Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Getting Tired of Other's Money Complaints

I'm talking about "I can't afford..." or "Things keep getting more expensive..."

The first one, I can't afford, we hear from one of our roommates. Something my wife has taught me is that the word "can't" causes it to be true. You don't look for ways it can be done. As an example, my roommate was needing to get her prescription checked out and probably get it changed, but she only had enough for the week for food and rent. I offered to her that she could get the prescription done free if she did a mystery shop and she could get glasses online for pretty cheap. Her response: I want to keep my frame. She never asked me about the mystery shop and I don't believe she has gone yet because of the money issue.

The other one, things keep getting more expensive, I hear from many people. I'm sad to say it, but it's just like saying that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. When the SOP (standard operating procedure) is inflation, things cost more and more every year. You can choose to either complain about it or find a way to work around it. For example, food has gone up considerably. My solution: Grow a garden. Next, gas prices keep going up. My solution: Invest in the oil & gas industry, drive a car that is not a gas guzzler, reduce your driving, find alternative ways to get places.

The best solution I have for anyone complaining about any money issue: Be creative and make more money or cut your expenses. I went from working at Taco Bell to making $50K/yr in a year in my day job (yes, I had a degree that helped). At the same time, we have been working on multiple income streams over here (rental income, selling garden plants, mystery shopping, sewing services, custom programming, medical billing, etc). We've also looked at our expenses and cut them down dramatically.

If your able to do those two things, everything else in personal finance is easy from there.

1 comment:

Jim ~ mydebtblog.com said...

I understand where you are coming from. When someone complains to me about a situation, the first thing I ask them is what they're doing about it? Most of the time, they either haven't done anything to change the situation or looked at it in a different way. I'm an optimistic realist, thing will always get better when you think positive yet at the same time it is what it is. Costs of the basics like housing, food, gas, just as they have done for years past. It is candidates like Obama that sell (false) hope that a politician is going to make their problems go away. Just make sure you don't let them slide on the rent. I would go a step further to see if the amount of rent you are collecting is on the low or middle end of the scale in your area and adjust it if you feel the need to.

I like how you pointed out going from Taco Bell to 50k. When I was in college I didn't earn that much income, maybe a few hundred a month vs today its a few grand per month. The key in either case though is to live within your means. Being a broke college student for 4 years to get a computer science degree was a sacrifice I was willing to make.