examples of the absurdity of their lives, which, by the way are not one iota happier or more fulfilling than mine. In fact, one of said rich peeps has been so empty at times that they self-destructed, nearly dying from alcohol-induced psychosis & depressant addiction, losing their spouse and half their fortune in an ugly divorce and becoming estranged from all their kids, having their name smeared in the community (rightfully so) & even getting locked up for drunken disorderly conduct. I love these people dammit, but they don't live in the same reality as the rest of us. (I also know how they came by their obscene fortunes because they can't help bragging about it at every family function which makes it hard to see them as anything other than cold capitalist crooks but, again, they're family & I l o v e them ugh).
I mean look at Diddy: a billionaire award-winning musician & CEO who had the world, including a smorgasbord of drugs and underage sex workers, at his disposal. Yet he STILL wasn't happy as evidenced by the physical brutalization of his girlfriends & frequent adult tantrums he threw at work & various other places. Like that time he attacked his son's UCLA coach with a frickin' kettlebell. As long as I have enough moolah to pay my bills & not go hungry, I'm thrilled. This is in line with what studies have shown, which is that having more money beyond a certain point doesn't increase happiness. And that point is $75,000 per year.* Yet the desire to be filthy rich consumes so many lives & turns so many hearts to stone that you'd think money is the key to solving all of life's problems including our own mortality.
No, money solves MONEY problems (which are nothing to sneeze at, but follow me here). It does fuckall for emotional, spiritual, interpersonal or mental/cognitive deficiencies. And it tends to worsen traits like greed, boredom, selfishness, superficiality, addiction, laziness, entitlement, impatience & the inability to appreciate the "small" things in life. What does one do for fun when you've been partying since childhood, traveled the world already & can buy your way out of accountability for any crime? Answer: Any-damn-thing you want. No drug, no sex act, expensive item, sadistic behavior, luxurious vacation/trip or exotic-but-immoral experience is off limits. As with any addiction, increasingly intense stimuli are needed to produce the same response so this tends to be a one-way trip to Hell.
Thankfully, most of us never experience this obscene level of wealth but only a handful need to for the world to go to shit because money is power.
It all goes back to that "balance" thing in the first post: If you fail to balance the work & money part of life with all the other equally important parts, those aspects will wither & die. Nice things are nice to have but that's all they are... nice. Not necessary. And certainly not more important than your health, solitude/rest, relationships, hobbies, spiritual practices and so on. Budgeting & being frugal (or at least reasonable) with your spending is one way to work less so you can spend more of your time & energy on those precious parts of life. 👪 ⚕ 🧳 📚 🧘🏻♀
*That $75,000 figure was from a 2010 study and cost of living has gone WAY up since then, so take that number with a grain of salt. But the point remains.
 |
| U.S. consumer debt is at an all-time high in 2024, w/ 77% of households having some type of debt & the average amount totaling $66,772 per adult. 😲 |
.jpg)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment