Page 55 - Book1E

CHAPTER 8
Managing Your Debt
While we like to blame some of our financial troubles on inflation, often what has really inflated is how much we buy. A recent comedy sketch on “Saturday Night Live” demonstrated the almost ridiculous rate at which technology becomes outdated. Within the few minutes of the sketch, an iPod was updated five
times, becoming smaller and smaller each
time. Unfortunately, many of us fall prey
to believing we “need” the newest and
the best. In a recent British film, a son
attempts to save the shoe factory his father
had built and brought to success. One of
the things he must change, he is told, is
making a product that will last someone
for life. Now, it is pointed out, manufac-
turers create products with the intention of product life being short so that consumers will be forced to replace them more often.
There is a good reason designers compete to have their clothes, jew- elry, and equipment seen on the hottest faces and used by the hottest names. It sells their product. For some people, maintaining an image is everything. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you can do it without spending everything you earn. If buying that Gucci bag is more important than going out to dinner for the next four months, you’ve learned to sacrifice. Don’t buy the Gucci bag if it’s creating a bal- ance you will carry for a month or longer on your credit card. People
Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly every- thing, money is handy.
—Groucho Marx
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