Do You Spend Beyond Your Means?

I have never been one to ask another person – family member or otherwise, to borrow money from them with the exception if I am away from my hometown and I can’t get into my bank accounts from where I am. That being said – if I do borrow money, I make darn sure I have the money to repay the person straight away.I also will not spend beyond my means. If I don’t have the money – then I don’t have it. Sure – I could always charge what I want on one of my charge cards – but I stop myself dead in my tracks with this line of thinking because the charge card purchase has to be paid – it’s a given.

Another good example of not spending beyond my means – my daughter’s father passed out at the wheel totaling our vehicle years ago. I needed a vehicle – but was unsure of where our finances were headed. I really wanted this $13,000 Hyundai Tucson, but ended up with a $9,000 Buick Century where I weaseled the dealership down to $7000.  Why didn’t I go for the car I really wanted? Simply because I had no idea where our finances were headed. It ended up being a good thing I went with the car I did as it ended up being that my daughter’s father was no longer able to work after the accident. At the age of 41, he ended up having a triple by-pass and cervical neck surgery all within 4 months. The hospital immediately applied to Social Security Disability on his behalf the day he was admitted, and yes he was found eligible – but not until 2 1/2 years had passed. All those months – I had to scrimp and save where I could to come up with the monthly payment. If I had gone for the higher priced car…I would have had even a harder time trying to make ends meet.

The point here – you really need to take the future into consideration where your finances are concerned. One never knows what the next day will bring. It’s not worth you getting your head in over your shoulders – that just creates undue stress.