A to Z Well-being (personal philosophy): Privation

Privation (n) - lack of comforts or necessities of life.

I need a new watch; the one that I need to replace has done its part.  It’s so old I remember that I drove to Costco in a K-car to buy it. After 15 or so years, it just isn't keeping time like it used to.  I think a sprocket has worn down and things are slipping inside.  I want a new $800 Swiss Army automatic watch; I'm a 40-something guy going places, I've earned this.

But who, in this day and age has $800 (+taxes) lying around?  I don’t.  There are two methods to pay for a watch like that: credit cards or find the cash.  I try not to use credit cards unless it is the only option (ex. renting cars, buying plane tickets, reserving hotel rooms, etc.. when I travel).  When I starting looking into how long it would take me to get this watch, I started looking on-line.  When I found the watch I wanted on-line, it cost half the retail price I saw in store.  Great!  Now I only need to find $400 (+taxes).  Buy today, ships tomorrow, perfect!  I still have the problem of where do I get the money.  I budget pretty tight (6%) for personal spending.  In addition to working on the ’52 week Money Challenge’, I'm paying for this watch out of my personal spending.  I have to decide where I want to spend my remaining finds. That means I have to find the money and that requires me depriving myself of something else; suffering a privation.

Privation is to go without the comforts or necessities of life.  But what are “comforts” or “necessities” of life: The latest model of 60” television?  Leasing cars every 2 years so you always appear affluent?  Choosing to eat out (or ordering in) because it’s easier than cooking?  The list goes on.  Too many people today believe they are entitled to everything they desire and it is available right now: just put on the credit card; buy now, pay letter; use our easy in-store credit plan, get a pay day loan; whatever you need to get it NOW.  There was a short period when I worked at a food bank; I would frequently see people come in to get help and then climb into a $60,000 truck.  There was no sense of control when it came to what they actually needed versus wanted.  You want to know who some of those people are look down the street on garbage day; they always have the largest pile at the curb, relative to their household size.  You can literally see who's trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Privation isn't necessarily a bad thing.  A healthy diet doesn't mean you have to do without all of the treats you like to eat; it means doing with less of it.  You want to lose weight?  You require a caloric deficit; eat less or exercise more.  How you achieve it is up to you, as long as you do it in a healthy manner.  Studies are even showing that intermittent fasting, either prolonged daily fasts (longer periods without eating but consuming the same amount of calories) or shorts periods of severely constrained caloric intake, may be beneficial for the body.  When it comes to intangibles like trips, self constraint can be even more rewarding.  My wife wants the two of us to go to Las Vegas for a trip.  I would like that too.  She’s gotten a chance to go with friends and I would like to see it as a couple.  What I don’t want is to have to spend the entire time leading up to the trip stressing about how we’re going to pay for the trip when we get back and having to watch pennies while we’re there.  I've been there before and it put me in the hospital for three days - NOT FUN!  So my challenge was this: we can go to Las Vegas when we can pay for it outright.  Side bar - We’re still working on that one.

Privation can also serve as a lesson in delayed gratification for your children.  I have three kids.  ‘Peanut’ is an absolute spendthrift; she makes sure she gets every penny owed and then has to turn around and spend it.  She bought herself a new IPod about a year ago.  She couldn't find it one day, she swore she looked everywhere for it; she thought someone at school had stolen her IPod and insisted she had to replace it.  So she spent everything in her bank account to get another one (6 months later, during spring cleaning, she found the first one behind her bed).  The second, ‘Pun’kin’, could care less if she has the newest something; her 3DS broke and she couldn't put game card in it; she didn't care, she still had games downloaded on it she could play.  When the control buttons finally broke then she decided it was time to look at getting a new 3DS.  The third, ‘Puddle’, is a mix of the other two, he could care less until he sees something he wants then he has to get it and all the accessories he can buy.

  Going old-school with an envelope with my goal written on it and progress after three weeks, including throwing in any spending money left in my pocket the day before payday.

                Ultimately, privation is about self –discipline; being willing yourself to go without one “necessity” while you work to acquire something you see a need for.  As for the old watch, it holds a lot of memories (I've been half-way around the world with it); maybe it can be saved, I’ll see if the worn part can be replaced. Maybe I won’t need that new $800 watch just yet after all.

A to Z Well-being (personal philosophy): Saving

Saving (n) – anything that is saved

            When we talk about saving, the first thing people go to is money in the bank.  Well, it’s the beginning of a new year and resolutions are being made left, right and centre.  This all leads up to the ’52 Week Money Challenge’. Everybody who has a Facebook account has already posted, or had a friend post, this for them to see.  I can’t take credit for it and if you do a Google search for it, you get (at the time of this) 87 Million hits; MILLION - with a capital ‘M’.  The concept is pretty simple: Save $1 dollar a week, adding an additional $1 every week that passes i.e. $1 on January 1^st, $2 on January 8^th,…$52 on December 24^th (you can check the math).  Here’s a link to a chart from 1000directions.com (http://i2.wp.com/www.100directions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/52-week-challenge-savings-chart-jen-goode-printable.jpg?resize=550%2C550), if you want to see it.  Or you can be a rebel and reverse the chart order (also someone else's idea). Start with $52 on January 1^st and finish with $1 on Christmas Eve.  The result is the same $1378 at the end of the 52^nd week. But what is the flaw in the plan?  It’s not the math, that’s rock solid.

            The problem is the timing. Now I realize that this is supposed to be a “New Years Resolution”, but it’s still a bad time of the year to start or end this type of undertaking.  In today’s consumer-driven society, most people will fail because they can’t afford to either put up the last $202 dollars because they’re buying gifts, have travel plans, or something unexpected has come up. Or they can’t do the plan in reverse because they have pay for travel, gifts or unforeseen emergencies.  Either way, trying to start this challenge in January or finish it in December can be a real kick in the teeth using either of these methods.  Is there a better way to do this that will improve your odds of succeeding?  I think so and it’s so simple, if you haven’t seen it yet, you may just face-palm yourself.

            START EARLIER IN THE YEAR!  Regardless of when you start the ‘52 Week Money Challenge’, you still accumulate the same amount of money: $1378.  Starting December 1^st or even November 1^st means you finish earlier in the year.  What should really blow your mind is what happens when you open the jar after your 52^nd week.  You've saved almost $1400 and done it in time for the holidays! Imagine having that much money set aside to buy your family gifts or help offset the cost of travel; all because you adjusted the timetable.  And if you double up in the first couple of weeks when it’s easiest, you achieve you objective all the sooner or have more set aside at the end.