Saturday, October 13, 2007

Money Already Spent

I was visiting a customer yesterday (I work in business to business sales) and I had a few minutes to kill before our meeting started. I picked up a book on humorous business quotes in the waiting area. Some of them were pretty good, but there was one quote that really stood out for me.

"It is especially hard to work for money you've already spent for something you didn't need."

I don't know how that relates to business, but it relates to me quite a bit. I feel like this every day. It can really be demotivating to work to pay for things we already have. Every hour I work, every dollar in our paychecks, has already been spent. Sure, we're building our net worth, if you count moving from a negative net worth to zero "building". I know we dug this hole we're in, but I just want out.

It's kind of paralyzing to be in this position. We can't make any big life changes until we fix this mess. Can't move, can't buy anything of substance, can't travel. I've been thinking of making some changes that could shake up our income, and I'm not sure I'll be able to. It will be really nice to work only one job, but we're just attacking this debt so we can be free again.

As awful as this feels now, it used to be worse. When we were at rock bottom, we had no plan for the future and kept making poor financial decisions. At least now we're on the right path. We even have plans for our money once we're out of this debt. I just can't wait to get to the point where we're building wealth instead of paying for our mistakes.

4 comments:

blern said...

I just stumbled across your blog for the first time today, and I'm excited to see how relevant your exact situation is to ours!!

I trawl through personal finance blogs quite regularly, and while there's a lot of good advice out there and a lot of interesting situations to learn from, but yours is by far the most similar to ours.

Thanks for your writing to date, look forward to following your stories of success!

Anonymous said...

It is frustrating, isn't it? I feel like we are just making money to tread water, and I see all of these things I want to be doing, but have to say "no" to. But then I remember its because I ignored the present and kept saying "yes" to things that I am in this situation now.

On the bright side, you are now halfway there! Things will start to snowball, and before you know it, you'll be able to do just as you please.

JvW said...

Ben: I'm psyched to see someone in such a similar situation! Keep going, we'll get through this!

Shelby: Thanks for your positive attitude, it helps the frustration!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Ben. I can really relate to a lot of your posts, and enjoy checking out your blog. Hope we all keep going in the right direction. I also have a link to you on my blogroll now.