Living beyond your means can be very easy to do and very hard to correct or stop doing. It can and will always catch up with you maybe not in the moment but in the long run or in your credit score. But what does it really mean it sounds impossible but believe me it is way easier than you think. It’s the old “work harder not smarter” and “let your money work for you not you work for it” in both cases this applies. How can it be avoided though in a world where everyone and everything seems to be beyond your means.
It’s simple if you follow the economic rules you were taught as a child either by your parents or that economics teacher that you really didn’t pay attention to but passed the class. Don’t find yourself trapped in financial ignorance because you forgot what you learned/
Don’t live on credit. Credit cards can help you in a bind or when you have a life emergency that you don’t have the ability to handle at that moment in time. When this occurs just make sure that you save to pay it off as soon or before the mail person brings the bill or make payments over that minimum and early. Credit card companies will never not accept payment in full or take your payment before the due date, in fact this can work towards your benefit in the long run. Use cash as much as possible, if there is anyway that the emergency can wait then save, save, save.
You do not always have to have the front row seats or the latest and greatest phone or computer the minute it goes one the market. Save for it if it is really what you want or need. There is nothing better than having that perfect system and it’s paid for. It’s like the grass feeling better in your paid off yard, that system seems way more amazing if there is no payment attached to it and afterall then it really and truly is yours, not yours and the credit card companies or the stores credit line. Sometimes the deal may be better if you get it on payments by adding on items that you can’t outright pay for, when this is the case do the deed and get that credit purchase then return the next day or even later that same day and pay it off. It really will feel so good.
Make it a choice and a habit to save for that trip with the girls or that special treat you feel you deserve because you have earned it. Maybe it was taught to you by your parents to never go into debt or maybe it is what you read everyday or hear repeatedly on the radio newscast, listen to what they say instead of changing the station. Every decision you make will affect your credit score in some way so make sure it’s positive and not something that is going to lower your numbers to a place where you can’t fix the problem.
None of this means stop living but it is really living if when you are paid for a hard days work and it is already spent before it hits the bank. All it means, in short, is to pay attention and pay cash whenever you can and really if you try hard enough this means you can most all the time. If you are constantly struggling to keep your head above water eventually you will not enjoy what it was that put you there in the first place. That expensive coffee doesn’t taste as good when one cup takes you three months to pay for and it cost your numbers more that it was worth in the first place.