Hey Jolene, So I am posting this here because I'm not sure if comments that readers leave you on your older dated blogs are easy for you to find or if they just get buried in the oldness...but, I just wanted to comment on the blog you wrote on Nov. 15th called, "How I really feel about our economy" or something close to that. :)
I truly marveled to see how logically you look at the world when it comes to saving and not going overboard with your spending. The problem with most people is that many of us don't seem to realize that we shouldn't be buying things just because we can or just because we want them. This is one of the reasons Edwin and I have not chosen to retire the old Honda Civic; rather, we love using it as our commuting car. Its really nice to not have any car payments and it still runs perfectly fine. But its funny because I can't tell you how many times I have been asked by people, when we will be buying a new car, etc., etc. Yes we can afford it, but we don't need it. We already own one decent vehicle so if we can go without having to buy a new car, we definitely will.
The same goes with people wanting to buy expensive "purebred" dogs. Why? When there are so many perfectly great animals dying in shelters(purebreds included) everyday...but the sad truth is, people love to brag about how "expensive" their dog was. I don't want to stereotype but I have seen this more with people from our culture. Ironically, almost every person I know at work, upper middle class people with household incomes well into the $150K+/year range, all adopt their dogs from shelters or rescues. Funny thing is, these people seem to be in a much better financial position to buy a designer dog than many of the people I've seen do this, and yet, they don't.
So I don't know if its a self esteem thing for people to want to buy BMW's they can't afford or designer clothes and make-up that cost an arm and a leg but when times get hard as they are now, unfortunately these are the people that suffer the most; and I'm not even gonna go into what financial havoc all those people who treated their homes like ATM's are probably now going through.
The sad thing is and you're completely right, hard times affect everyone. Even those like yourselves who budgeted fairly well and never went overboard buying things they couldn't afford. But so long as you have the right mind set, and I can see you do, you should definitely be able to make it through these hard times in good shape.
Keep being your smart, sensible self and you will be okay. Don't worry about not buying xmas gifts for anyone. Only you know whats right for you and your family and if anyone looks at you any differently for the money you didn't spend whether you could have afforded to or not, isn't worth a second thought.:)
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteHey Jolene,
ReplyDeleteSo I am posting this here because I'm not sure if comments that readers leave you on your older dated blogs are easy for you to find or if they just get buried in the oldness...but, I just wanted to comment on the blog you wrote on Nov. 15th called, "How I really feel about our economy" or something close to that. :)
I truly marveled to see how logically you look at the world when it comes to saving and not going overboard with your spending.
The problem with most people is that many of us don't seem to realize that we shouldn't be buying things just because we can or just because we want them. This is one of the reasons Edwin and I have not chosen to retire the old Honda Civic; rather, we love using it as our commuting car. Its really nice to not have any car payments and it still runs perfectly fine. But its funny because I can't tell you how many times I have been asked by people, when we will be buying a new car, etc., etc. Yes we can afford it, but we don't need it. We already own one decent vehicle so if we can go without having to buy a new car, we definitely will.
The same goes with people wanting to buy expensive "purebred" dogs. Why? When there are so many perfectly great animals dying in shelters(purebreds included) everyday...but the sad truth is, people love to brag about how "expensive" their dog was. I don't want to stereotype but I have seen this more with people from our culture.
Ironically, almost every person I know at work, upper middle class people with household incomes well into the $150K+/year range, all adopt their dogs from shelters or rescues. Funny thing is, these people seem to be in a much better financial position to buy a designer dog than many of the people I've seen do this, and yet, they don't.
So I don't know if its a self esteem thing for people to want to buy BMW's they can't afford or designer clothes and make-up that cost an arm and a leg but when times get hard as they are now, unfortunately these are the people that suffer the most; and I'm not even gonna go into what financial havoc all those people who treated their homes like ATM's are probably now going through.
The sad thing is and you're completely right, hard times affect everyone. Even those like yourselves who budgeted fairly well and never went overboard buying things they couldn't afford. But so long as you have the right mind set, and I can see you do, you should definitely be able to make it through these hard times in good shape.
Keep being your smart, sensible self and you will be okay. Don't worry about not buying xmas gifts for anyone. Only you know whats right for you and your family and if anyone looks at you any differently for the money you didn't spend whether you could have afforded to or not, isn't worth a second thought.:)