Money Park. Debt Power Down Service.

Have you ever really examined the differences between your needs vs. your wants? Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. At the top of the left side write “NEEDS”. At the top of the other column write “ WANTS”. And proceed to list the items that cost you money each month in the appropriate column. As you do this it is important that you understand that NEEDS SUSTAIN LIFE and WANTS SUSTAIN LIFESTYLE.

If done honestly you will discover that you have many WANTS that you have always considered NEEDS. Many of the things we now consider NEEDS in our culture were not even considerations just a few generations ago. Many of the things we feel we can’t live without would have been considered a luxury by our parents or grandparents not to mention our great grandparents.

We all like nice things and enjoy the many conveniences provided by a prosperous lifestyle. But the problem starts when we try to live a lifestyle that we cannot afford or a lifestyle that we can no longer afford to maintain.

A friend shared a story with me about a man by the name of Molina that he became acquainted with during his missionary service in Tucuman Argentina. Molina was gainfully employed as a sugar cane worker. He was happily married and he and his wife had three children. Molina owned his own two room mud brick house. The house had dirt floors and they had a little barbeque type of grill for a stove.

A luxury item for Molina was shoes. Almost everywhere he went, he went barefooted. Not because he didn’t have shoes because he did. Each week as he walked to church (he had no car) you would see him with his shoes hanging over his shoulder with the shoe laces tied together. Once he approached the church he would stop and put on his shoes before he went in. After the church services he would leave the building and take off his shoes and walk home. He did this because he knew that the more he wore the shoes the sooner they would ware out and he would have to replace them. He couldn’t afford to buy new shoes frequently and so he took great care of the ones he had. This level of frugality is rarely if ever seen in this country.

If you were to take the average American and put them in a similar situation as Molina, most would consider it an almost unbearable lifestyle to adjust to. But the amazing part of this story is that Molina was and is a very happy and hard working man. His basic needs that sustain life are met. He does not have many luxuries but he does have what really matters.

It would be an extremely difficult experience for the average American to trade lifestyles with him because we have such high expectations of what a “normal” lifestyle should be like. We tend to feel cheated or left out if we have less than others. Of course we all want a comfortable lifestyle but there is no comfort in living a lifestyle that we can’t afford.

I think you get the point I’m trying to make here. It is difficult to lower your standard of living when you have become very accustomed to living a certain way. But if you are living pay check to pay check and unable to save for the future you will never obtain financial peace of mind unless you make some adjustments.

It is not easy to give up some of our costly comforts to reduce expenses, but a better way to think of it is you are “giving up” the stress and gaining financial peace which is a better type of comfort. The goal should be to live below your means because only then are you able to adequately save/invest and build toward a more prosperous and secure future.

So where do you start? Begin my making a complete list of all of your expenses and then analyze each one and ask yourself if this can be reduced or eliminated. You will most likely need a strong dose of humility. Your family and friends will support you when you can show them that you have a specific goal and a specific plan of action that you are determined to achieve. You will not have all the answers, it is a process. It takes some time and a lot of creativity but you can do it.