The value of money

When I was growing up, my late dad had to work 2 jobs to provide for the family so that we can live more comfortably. Teaching in the day and working at my uncle's billiard shop in the night. The reason for working two jobs is because his teaching salary was low, unlike nowadays , it is comparatively high and with added allowances.

I can still remember my maternal grandpa Matthew, lived a simple life and was active in community service at the village. Despite not having much , his house is open to friends and strangers alike. He made people feel welcome ,even shared meal with them and strangely there was enough food to go around.

Nowadays it seems that the more you earn, the more you are in debts. It takes real discipline to practice delayed gratification and only spend on what is necessity.

I think one of the culprit is that we tend to spend on things that kills time example cable tv, video games, gambling, entertainment and so forth. Perhaps we can't stand the thought of not doing anything. We also spend on overindulging our senses. We want to feel good by buying expensive clothings, drive in a more comfortable car, getting those pampering body treatment.

If you think about it, we work to earn money and later ended up being indebted to finance institution because of credit cards, personal loan and morgages. All because we can't wait to save enough to own or enjoy the things we want debt free. We commit to the finance institution because we have this believe that our jobs are secured until the day comes when the economy turn against us. We start blaming the government, unfair business competition,the rising interest rates, corporate mismanagement , everything except ourselves. Yep... the hard truth is that we are not willing to take personal responsibility for our finances.

Quoting from personal experience, the answer is not earning more but rather to be critically conscious on where your money is going to. It is not about being shrewd but rather striving to get more value from each dollar you spend. Don't be fool by the marketing term " Value for money" it is sometimes a bait to further entrapment.