Prime Rate Credit

October 23, 2007

Living Above Your Means?

Filed under: Ways to Save, Debt Elimination Tips — CleanedUpCredit @ 7:59 pm

All of us, at one point or another, feel like we’re going to lose it when it comes to paying bills, keeping track of what you’ve paid out to whom, and the sheer frustration that occurs when you simply don’t have enough to pay the bills, and it seems like you are constantly “robbing Peter to pay Paul” so to speak. I’ve been there, and I’m sure many of us can identify with these feelings of stress, and yes, sometimes even hopelessness when we know we are simply not brining in enough income to justify our way of life.

And yet, so many Americans are still living this way, living paycheck to paycheck, that is, and worrying about it only when they sit down to pay those bills they’ve accrued and realize that they’ve overspent for the month. You have to realize that if you’re paying so much in bills that you cannot put away any money for retirement or any type of interest bearing account, that you are simply spending too much and bring in too little income to be able to comfortably and justifiably be spending that much.

So many young couples and young people in general are finding themselves in this same unfortunate situation, and this is a large part of the reason for the recent housing slump and the “mcmansion” phenomena where young families think they need to keep up with the Joneses or buy the nicest items and furniture on the block so that they can keep up a more lavish lifestyle than what their income comfortably permits.

My advice to those who are living in this financial fastlane without the income to back it up is to seek the help of a professional financial analyst or counselor, and they will in turn force you to write down all expenditures and come up with an alternate budget so that you can begin saving the way you should be again. We all need help sometimes, and there are tons of excellent counselors who can help us budget our money and get our financial priorities straight when we can’t seem to get them straight ourselves.

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