Wants vs Needs

Really, you can stay focused on your financial goals - even when the "I wants and I shoulds" creep in your mind...




I was sitting in a meeting admiring the other women's manicured nails and thought to myself, "I am going to start getting my nails done." Then it occurred to me that would be about $60 a month and I have a lot of other goals that are more worthy to my cause than getting my nails done. It's only the first week and my financial goals are already pushed in the back corner :)

It occurred to me that that was a want - not a need. Wants needs to be factored in AFTER reaching the goals I have already outlined:

The three goals I am focused on for the first quarter are paying on my dryer (hopefully the current will hold up until then), saving a $1000 or to put in smaller chunks at least 84 a month, planning a June wedding. I will most likely get my nails done for THAT :)

I find myself looking at what other have and wanting for myself, just recently I was thinking that I would like to have a better home (newer, larger, etc), better car, and nails, hair, and the list could go on and on... My spiritual reading this morning was Exodus 20:17 "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." 

mmm, I don't really consider myself coveting, so to speak, I just want one too :)

Focus.....financial goals - I must ask myself what is the key word in the above thought....WANT - I need to focus on my NEEDS and not WANTS.

If I want something then I need to put in my budget and follow the rules from this article, below it excerpt that really caught my attention:

"Instead of viewing the price in currency, think of it in hours of work. Basically, how many hours would you have to work at your job to be able to buy this item?
Let’s say you make $15 an hour, and you are thinking about buying a jacket that costs $120. That means that you have to work 8 hours – a typical work day – in order to afford this jacket. So you have to decide: is this jacket worth a full day’s worth of work?
But if you make $60 an hour, that jacket is only going to cost you 2 hours of work. All of a sudden, the jacket seems much more affordable. By adopting this practice, your spending will start to be more proportional to what you earn, as in the examples above."
I have never thought about translating the cost to how many hours I had to work. So when those thoughts occur to me - I need analyze is this a need or a want, if it's a want, then I need to budget for it after I have thought about does the amount of hours worked to pay for it make it totally worth it.

How do you decipher the wants from the needs?

Dave Ramsey. When I pick Sally up from school I like to listen to his talk show in the car. I've learned so much.


Don't enable bad behavior, even if it's someone you know and love.


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