Spending, is it really a disease? Alcoholism is considered a disease. Drug addiction is considered a disease. Gambling is considered a disease. Overweight is also said to be a disease.
Our government has this Spending Disease so bad it may take a long time to recover. Almost every level of government has contracted the disease. It seems to be very contagious. It has now spread to many of our large and small companies. It will attack any size entity, large or small, from the largest company clear down to the individual person. Even with a small amount of over-spending the disease can start to take over. This over-spending gives us a great feeling of power and freedom to do or have many things. Then of course we need to make more money to cover the extra spending. This is when the disease gets much worse. As we make more or get more money, that will allow us to spend even more. Now we can buy the new car we do not need, build the bigger house just as the children leave home, buy the boat or other things we do not need or will use very little, take the trip we always wanted. Now we can complain about all the things that went wrong and also worry about how to pay for them.
Some are able to stay away from the disease or seem to be immune to it, but over time even most of these people will become infected. When these last people are infected they will use all kinds of excuses. “We are investing” they will say. Investing is a form of spending and if done wisely, that means the investment is in something they understand, and in an amount that they have available money for, money that they will not need for something else. If the investing is not done wisely, this is when the disease can cause the most problems.
When people make money with their labor or a business, then spend that amount or less, things are good. When they borrow money to spend, they will have to pay extra for the interest on the borrowed money. Then they will usually spend some or all of it on something they do not need and pay too much just because they want it. This is when the disease really causes serious problems. Now they try to spend their way out of the problems, to make more money or to get more for the products they sell. This will not help because the Spend Disease will just cause you to even spend more.
Very seldom does the money we receive cause a problem. It is the way it is spent that has the potential to cause problems. Almost every person makes more than they need . It is buying what they want that can be the problem.
The good news is that like most diseases there is a cure. This cure is effective but is very painful. It requires a budget that MAKES us spend less money than we make. If a person does have the Spend Disease it will take a lot of self discipline to stay within the budget. It is necessary to stay within the budget forever or the disease will come right back.
Now we have a budget. After every thing is paid there must still be money left. If we make more money or get more for the product we sell, the budget can be increased but only enough so that more is saved than before.
There is a vaccine. We all like them, because then we don’t have to do anything. That’s not quite true with this vaccine. We do have to do something. That may be why it is used very little now. The vaccine is to save. There is great joy in saving. Very few people do it so they have never experienced the joy. When we spend and buy things we don’t need there is a great deal of worry that goes along with how to pay for them.
Let’s get rid of the Spend Disease, then we can enjoy what we have and we can Smile and Mean it!