Money as Freedom
How many of you spend most or all of your paycheck at the end (or worse, the beginning) of the month? I’ll bet it’s at least 50% or more. And maybe it isn’t your fault. Maybe you have a certain level of income or a lifestyle that does not permit you to put anything away. But, chances are if you have found this site you not only realize that money is a major key to your freedom from an 8-to-5 job, but you are looking for ways to save more. To see if you are capable of actually saving more, try this calculator. It’s fun to mess around with too, as you can also see how long it will take for you to be a millionaire.
All kidding aside, if you are still in the dark, I’ll just spell it out for you. If you don’t save, you are never going to be financially free. In the long run, having more in the bank gives you the option of working less. When you work more, you are trading away your time, which is one of the few commodities that you can never get back. Once it is gone, it is gone. Money can be replenished by working more or perhaps harder. But time is more valuable, and is in fact, directly correlated to money. When you work a greater number of hours, you are making more, but are losing time that you can never have back. So isn’t it wise to keep as much as you can of your hard work so you can have more time in the future? That SUV sitting in your driveway that eats all your income is actually eating away at chuncks of your life, in an insideous sort of way.
This all may sound a bit extreme, but check out this harrowing bit of information. And to think this article was written two years ago! Our country’s savings rate has dropped to zero and now may actually be below zero.
So it is becoming even more difficult to become a saver in this environment. You are actually going against the grain in ths country by doing so. When every voice out there, every ad is screaming at you to “Take that loan!“, “Buy that phone and save 30%” and promising it all now when you can pay it off later, it is almost like fighting peer pressure at school. Eventually, people crack.
But, unless you can stand up to this social craziness, and unless you start truly viewing money as freedom and time, you are likely to fall into these traps just like everyone else.
Recommended
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Hey! Why Has My Paycheck Shrunk?February 10th, 2013
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Great Retirement CalculatorsFebruary 16th, 2012
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Charting Your Voyage Out of the Rat RaceMay 12th, 2010
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Eating Out is a Great Way to Save MoneyApril 13th, 2010
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Why Won’t the Rich Share the Wealth?March 27th, 2010
Scott Jackson July 31, 2007 at 3:38 pm
The financial industry is full of predators who want to make sure you don’t save, but instead pay back interest the rest of your life (just look at all the ads for loans “if you have less than perfect credit, check out the interest rates) or ads for a 500K mortgage for 1500/month. You will spend years and years just paying interest.
Mike July 31, 2007 at 9:06 pm
It’s amazing how terrible their practices have become. Now just about anyone can get a credit card or a mortgage. he whole credit score sham has been carried away to such an extreme that people think their lives depend on it. In reality all that a good credit score does is give you a false sense of security that you’ll be able to have a free flow of “cash” that you didn’t earn whenever you wish. And the scariest part of all this is that responsible people who pay their debt/balances in full every month actually have LOWER scores because lendors don’t see them as potential targets who will pay minimums. Really twisted.
Scott Jackson August 1, 2007 at 4:30 pm
I forget the name, I think it’s “maxed out” a good doc about the credit industry, and how anyone can change your credit score and you can’t do anything about it.
Mike August 3, 2007 at 12:05 am
Maxed Out was a very interesting doc – actually the film skimmed over a lot of the details of the book which was more comprehensive. It gets a little “technical” in places in terms of finance and especially real estate but it’s a very good read.
Amanda August 4, 2007 at 11:26 am
That Caclulator thingy is depressing!