Think before spending money?
Really? What type of strange concept is this? Consider the positive possibilities
before condemning or failing to try this first. Many want more from their money
than what money can be stretched to do. So before thinking this will fail. Consider
the positive possibilities.
We will take a deep view into
impulsive spending.
Emotions and mental disorders can affect how we spend our money and what we do for recreation. Our impulses make us feel good temporary. But these impulses
can have very negative and bad consequences in our lives. Failing to
acknowledge who each of us are, fails our money too. Why?
What
causes impulse control disorders?
Some people can gamble with a set amount of
money. When the money is spent
or winnings occur, they can walk away. For others, the obsession produces a
highly addictive situation that produces financial losses; over and over again.
Some individuals can drink alcohol every day and never become an alcoholic. For
others, one drink is too many. The best way to know if a hobby, recreation, or
entertainment is becoming a dangerous addiction is to be honest about what you
are spending and the facts of the consequences activities produce.
Be honest with self. Put your profits and losses on paper. Create
two columns. On the left of the paper create a positive column. On the right
side of the paper create a negative column. Put your money consequences on
paper in front of you to read to evaluate and analyze. When the negative side
increases greater than the positive side; a life change must occur. Help and
learning must be pursued or the cycle of negative effects will never end. The
negative aspects of money we lie about is that we do not have enough. This is
false. Most do have enough income to survive and thrive on when responsibly
managing money. However, it is failure to see and acknowledge exactly what we
are doing with our money that hurts us the most. We are not truthful when we
cannot afford to do something. Most just spend it. This only leads to unfairly
burdening others with the money problems you created.
Have you ever went “window shopping” with
friends or walked the mall for exercise when it was raining outside? Did you
feel bad because you did not have money to spend? Did you produce worry because
you did spend and couldn’t afford too and now your electricity or water may get
cut off because of it? Did this make you feel depressed because you
see all the nice things you want to own but have no way in your income to own
it?
Why do we choose to get into these situations of producing lust, envy,
jealousy, impulsiveness, and depression?
Why do we compete or feel like we have to spend money with
others to be accepted by them? What type of false and sad existence is this? To
think we hurt our best friends because we went along with them; knowing neither
of us, could afford to spend money we did not have? This is not real
friendships. This is not real relationships. Money details more about our
emotional, psychological, and abilities to be logical thinkers than we ever
realize. Most will never factor in how emotions affect ability to spend and
control money. But it does.
Failing to acknowledge impulsive tendencies we have; will not make them go away. Failing to admit our impulsiveness or submissive behaviors
will continue to destroy the positive potentials our money has. Many are not
equipped with emotional awareness, psychological understanding, and are never
taught about learning to grow logical and rational decisions and choices. Many will
only seek solutions for problems; after the horrible consequences have been
done.
But what if we learned how these
things affect us, before we suffered the horrible consequences instead? What if we invested a few minutes
every day into learning deeper of who each of us are and how this impacts our
abilities to spend and control money?
We live in a global world of
instant gratification.
A world where we can fulfill anything we want because of the internet. The
internet has allowed our deepest fantasies and illusions to be shared with
others to come true. We can order almost anything with no thought of financial
consequence. We can have secret affairs or sexual fulfillment with only a click
of a web address or private email. This is highly convenient, but can produce
morally wrong and financially irresponsible consequences and hardships. When we
do anything without thinking of the consequences before we do it; then we are
just an impulsive generation of selfish gratifiers with no thought of others. We
never consider how our actions will affect others. We only think of self. No
one deserves to be treated like this and no one should treat others like this
either.
- To think before spending is to acknowledge the consequences, before they begin.
- · To think before spending, is to be aware of your budget in what you can afford to do and what you cannot afford to do.
- · To think before spending, makes good discipline of self and gives you the ability to control your money.
- · It stops the harmful and devastating emotional consequences produced by impulsive and reckless spending.
Make a financial devotion in your
budget for three months.
