Growing Money

Smart Living - Part 2

There are some peope that just saves up every penny they can and hardly spend a dime in a week. While I'm all up for saving money, I think sometimes taking it to the extremes can fireback on you. I don't want to be a penny pincher; I think that takes the flavor out of life. If you're extremly cheap you may save 10 or 20% more income, but I think it'll come back to haunt you. You're gain a little bit of extra money but you'll lose a lot in other areas. You can stay home on weekends, bag your own lunch on weekdays to work, turn off all the lights and electronics to sleep early, take short showers to save money, turn off the heat to save money, but at the end I think going to far can hurt you. When you do all that, you're really limiting your life and preventing social or personal values in your daily life. Moreover, sometimes it's just not worth saving the extra ten bucks to turn off the heat during the winter. I had a friend who's father did that and she got a cold the next day. She had to buy medicine and take a sick day off. The money she spent on her sick day was far greater than the ten or twenty dollars the father saved. Bringing lunch to work is a good way to save money, but unless you like eating home food or the same food over and over again, it gets tiring. I like the saving money part, but not losing value part, so perhaps you can bring in food three times a week and eat out for the other two days. You may not save as much, but in the end, it'll be less of a drag when you have to heat up your food in the office.

posted by Sean @ 3/23/2005 10:00:00 PM