Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I am
only publishing my interpretation of my situation. You should seek your
own legal representation for your own particular
situation. Do not rely on my
opinions or statements for your own purposes as state
and local law varies as do individual circumstances.
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My sincere apologies for the irreverent heading, but I
think I voice something that a lot of people feel - Living on a
budget really does suck. Of course, when you run short of money,
budgeting is a very important factor. I have, however, after
reading many other money and debt management sites and blogs
decided that people rely on budgeting perhaps to an extreme. I
am a firm believer that it is also equally, if not more so,
important to focus on increasing income. Take my situation for
example. I am over one million dollars in debt due to my
unfortunate real estate deals. Given my current income and the
amount of this debt, no amount of saving money or budgeting will
ever be enough to pay off this mountain of debt. The only way to
pay it off is to make a ton of money to cover it. The only other
option is to file bankruptcy which I am trying to avoid if at
all possible.
While I do applaud people
who are cutting expenses and trips and luxuries and such, I do
encourage those same people to carefully consider their quality
of life. Consider this for yourself and for your family as well.
Perhaps even consider it more for your family than for yourself,
especially if you have small children; and if you absolutely
have no way to give them certain things like a trip to the beach
or a trip to the movies, find something else that will enrich
their childhood if it is only throwing a ball or Frisbee in the
park.
The reason that has
prompted me to write this entry are the stories where people and
couples and families sit at home and do nothing outside of their
home as a means of saving money. People need to realize that
money is meant to get you things. Saving all of your money until
you retire is no guarantee that you will ever even get to spend
that money. You might die well before you reach retirement; and
if that happens, you will have saved a ton of money in the bank
and wasted your life hording money when you could have been
using that money to enrich your life.
As far as we know, you
only get one chance at Life. Don't waste it worrying about
saving money at the expense of living. It is important to keep a
healthy balance; but the key term there is 'healthy balance' -
never forget that it is just money.
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