Challenge to stop the emotional and
psychological shopping trips or wasteful spending habits. Consider giving up
$10-$50 for these three months. On average, this amount is what people use to
eat out on, go to the movies, or shopping sprees monthly. With this money,
instead, of buying or doing what you would normally do. Here’s a goal to reach by taking this
challenge and meeting these goals the next three months.
Delaying self-gratification to increase
financial maturity and thinking before spending as a healthy habit.
1) Choose
one bill that you have the most discomfort with. (House, car, utility, credit
card or credit account.)
2) Use
your recreational, hobby, or activity money to pay extra on this one bill.
3) Send
in this amount as a separate principle payment, use it to pay late fees or
interest fees – with the regular payment.
4) Instead
of feeling sad because you are giving up something, consider what you are
gaining.
5) Preview
the next month’s statement.
6) Look
at how the principal decreased. Look at how the balance decreased by paying a
little extra toward interest.
7) This
is real. This is honest. This is not impulsive. This is thinking before doing.
8) This
is controlling money.
9) Continue
for two months.
10) Total
the benefits of the past three months. Doesn’t that feel pretty good now?
Most of us, do not want to stop and
think of how we spend our money. Why? Because we have already established negative aspects of
our money that controls us. Many have family or friends we borrow from and rely
on when we get into money problems. We will spend on our money on our wants of
movies, restaurants, or concerts. Then we stress those we financially depend
upon when our utilities are not paid or we have no groceries in our homes.
Our priorities are
wrong about money and our immediate role in how we spend our money.
Criminals choose to make crime
choices to obtain materials of wealth they did not earn nor achieve honestly. These materials are possessions of
no real value to them; just as they treat people, in their lives to have no individual
value. Why?
Because
the desire in criminals is to obtain through unlawful means which deters them
from focusing on self. They destroy self and others to keep from starting over
to build something new. They choose harmful choices instead. They seek gain
when all they produce is destruction. It is easier to falsely believe that
self-gratification is more important than responsible and accountable behaviors
are. It is easier to falsely believe others are accountable to their choices
created by their actions, but we are not.
This is the clear
definition of inequality. This is produced by self. No one else.
Narcissistic and manipulative
behaviors and personalities are geniuses in their own ways. They seek selfish goals. They create
deviant plans that will only benefit them.
When these
behaviors and personalities seek to control others; they produce clones or
spawns to carry out their criminal behaviors. These criminal masterminds reap
the benefits, not their workers. They make their subordinates feel powerless,
helpless, and useless to others. This is sad that humans will allow others humans to treat this way.
For the intelligence criminals display
are no different than any other emotionally charged individual who seeks to control
others. The only
difference between individuals of authority and a criminal is that criminals
use others to commit their crimes. Powerful political people and managers produce
profits. Even though, powerful and law-abiding people do not break laws they
can still emotionally deprive people - just as the criminal would. This is
emotional manipulation.
To be aware of one’s behavior,
personality, medical conditions, and tendencies of good or bad is to acknowledge
changes must occur to decrease the negative aspects of who we are to increase
our positives.
We
look at homes thinking of the positive potentials that a paint job could do or
new windows could make as an investment. We view vehicles of having this
awesome feature or wonderful power. But yet, rarely ever, do we stop and gaze
into our mirror to do the same to self. We spend so much time evaluating,
analyzing, and constructing data of opinions about others around us; but the
one person we fail to understand the most, is our self.
Money is a tool. Money provides the
means to build a house, but it cannot make a new house, a home.
Money can make us look good on the outside, but money and material cannot make
us feel good about self on the inside. It is a duty each of us have to
understand others and to understand self. When we realize our limitations or
restrictions of what we can do safely and what we cannot do safely; this does
not make us weak, but makes us stronger and healthier. Our positives increase
greater than our negatives when we are aware of who we are and how we spend our
money.
Money makes us high when we have
more than we need. Money makes us low when we fear we do not have enough.
But somewhere in the middle of every
budget of income – no matter how large or small – is a happy and stress-free balance
that only each can pursue, find, learn about, and apply.
Money is meant to be
controlled by people. Not money controlling the people. That’s a people
problem. Not the money.