Apr 06 2009
Living Within Your Means Isn’t Enough
You may be wondering why I would say that living within your means isn’t enough. If
you are living within your means, then doesn’t that mean you are being smart with your money? Maybe you have no debt, other than a mortgage or perhaps a car loan. Every dollar is spoken for before it comes into your hands, but you are still able to pay your bills each and every month with no problem. Why isn’t that enough?
Living within your means isn’t enough because it still means that you are living from paycheck to paycheck. Yes, you may be managing to pay the bills on time, but what happens when the unexpected happens? Do you have money set aside for the oops! the car engine stopped working, or, the water pipe broke and flooded the first floor, or, a relative you are close to who lives in another state dies and you need to go to their funeral.
So, if living within your means isn’t enough, then what is enough? Living Below your means! I understand that for many people just the feat of being able to live within their means is a major accomplishment, so the idea of living below your means may seem like an unattainable pipe dream.
Before you can live below your means, you need to be able to live within them. Tomorrow I am going to share with you some ideas on how you can work towards the goal of living within your means - even if you have credit card or student loan debt.
Related Posts:
Why Should I Live Below My Means?
Why Should I Live Below My Means? My Answers
You know, I was actually kind of looking forward to the current state of things, because I was hoping it might be a little more cool to appear to live more frugally.
My hubby and I have been learning the hard way about the difference between having nice things and having money in the bank. The security of having savings is WAY better than the feeling you have when you look at all your “stuff.”
We’ve given up the expensive car payments and now drive 2 older “beater” cars. We own them, and since my hubby is a car guy, the maintenance on them doesn’t bankrupt us. Mine is an early 90’s Volvo wagon. It’s a workhorse…it ain’t pretty, but it gets the job done.
Despite everything that has happened, I STILL get people looking down their nose at me in my trusty Volvo. Sure, it’s not a brand new Lexus, but who can REALLY afford those? I would think people would be learning to appreciate a little more that the brand or the pricetag doesn’t mean squat.
Oh well. It doesn’t matter to me anymore, and I’ll be the one laughing when the repo man comes to take away their shiny SUV.
I totally agree - I’d much rather know I have a financial cushion to protect me from the Ooops! of life than to have a shiny new car every couple years. I love my car - a 1997 Honda Civic with 111k miles -still going strong.
That sounds like perfect idea, but would take a lot of discipline.
The problem with living within your means is that it presupposes you have means in the first place. I don’t have means myself, but I do have chickens. And cats. I just wish I could convince my cats that ‘be fruitful and multiply’ wasn’t addressed to them personally.
Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog.