Why Money Isn't a Luxury

People claim that money isn't important to them.

'No I would never do it just for the money' they say.

Liars.

They would actually do it for just the money. And they know it. In fact, I'm willing to bet my whole inheritage that when people claim they don't want to do it for the money, it's the other way around.

Here's the thing.

It's not evil to do something for the money. Everyone needs money one way or the other. No matter how much you love it or hate it.

You actually need it.

Period.

Maybe it can help if you consider money to be a tool that you’re using to improve your life. As an example, today I went to the grocery store and bought two lamps. This has significantly improved my life because now my living room isn’t so dark as it used to be.

And if you keep in mind that I’m living in a dark and cold place right now, some light really helps.

Literally.

Anyway, back to topic.

Let’s say that your car breaks down. There’s a problem with the transmission. The people at the garage say that they need to change the whole transmission system. It’s going to cost you at least $3,000. Maybe even more. It all depends on how much work they’ll have to do.

Imagine if you actually had $3,000 available to pay for that expense. I guarantee you that you wouldn’t have felt ‘good’ about paying all that money to fix your car. Nobody ever does.

However, I likewise guarantee you that if you *didn’t* have that $3,000 available, you’d feel worse. A lot worse. You’d either have to sell something or you’d have to take a loan to fix your car. Imagine applying for a credit card loan and you know you won’t see any of that money because you need to pay for fixing your car.

That definitely is going to suck.

A lot.

If you own a car and you haven’t had that one break down where you need to pay a lot of money to get something in your car fixed — get ready for it. It will happen to you eventually. It has happened to me. And maybe it’ll even happen again.

Something to think about if you want that bug out vehicle of yours to be functioning.

Anyway, I think you know where I’m going with this. If you have a day job, make it a habit to pay yourself first. What that means is putting away money in your emergency fund in case something serious happens. If you seriously cannot even afford to put away some money you either need to reduce your expenses to a bare minimum or get a second job. Or perhaps another job.

I think you know where I’m going with this.

You’re not dumb.

However, if you take a look around at what most people today do with their money, they’re rather dumb. At least you would think so based on how they spend their money and what they do.

It’s not abnormal for Average Joe to go to Wal-Mart or somewhere else and buy some cheap stuff that he really doesn’t need and that he’a half enthusiastic about while in the grocery store.

Like a pair of shoes.

When he gets back home, he stares at the shoes for two seconds and then tosses them away. He doesn’t need them. And he knew it from the very beginning.

Now, if he’d done that just once or twice it wouldn’t have mattered so much. Everybody makes mistakes. But doing it over and over again clearly shows a lack of respect for money and financial planning.

Put simply, if you buy stuff you really don’t need over and over again, you won’t be able to save up for your emergency fund. Much less afford to pay for the car repair cost or whatever else big financial cost you’ll be subjected to.

In order to get your money straight, you have to get your mindset right. And in order to get your mindset right, you have to start showing discipline.

It means sitting down with a pen and a paper and write down what you spend money on versus how much you make.

Then you'll have to cut all your unecessary costs and start from there.

It's tough.

It's hard.

But it's 100% possible to do.

All you need is your willpower.

And the ability to persist.