Its nice that you are conservative spender ~ spending what you need rather than what you want.

I think that’s the problem with our society today. People always trying to fulfill their wants and not being content with just fulfilling their needs.

But I don’t think it is their fault. The media, advertisers, stores, all want you to buy their stuff! Their constant relentless message continuously tell us to buy because it makes us feel good or look good or create a certain status, etc.

And this is not just the manufacturer’s fault (to want us to buy ~ sometimes at whatever costs). Our parents play a pretty important role on how we view money, how we manage it and how we distinguish the ‘wants’ and ‘needs’.

Another big institution is our school system. They teach us to read, write, do math, science, etc ~ basically training us and preparing us for the work force. But they never ever teach us about managing our money.

There is a really good book that talks about this and I recommend everyone to at least browse thru it to get the important points – “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert T Kiyosaki.

In his book, he talks about how most of us mis-manages our finances no matter what income we have. And that is so true!

If a family has a low income, they really pick and choose what they spend their money on because basic survival is important. They have to pay rent, pay for food, their children’s basic essentials, etc, leaving very little disposable income to do other things.

A family in the middle class or upper class may have a high income. But if they keep wanting to “keep up the the Jones”, then they will spend more of their disposable income plus more (meaning they will draw from their credit cards) to get their ‘wants’.

I think personally, it is important to be somewhat conservative with your money, buying what you can afford rather than buying what you want.

But as a society as a whole, we cannot have everyone to save every penny that they have and not spend, thus you will find an economy that won’t grow. This is very evident in countries like Japan and China (tho China is changing nowadays). For the longest time, Japan had the highest savings but suffered the longest recession (in the 90’s).

The important point is that we should all learn to manage our money. It is one of the easiest things to manage in our lives. But it is our emotions that tells us that we ‘need’ to buy an Ipod or ‘need’ to buy the nicest & biggest homes when they are really a ‘want’ rather than ‘need’.

But it is okay to splurge a but on ourselves when we can afford it because heck, this is life and we need to enjoy it sometimes!

I have a tendency to go with my own drummer, myself. For me, it’s the only way to be. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be being real. Sometimes I am the same as the flow, sometimes different.

Lisa

I meant that I don’t need a Porsche, which I have wanted in the past and even though my coworkers have beamers and Mercedes, I don’t feel like I need to fit in.

Oh and by the way I am a woman, and hence the blog is named The Baglady.

so my point is that ..
i’m with you in the freedom part and in the [ i don't care about that ]. yup i do that all the time .
but life is totally unexpected and you can’t know what she carries to you .
you don’t have a car .. what if some thing urgent and you HAD to be some where asap [ life or death situation ]

your reasons is waterproof and there is no doubt that it works pretty good with many people .

but some times all you can do is just go with the flow .