Yesterday I commented on some of the most popular excuses people use for not saving money by providing my thought to a list of excuses from an MSN Money article. Today I want to list some of the excuses I have heard first hand from friends and people I guess you could say I’m not really friends with.
The most common excuse for not saving money is I live on my own
Granted living on your own is a challenge and it is usually the first time in your life you are stuck buying your own groceries. This doesn’t mean that you are exempt from saving money, it just means that you really have to learn how to improve your self discipline when it comes to spending money. I heard this excuse constantly from one friend and I felt bad for the guy until I found out with all of his new freedom he was going out all the time.
Another excuse is you only live once
This theory has been misinterpreted so many times it’s not even funny. First of all by only living once that means you only have one chance not to mess everything up. Second, do you want to spend that one lifetime in debt? You may only live once but the next generation will feel like they have eight lives trying to pay off all of your debt. The whole “you only live once” logic will quickly fade when you realize you are in your 30s and have nothing to show for all of the money you have earned over the years.
I will save money when I need to
Will necessity bring out your ability to save money? Hopefully but you want to develop good money habits before you reach the point of desperation. If an emergency happens and you don’t have an emergency fund the most likely thing to happen is that you will use your credit card and you might get into a viscous debt cycle.
I’m sure we have all heard this excuse-I work hard for my money
For me personally working for my money makes me feel horrible when I spend it. Some people feel that since they work for their money they should be able to enjoy their money. Once again there is a fine line between enjoying your life and going broke. If you work hard for your money, how does it feel when you hand it over to somebody else?
I hope all of the common excuses used for not saving money were covered and proven to be a myth. If I missed anything please let me know.
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“I will save money when I need to” – this seems to me to be the worst one. Surely the whole point of saving money is that you do it BEFORE you need to!
Similarly to Wilhelm Scream I wholeheartedly hate that excuse of ’saving when I need to do.’
What defines need and like Wilhelm Scream said the whole point is that when something does come up the money is there? You can’t know in advance that your boiler will break or when there will be a flash flood. You only know that either one could happen earlier than you expect hence the importance of an emergency fund.
I really think people with this attitude should AT LEAST have an emergency fund. Then there’s something to fall back on.
The last excuse ‘I work hard for my money’ is so commonly heard. It’s almost like denial. I think people use it to protect their egos and prevent themselves from coming to the realisation that living paycheck to paycheck is only hurting themselves. If you live like this then you are a slave to money: not the master.
Thanks for the great reminder! I finally started my emergency fund aka my walking away fund. Don’t know what it will be used for yet but $25 a week will be directed there, along with another $20 for a travel fund. Great post!