Friday, February 24, 2006
Words to live by: can I afford this??
Watched part 2 in Oprah's series "The Debt Diet", or most of it anyway. Dan called during the last 15 minutes, so I missed that. The three families who had been featured last week were each assigned an expert to help them manage their debt. This week, they went over the numbers and started setting limits. It wasn't pretty.
I applaud Oprah for doing this because it has been a real eye opener. I have always joked that Americans have lifestyles to match their paychecks. I know I began to live more extravangantly when I began making good wages. But I had no idea how many people actually EXCEED their paychecks, every month, even when they are earning well. And it was a real shocker to see just how spoiled a middle class person can be.
For instance, one family was spending approximately $425 PER PERSON, per WEEK, on food alone! Even with my higher priced gluten free foods, Dan's convenience foods, and my outrageously expensive supplements, our monthly total combined is probably $425. But this family ate out every meal, every day. I hear complaints about how much money people waste eating out, but this made me understand the reality of it.
The first family featured on today's show was the one with the most money coming in, over $100,000 per year. Oddly enough, they were also the family most clueless about what a disaster their finances were. If someone dropped by my house to help me determine my assets and debts, it would take perhaps an hour to get the numbers together. With this family, it took over 12 hours to figure this stuff out with the help of the financial expert! They were finding UNOPENED bills from three YEARS ago! Once they calculated what they owed and how much they'd been spending, the financial expert began setting limits. They were told that they could no longer keep five vehicles. They had to get rid of either two or three of them, I forget which. What amazed me was that this alone saved them something like $600 per month. They had to trade an expensive piano they had leased for a cheaper one, which saved them $2000. They got rid of their big screen tv because they already had one in every room. That freed up $2700. And they had to cut their $130 per month cable bill to $50.
The woman in this family had the hardest time adjusting. She'd been accustomed to spending $500 to $1500 a WEEK in CASH! Her cell phone bill averaged $250 a month. So she was given an allowance of $20 per day, which is about twice what Dan and I spend in cash. She whined and complained and at the end of the first week had still spent almost $250. Her husband did very well, only spending about $40. And she got into an argument with the financial expert about all the money she was spending at the salon, refusing to come in less than once a week to get her hair done. She did have the final say on that.
Oprah mentioned something that I think by and large has been forgotten in this country. Before you purchase anything at all, ask yourself: can I afford this? A question so simple that it seems almost an insult to ask it, but a question that unfortunately most of us don't have an answer to. Yes, it is wrong for companies to let us borrow more than we can afford, but it is even more wrong for us to try borrowing it in the first place. This is even more difficult for those of us who can no longer work, but it is probably a lesson most people can benefit from.
If you live within your means, you'll find more meaning in your life.
I applaud Oprah for doing this because it has been a real eye opener. I have always joked that Americans have lifestyles to match their paychecks. I know I began to live more extravangantly when I began making good wages. But I had no idea how many people actually EXCEED their paychecks, every month, even when they are earning well. And it was a real shocker to see just how spoiled a middle class person can be.
For instance, one family was spending approximately $425 PER PERSON, per WEEK, on food alone! Even with my higher priced gluten free foods, Dan's convenience foods, and my outrageously expensive supplements, our monthly total combined is probably $425. But this family ate out every meal, every day. I hear complaints about how much money people waste eating out, but this made me understand the reality of it.
The first family featured on today's show was the one with the most money coming in, over $100,000 per year. Oddly enough, they were also the family most clueless about what a disaster their finances were. If someone dropped by my house to help me determine my assets and debts, it would take perhaps an hour to get the numbers together. With this family, it took over 12 hours to figure this stuff out with the help of the financial expert! They were finding UNOPENED bills from three YEARS ago! Once they calculated what they owed and how much they'd been spending, the financial expert began setting limits. They were told that they could no longer keep five vehicles. They had to get rid of either two or three of them, I forget which. What amazed me was that this alone saved them something like $600 per month. They had to trade an expensive piano they had leased for a cheaper one, which saved them $2000. They got rid of their big screen tv because they already had one in every room. That freed up $2700. And they had to cut their $130 per month cable bill to $50.
The woman in this family had the hardest time adjusting. She'd been accustomed to spending $500 to $1500 a WEEK in CASH! Her cell phone bill averaged $250 a month. So she was given an allowance of $20 per day, which is about twice what Dan and I spend in cash. She whined and complained and at the end of the first week had still spent almost $250. Her husband did very well, only spending about $40. And she got into an argument with the financial expert about all the money she was spending at the salon, refusing to come in less than once a week to get her hair done. She did have the final say on that.
Oprah mentioned something that I think by and large has been forgotten in this country. Before you purchase anything at all, ask yourself: can I afford this? A question so simple that it seems almost an insult to ask it, but a question that unfortunately most of us don't have an answer to. Yes, it is wrong for companies to let us borrow more than we can afford, but it is even more wrong for us to try borrowing it in the first place. This is even more difficult for those of us who can no longer work, but it is probably a lesson most people can benefit from.
If you live within your means, you'll find more meaning in your life.
Comments:
Post a Comment
