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The way I looked and managed my money as a single girl was a totally different picture. I spent them as I got them - as simple as that. Living with parents (like most Asian families) and not having the responsibility to pay bills really spoiled me..a little spoiled brat! I didn't see the importance of saving that much because I thought I lived with my parents so there was no need. I did some short term saving for clothes that I wanted or a trip I planned though so I never had to bother my parents for extra $$. One thing that I was quite proud of was I had never had credit card debt (I didn't have one to begin with).
My mother is an excellent role model when it comes to saving money. Her rules of thumb is never buy anything that you do not have the money to pay for and do not borrow from anyone. If you want something then save for it. I have applied her rules strictly and it helps me from getting into debts. My husband on the other hand has a different point of view. He sometimes doesn't want to wait to save. It took us a good while to finally be on the same page and tried a new game plan (despite the fact that we almost killed each other a few times but we did it!).
Having a baby definitely brings in a different outlook on my money management. With today's economy, higher costs of living and job insecurity, I am very concerned. If something ever happens to my job or my husband's, I want to be able to feed my child until we find a new source of income.
As we get older I think it also makes a perfect sense to look far ahead or consider some sort of long term saving/investments. We were successful at short term saving when we saved for a down payment on our new house in 2007. We were able to see our first home being built from the empty ground. It took us over a year to save $12k and it was much easier to save before having a baby.
While everyone has different goal, I am a true believer in saving. You do not have to starve yourself to death but putting that $20 into a saving a month can make a difference by the end of the year. You will never know when you will need them, the sooner you start the more you will have.
(We will see how far I can go with this policy!)
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Thanks for sharing about your personal finance ethics. My mom is also an awesome saver and she's sacrificed so much for herself to save towards family stuff, like house, education, food, etc.
ReplyDeleteLast year I had kind of a similar revelation to yours where I decided to put an end (somewhat) on buying stuff I don't need and excessive eating out. Having a blog about clothes makes it especially hard, but I've learned to become very selective about what to keep! There's no need to put a complete halt on spending (because you need to treat yourself once in a while), but moderation is always good.
Hi PAG - I know exactly what you mean. Women and shopping are inseparable! I am too afraid too calcuate how much I spent on clothes (that eventually ended up in the donation box). I do agree, moderation is the key and it is no fun to ruin the joy in life by saving every single penny. It actually caught up with me a few times when I went a few weeks without buying and went on a major shopping spree a week later. Totally ruined my whole budget plan.
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