One of the hardest things to combat regarding your personal finances and lifestyle is the need to fit in. As humans, we seem to be hardwired to want to fit in as best we can with our social circle. We often look around us and see our friends, neighbors and coworkers attaining certain milestones that we would also like to. The Joneses get to go on vacation regularly, they can afford the new car every other year, and they can get that new 60” flat-screen television that you have to keep walking by in the store. “If the Joneses can do it, why can’t we?” Looking at things can be both beneficial and toxic to how you run your personal finances. The good aspect is that it makes us want to work harder to attain everything that they have. The toxic element is that we sometimes like to cut corners to get there. Want to go on vacation? Charge it! Not happy with your five-year-old car. Upgrade it! I want the 60” flat screen. Finance it! What we rarely do is save for it.
Often, we back ourselves into a corner without realizing that the Joneses are maxed out on their credit lines, leveraged up to their eyeballs, and stressed to the breaking point. No one likes to talk about the negatives of getting everything you want. We only see the thin veneer of a lifestyle and want to have the same things. Eventually, once we get them, we realize too late that the attached strings have now tied us up over a snarling pit of debt. Examining our limitations when it comes to having everything we want is not equivalent to realizing failure. It is, in fact, the path to being successful. If we only took the time to evaluate what we could do rather than what we wanted to do more regularly, we could have everything we wanted. It just may take a little longer than we want.