Got it Going On
Gloria doesn’t necessarily love the work she does, but she doesn’t hate it either. She enjoys helping people and she gets to do just that. She makes decent money (as far as jobs go). She has a nice home, a nice car, nice cloths, and nice toys. She buys most of what she wants when she wants it. Some people think Gloria’s got it going on. And Gloria thought so, too.
My Story
I remember when I got my first raise in my new government job; and then another raise and another raise. Sad to say, I started poking my chest out as I recalled some of the people I worked with at my former employer and how they treated me when I left. I said, on several occasions, I probably make more than most of them now and God did it in just a few years. I’m not proud that I used God’s name amid my boasting, but that’s what I was thinking at the time. I would have never said, “I’ve got it going on,” but I certainly felt like it.
Yep, Gloria could easily be me. I have a decent job; drive a nice car; and though my clothes are not designer, they are nice to me. I buy most of what I want when I want it- or at least I used to.
Could Gloria be you, too? …and probably a bunch of people in your circle?
The Real Deal
The reality of Gloria’s life (our lives) is, we look like we got it going on, but we don’t. For a long time, I was spending virtually every dollar I bought home as income. With every raise, my expenses went up as well. I traded my vehicle up from a $500 Ford Ranger to a $3600 Geo Metro and now my little Mazda CX-5 is car number six. As long as I thought I could afford the payments, I bought it: more clothes, more shoes, more food and entertainment, more splurging and treating other people to lunch and/or dinner, more of everything I thought I could afford. When my income didn’t cover it, I simply put it on my credit card, which allowed me the enjoy now and pay later.
What Gloria and I didn’t realize is, we were paying to use other people’s money- sometimes $ .28 on the dollar. In addition to spending every dollar of cash, we added debt to the mix. We were using future paychecks to pay for the prior week’s, the prior month’s, and the prior year’s entertainment and expenses
We were living broke, with no money in the bank, no plan for emergencies- just a hope and naïve expectation that things would be okay. When things got extremely tight or we started to drown in debt, we consoled ourselves by saying, “Things will work out.”
A lot of years, I lived drowning in debt. And every time I got a pay raise, I could breathe again. Before you knew it, I’d be buying more stuff. Each pay raise I would snuff it away with more stuff.
The Real Work
Things don’t work out on their own, like magic. It takes work. It takes seeing what you are really doing. Sitting down and writing down all of your bills and all of your expenses. It takes looking at your past 30, 60, 90 day spending history and identifying what you spent your money on.
You could skip the look-back and you could still be successful; but you’d be missing the benefits of a game changing move. For me, it’s the step Dr. Lynn Richardson recommended in, “21 Days to Financial Freedom” that was most impacted me. It was like looking into the light. My eyes hurt, my head hurt, my heart hurt. For many of us, we’d find a whole lot of money that we either can’t account for, or we have nothing to show for. The biggest area of incidental spending is often food and entertainment.
Conclusion
Proverbs 13:7 says, “There is one who pretends to be rich, yet has nothing at all; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.”
One lives lavishly, although he/she can’t afford to live so; and another lives modestly, although he/she can afford to live otherwise. The one looks wealthy. The other is wealthy.
Many millionaires and billionaires drive used cars and wear jeans and t-shirts. Their money isn’t on display. They have regular jobs like teachers, nurses, firemen, office administrators, etc.; but could truly be what Thomas Stanley called, “The Millionaire Next Door.” Some make far less money than you and me; but have amassed wealth by applying basic financial principals consistently over time.
I’m not suggesting we can’t have and do nice things- even really nice things- only that we must exercise wisdom. Let’s expend less energy looking good on the outside and more on making sure we’re good on the inside; less time looking like we’re financially situated and more time getting properly situated.
