You know how you go along sometimes, not thinking about what you're doing.
Everyone you know seems to be doing the same thing so it must be right.
You are all working hard, buying a house in the right neighborhood and a great car or 2 or 3, sending the kids to the best schools, trying to get along with your boss who's crazy as a bedbug, dressing for success and buying all the other stuff you just HAVE to HAVE and on and on.
And then something happens that makes you think.
For us it was my wife's sudden, potentially fatal illness and the suicide of a relative at the same time a boss ordered me to lie to both my customers and my employees.
It made us think.
It made us want something different.
It made us want to have more control over our lives and what we thought mattered.
Could you make it through the month if you had no credit cards? What if you get fired or laid off or sick? How long could you last financially? If you're like most people, NOT VERY LONG at all.
None of these possibilities are unusual.
Most people who go bankrupt have been either sick or unemployed.
They aren't cheaters or deadbeats.
They just have the misfortunes that are all too common in America today.
People don't have good medical insurance or secure employment.
And they are stretched to the absolute limits of their financial capacity.
They don't have any give in their budgets.
So when they get into financial difficulty they discover that all the stuff they have is worth a few cents on the dollar they paid when they bought it.
My wife has a pair of handmade cowboy boots that would sell for a couple of hundred dollars purchased new.
She bought them at a garage sale for $15 bucks.
Most stuff is like that.
Your cars are worth less than what you owe on them.
Your house needs work and everyone wants a new one.
Jewelry has to last in perfect condition through a couple of generations to be worth more than you paid for it.
Collectibles take longer than that to increase in value.
Your clothing is used and doesn't fit anyone else.
It's sad really.
Between the cost of the initial purchase and the financing you find out you've gone in the hole big time.
You actually work for credit card companies and banks whether you want to or not.
They think your job is to make them rich.
But what if you do it differently? You can, you know.
What if you decide you want to reduce your personal impact on the world and it's resources? Do you know what your carbon footprint is? Do you care? Do you care if you have the resources and the money to survive unemployment? If you do care, what are some good strategies to help you and yours get through these types of problems? First and foremost, never allow yourself to get financed to the hilt.
If you have spare financial resources you immediately have more options...
options other people don't have.
You want cash, not credit.
Credit costs way more than it's worth.
Maybe a smaller house will do just fine.
The bigger any house is the more it costs in both direct expenses and costs for things like utilities, upkeep and taxes.
And, how far do you commute every day? What would happen if you either lived at or near work or worked from home? Think of the money you could save on cars, fuel and repairs...
not to mention your time! But most important think about what you could do with the time you could capture.
Maybe you home school your kids, or start a business or just spend time in some great relationships.
What you do with your time CAN be your decision.
Your financial needs stop controlling your life.
Make the decision to be more pragmatic in evaluating what some purchase is really going to cost you.
You may decide you want financial freedom way more than you want stuff.
Invest in real wealth instead of following the Jones off the cliff.
Real investments produce income.
Stuff just sucks your future into some creditor's pockets.