December 3, 2014

So this post is from a conversation I had at my job the other day with another employee. The conversation started with how much we paid per month on our apartments. When I mentioned how much my wife and I pay, being $430 a month plus electric so around $510, you would have thought that I said we live in a cardboard box. Apparently my rent/mortgage cost wasn’t high enough. So she goes on to tell me that her and her husband live in a trailer and rent it from there grandparents and pay almost $800 including utilities. So let me see here, my place vs theirs is $290 cheaper. To the average American, especially me, that is a lot of money. I go on to ask her how big the place is, and it’s a 3 bedroom home. What couple, no kids, needs a 3 bedroom place to live…unless you can afford it. But usually people don’t work two jobs when they are doing good with their finances. Day after day she talks to me about how she hates working two jobs, and it’s seems pretty simple, if you would budget your money and have a plan along with living more frugally than you wouldn’t have to work two jobs.

All this to say one thing, don’t let people, friends, colleagues, anyone influence you in a negative way. Just because people say one thing doesn’t mean they are doing it or living that way themselves. It definitely doesn’t mean they are doing good either, when people have nice things it doesn’t mean they bought it with their money (when I say their money, I’m talking about cash, money you can see. Using credit cards, borrowing money, that is not real money, that is not your money.) People now days are so careless when it comes to money, whether it be their money or someone else’s.

Don’t just plan for the here and now, plan for the future…because what you do and save now will shape your future.