Our spending habits mirror our lifestyle, or at least the choices that lead us to our vision of what is ideal. Say you earned an extra $1,000 every month. What would you do with it? Do you put it toward your dream penthouse apartment? Do you spend a few days in the Bahamas? Do you splurge on a high-end handbag? Do you save it for the uncertain moment in the future you might want to go back to school?
That’s four different lifestyles put into focus by a single question. Each answer to the question is a glimpse into how someone would want to live their life. The bigger question everybody seems to put off answering is: can you afford your lifestyle?
What Reality Looks Like
Let us be realistic here for a moment and look at things without rose-tinted glasses. Many twenty-somethings today are under the haze of idealism, thinking it will only take a few years before they purchase their dream studio or go on that backpacking trip across Eastern Europe. It might not be too far for the privileged few, but these dreams translate into decades of hard work for most of the working population.
Committing to a traveler or fashion-forward lifestyle entails expensive choices. While you may think it is the days ahead that weigh more, it is more important to think how you plan to tie all loose ends after an expensive trip or how you will keep up with your expensive home the next months.
How You Can Figure It Out
It is too easy to turn a blind eye to traps and practices if it can get you your dream shoes or tuition to your dream graduate school. Overspending can be detrimental to your money management efforts. Before you know it, you are waist-deep in debt and you are five months late in your monthly rent. The key here is drawing a long-term financial plan that allows you to buy small things of joy without draining your savings.
Secure an emergency fund to allow you breathing space while you commit to your lifestyle choices. Utah Money Center can lend you a hand to start-up your fund or even when you’re badly strapped for cash. Get in touch with us and we will help you through your lows.