Resisting Temptation To Spend Your Money
By Myles Johnstone
One of the most persistently acclaimed personal virtues is frugality; save, don't waste your money. We have all heard Benjamin Franklin's famous quote: "A penny saved is a penny earned." Franklin was actually understating the case for saving. Actually, a penny saved can be many pennies earned.
Like most advice that lasts for generations, there is wisdom in the advice to be frugal and save. Saving a certain percentage of your income is an important part of taking control of your life, paying yourself first, and improving your psychological and financial well-being in the process. But frugality clearly requires some sacrifice. The money you save obviously cannot be currently spent on things you are tempted to buy.
Everything we do in life requires some kind of trade off, and saving is certainly no exception to this elementary fact. The key is to sacrifice those things of lower value and to do so in such a way as to acquire the most value. Most people can save more than they do, far more in many cases, by resisting temptations to buy things that add little satisfaction to their lives. And the payoff for resisting these temptations can be very large. The key to resisting temptation is in recognizing:
1. That there are plenty of things we can easily do without, or with less of.
2. That tremendous benefits can be achieved from being frugal.
Most people believe that they are just getting by on what they are now spending, when only a little thought would reveal that there is plenty they could eliminate and hardly miss. Do you really need that new CD, or the new cell phone just because it's a little smaller than the one you have? And most people are unaware of just how much they could realize over the long haul by cutting back on things that are largely superfluous to their well-being.
Certainly we are in no position to determine what trade offs you should make. The costs and benefits of doing anything are, at their core, subjective, and so only you can really know the costs and benefits of saving. But we can recommend some temptations that most people can resist, and point out the impressive returns that can be realized as a reward for resisting them.
Resisting temptation also creates more than just financial gains. Resisting temptation establishes a sense of self-control that is an integral part of any satisfying life. It is summoning the strength to take control of your choices and choosing wisely and deliberately, rather than responding to things like a feather in the wind. It also helps to establish, in your own mind, a hierarchy of importance, enabling you to realize just what matters in your life.
About the Author
Myles Johnstone writes exclusively for finance related sites such as Refinancing Finance Info.com, Vehicle Finance Info.com and finance Solutions info.com
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