Finding Freedom from the Bondage of Life
When times are great and the money is flowing we have a tendency to “exhaust the margin“. We spend every dollar we have, and commit every dollar we don’t YET have. We assume that the future will be as bright as the past, no – brighter. We exhaust all the margin in our time and finances, current and future, get in debt, and end up in risk of coming off the tracks. Then, when the fun is gone we think “What have I done?” I say it’s time to rethink your plan and start finding freedom from the bondage of life.
Exhausting the margin
Lets say you make $2000 a month. You might commit $1600 of it to payments and think “surely I can live/eat off the rest”. Housing, car, cable, cell phone bill, membership x, y, and z, club dues, toy payment, you name it. We think “I want that, no I NEED that – and I’ll be happy”. So, we do the only logical thing – finance!
The Problem
Here’s the problem. You WON’T be happy. You are promising to spend your future life repaying what you buy/use/consume in the current one. You’ll have a feel good moment where you drive off in the new car, walk away with the new clothes, or swipe the card for the vacation. Then, you might be “one thing going wrong” away from a financial meltdown. And, you know it. You feel it. You hate it.
Something’s Gotta Give
Every day, you get up and go to work. You think “I have to work myself to death just to pay my bills, my credit card payment, my car payment, my x, my y, and my z payments. And I don’t even feel like I can enjoy my job. I wish I could be a vet (an evil vet?), or a pilot, or even a traveling shower curtain ring salesman. I’m just tired of the grind. Something’s gotta give.
Bondage
Bondage – slavery; servitude; the state of being bound by or subjected to some external power or control.
What if you are a slave to your lifestyle? A lifestyle that you thought you wanted, but that sucks the joy out of your soul. What if the decisions of your past have put you into slavery to the future? An easy choice back then sends you to work today, tomorrow, and next week. And for what? Are you incrementally creating the life you want, or are you simply paying for what you want-ED yesterday, last week, or last year?
Beyond Financial
Bondage can come in all sorts of forms, shapes, and sizes. What may be bondage to one person may not be to another. What’s NOT bondage to someone else may be to you. I suggest that you decide what weighs you down, what keeps you up at night, what sends you to work in a spirit of unhappiness, and seek to reduce or eliminate it.
You may find that your time commitments weigh you down. You never have time for yourself, or your friends or family.
It could be that you have deferred maintenance on your house that you never have time or interest in repairing. You can’t feel relaxed at home because all you can think about is the laundry list of things that need to be done.
Do you have a list of undone todo items? Perhaps even for some things you don’t even want to do? Repair the lawn mower, clean out your inbox, etc.
Is it possible that you are maintaining relationships that should have ended or have been distanced a long time ago? People that take more than they give, and perhaps ungratefully.
A better way
Think about this for a moment. What if you lived small? What if you had no debt, had a paid for car, had no mortgage, had no maintenance to do, received only important emails? What if you had money in the bank, made more than you spent, worked less, spent more time with friends, and more time enjoying life?
What keeps you from it?
What if you worked to remove things from your life that bog you down more than they help you? Sell your car and buy a cheaper one, move to a cheaper house, get rid of things you don’t want or need, simplify your surroundings, eliminate or replace the unreliable things.
What if?
What if you worked because you wanted to, did what brought you joy, spent more time with friends and loved ones, and lived a simpler life? What stands in your way?
The first step is to stop the bleeding. Begin to create spots in your life where you purposefully do nothing. Stop spending more money than you make.
Then, seek to eliminate monthly expenses and pay off debt. DIg yourself out of the hole you are in. Get to a place where you have more money and time than you know what to do with. Spend both on experiences with the people you love.
Craig
P.S., Soon I will write about my own experiences going through this journey. We are hardly “out of the woods” yet with this process, but we keep making great strides.