Читать книгу Financial Security For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 9

If saving money is a good habit, the more you save, the better, right? Well, no, not really, unless your sole goal is to amass as much money in various accounts as possible. But what if you’re not spending enough to eat a healthy diet? How about some time and money so that you can regularly rest and enjoy some recreation? What about some spending for the special people in your life?

Think about all the big decisions in your life: choosing and finding a job, a place to live, a spouse, and so on. For most people, there’s a financial component to all of these. When thinking about personal goals, nearly all of them take money to accomplish. Money is inextricably linked to the rest of your life. Making the best financial decisions starts with the big picture and the rest of your life in mind — in other words, holistically.

Suppose like many people, you are working and earning money. You’d like to save and invest some of that and not have to continue working full-time for the rest of your life. But you probably have some other competing uses for your money. These may include things like saving to buy a home or start a business, expenses for your family, a future vacation, and so forth.

Money shares some similarities with food. If you don’t have enough, you likely notice the insufficiency of your resources. Having more than enough with some reserves and extras usually provides most people with some peace of mind. Different people, though, have different views of how much extra they may want to have.

The virtue of a capitalistic economy is that within reason, if you’re willing to work hard and seek to improve yourself and your work, over time you should be able to see your money grow. The progress and advancement of technology and society generally increase the purchasing power of your money over time.

Some folks lose sight of the differences between necessities and luxuries, especially in affluent and upper-middle class communities and circles. We can always find people with bigger homes and more expensive cars who have taken more exotic vacations. The bar can continually be set higher and higher in terms of how much money we “need.”

The continual improvement of products and services, particularly those that incorporate a lot of technology, leads to more folks taking for granted how “luxurious” some of today’s choices are compared with those of the past. Consider what’s happened with personal computers and smartphones. Today, consumers buy smartphones that have many of the same functionalities and can access far more information than personal computers could a generation or two ago. And you can buy today’s smartphones for less than the cost of personal computers from a generation or two ago. Today’s smartphones are like a handheld personal computer, a phone (that can easily travel with you), and a quality camera all rolled into one!

Automobiles have far more features, especially safety features like air bags and anti-lock brakes, compared to those from a generation or two ago. Today’s cars are dramatically more fuel efficient too.

Just walk through most homes and apartments today and you’ll find all sorts of devices like microwave ovens, printers, HDTVs, washers and dryers, dishwashers, and so on, which are far better and relatively less costly than in prior generations. And in some cases, these devices didn’t exist or weren’t widespread not that many generations ago.

So, I urge you to step back and think about what it is that you value and to recognize how “luxurious” are so many of the choices and options that we have in modern American society. With many products and services, we get far more for our money than did folks a generation or two ago.

That said, we can all think of some expense categories like higher education, housing in some higher-demand cities (such as New York City and San Francisco) and portions of the healthcare industry where the rate of price increases (inflation) may exceed increases in typical wages and the general cost of living. These categories are the exception, not the rule, and you can take steps and actions to mitigate and blunt some or even much of the excessive price increases through the strategies I discuss in this book.

Especially in our consumption-oriented society, some folks may get carried away with working and earning more and amassing more money. Life is short, and you can’t take your money with you in the end. So, there’s something to be said for balancing work, earning and saving money, and having sufficient time for family, friends, and your activities and hobbies.