Before You Spend, Earn
Continuing on the famous quote by William Arthur Ward, I firmly believe the meaning of this phrase can be perfectly seen in the image of modern society. It is common knowledge that we live in an era of economic disparity, one that has been around for plenty of years, and may even stick around for many more years to come. Some may wonder the reason behind the failure of our current economic system, or why millions of people around the world are, even at this moment, thinking of how to survive another day.
Now, I can ramble on about political games and hidden interests that have decided the course of our economy, sealing its fate, and in most cases, blaming the people in power can be the correct move. Still, there is something much more straightforward, something that most of us do, or have done in the past, that brought us in this state. And that is, spending money we don’t have. From borrowing money from a friend to buy some ice cream, or from a bank to buy a house, people every day, all around the globe, create debts so they can live a luxurious life. But borrowed money means borrowed time, and what are you going to do when the people you borrowed from start asking for their money back? And that’s one of the reasons why most of us are now amidst the chaos of the economic crisis. So, my tip to you is Ward’s brilliant words, before you spend, earn. And that means not only avoiding to create debts but spending less overall.
How Do I Spend Less Money?
- The answer to that is as simple as the question, here are some tips, on spending less money:
- Don’t be lazy. Did the paint on the wall start looking bad? Did you leave food out for an entire weekend, so now your house is infested with annoying insects? Did you click a weird link, so now you have a virus on your computer? Don’t spend precious money on simple problems that you can solve yourself. These things may not happen to you every day, but if you sum up the amount of money you’ve spent (which frankly aren’t small amounts, i.e., spending 50 dollars on a computer store for someone to do a 5-minute job) on things you could have quickly done yourself, turns out you’ve wasted enough money as it is, without mentioning anything else.
- Spend your money wisely. Now let’s say you need a new jacket, or your only pair of jeans got ripped apart by a wild bear in a tuxedo with a machine gun (because I said so, it’s my story ok?). Why buy it straight away? When you are interested in buying something, always wait for discount periods, they are more often than you think, and every store has one. Chances are, you can get more things with the same amount of money, or get the items you want at a lower price, thus, saving money, and giving wild bears in tuxedos more clothes to rip apart.
- Use your car less. With the price of gas going over the roof, chances are you spend more on money on gas than anything you spend your money on in the place you use it to go for. Don’t use your car for close distances, walk instead. Or, even better, try using a bicycle, most countries have taken cyclists into account in their transportation laws, and plenty of them have routes, or parts of the road that are to be used by cyclists only, making your transportation easier, cheaper, and with much less traffic.
- Go environment friendly. Please don’t leave the lights on all day, don’t spend so much on heating/cooling, turn off the air conditioner before you go to sleep, these are some environmentally friendly ways to spend less money, but I’m sure there are plenty more, you have to follow them through, day by day.
Why Is It Good To Spend Less Money?
Some may ask: “But I’m doing alright as it is why I need to spend less money?” Well, the answer my friends, is not one, but many, as there can be many things to be gained by spending less money daily.
- You have no more debts. By not using your credit card, or by generally spending less money, you begin to pay off your debt with the cash you have leftover each month, thus, slowly eliminating any debts you have accumulated over the years.
- No more stress. Who likes stressing over debts? That’s right, no one, and by eliminating the debt, you reduce the stress that follows it, so in theory, you are a happier person.
- You save more money. After all of your debts are cleared, you start saving up money, and always having money in the side is an excellent idea, because you never know what expenses might come your way without you even knowing. And in the end, you might also end up buying that thing you’ve wanted to for a while but never had the money to spare.
Summing up, spending more money than we can afford, for things we may or may not need, is one of the main reasons why a large population of the earth is a part of the general problem called the economic crisis. The solution to that is simple, if we start spending less money overall, and clear our debts, only spending money on things that are an absolute necessity, we start creating a surplus, improving our life quality overall.
