I woke up this morning and decided to check my bank account balance:
Ugh. It’s been years since I’ve seen a negative balance in my account, and I really don’t like it. It feels… unnatural. I had to wait til Tuesday to pay mortgages. I had to take money from Property X’s profits which I have to pay back by the end of next week. I had to… you know how I have to cancel my gym membership? Well I can’t right now because I can’t afford the $75 cancellation fee. Imagine that. I can’t even pay a $75 bill! For a few seconds, I actually contemplated asking Sam to lend me a couple hundred bucks to help pay bills, but I immediately came to my senses. The My Fault philosophy trumps all, and I knew I needed to dig myself out of my own gutter. I need to feel my mistake, push through the pain, and then learn my lesson.
One may assume that the lesson to be learned is to manage my money better. After all, I would have had a positive bank account balance if paid my bills based on intelligently instead of doing it all at once. But I think there’s a bigger lesson to be learned here. The lesson is this: don’t be broke. See, I like having money. I can’t put myself in a position where I don’t have money so, if I can just barely afford it, I shouldn’t get it. Not having money changes me, and makes me do weird things. I behave differently when I'm broke, and I never want that feeling of not being able to afford something simple.
It sounds ridiculous, but it really is that simple. If I don’t want to be broke, then don’t be broke. It’s a choice, and I choose to live within my means and to only purchase what I can comfortably afford. Not being able to pay a $75 bill at the age of 34 is… it’s just so sad.
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| The dreaded parenthesis |
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| Normally, a negative balance would be covered with an overdraft from another account. Unfortunately, we live in a world where $2.24 in my savings won't cover the $124.71 negative balance |
Ugh. It’s been years since I’ve seen a negative balance in my account, and I really don’t like it. It feels… unnatural. I had to wait til Tuesday to pay mortgages. I had to take money from Property X’s profits which I have to pay back by the end of next week. I had to… you know how I have to cancel my gym membership? Well I can’t right now because I can’t afford the $75 cancellation fee. Imagine that. I can’t even pay a $75 bill! For a few seconds, I actually contemplated asking Sam to lend me a couple hundred bucks to help pay bills, but I immediately came to my senses. The My Fault philosophy trumps all, and I knew I needed to dig myself out of my own gutter. I need to feel my mistake, push through the pain, and then learn my lesson.
One may assume that the lesson to be learned is to manage my money better. After all, I would have had a positive bank account balance if paid my bills based on intelligently instead of doing it all at once. But I think there’s a bigger lesson to be learned here. The lesson is this: don’t be broke. See, I like having money. I can’t put myself in a position where I don’t have money so, if I can just barely afford it, I shouldn’t get it. Not having money changes me, and makes me do weird things. I behave differently when I'm broke, and I never want that feeling of not being able to afford something simple.
It sounds ridiculous, but it really is that simple. If I don’t want to be broke, then don’t be broke. It’s a choice, and I choose to live within my means and to only purchase what I can comfortably afford. Not being able to pay a $75 bill at the age of 34 is… it’s just so sad.
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