It is unimaginable to most people today that it is not only possible but actually desirable to forgo many of the modern things that are pushed as being necessities by the main stream media and their puppet masters. Non stop TV commercials and infomercials push expensive crap day and night – all available to be sent right away as soon as you give them the number from the little magic plastic card. Others also offer various sleazy pay programs so you can break up the purchase into several smaller payments instead of one big painful one.
They are not stupid. They know very well that purchasing behavior is not driven by logic – but rather by emotion. If they can trigger the right emotional response then you will almost certainly buy their product – regardless of whether you need it and regardless of whether you even want it or not, let alone whether you can afford it. This nonsense is part of how millions wind up so deep in debt they can’t even see the damn surface anymore.
I don’t watch TV anymore. I dislike most of the programming which is primarily garbage.Unfortunately I have a family member that is addicted to TV and will not give it up, so I can’t help but notice some of the commercials that people are bombarded with day and night. Don’t get me wrong either – I am not against marketing and advertising – not for useful products and services at realistic and fair prices anyway – but I am against hardcore bombardment marketing of useless crap.
Of course anyone has the right to market what ever they wish – but we also have the right to use the onoff button too. The same is true with any purchase – you have the right to decide what to buy and what not to when it comes to consumer crap anyway.
So if you want to begin to get out of debt here are some things to consider;
- Sales – stop buying crap because it is on sale. Sales are designed to induce you to buy stuff you wouldn’t otherwise buy at that time. So unless you had already planned to buy a specific thing and were already looking for it at the time – skip the sale and don’t buy it at all until and if you decide on your own you need or want it after you have determined you can afford to pay cash for it that is.
- Kill Your TV – TV is garbage. I call it a BRD – Brain Rotting Device. Instead watch useful videos and movies and other programs that are available on ROKU and online – programming that YOU choose and especially where you can skip ads. Start programming yourself and stop being programmed by others.
- Budget – not cool, or exciting – but having a budget is necessary if you want to get ahead instead of just getting by. Know what you have coming in and what you have going out and have a plan for every dollar you get your hands on. If it is allocated to eliminating debt or going to savings then it is off limits for buying BS that you don’t need.
Needs vs Wants – How can you evaluate things to see where they should fall and which one a given thing is?
It may be useful to actually write a list of what your needs are in priority order, and then go back and take a closer look at each one to see whether it is really a want instead of a need or if it really is a true need. Some examples of needs are shelter/housing, water, food, heat, toilette, shower, work space, storage space for food and for belongings. But the size and type and how nice these things are vary greatly – and even they can go beyond being a real need to being extravagant wants in the process.
Housing is a prime example. You can live in a tent or a tiny home or even a small house costing very little – or a five thousand foot mansion or even larger and crazy expensive. All you NEED is adequate shelter that works. Beyond that is wants. There is nothing wrong with having some wants on top of needs either – and we all do. The key is to meet the real needs first and then have only the wants you can truly afford and actually do want for the right reasons beyond that.
Your own requirements are exactly the same as every other human on earth as far as the basics go anyway – then if you have any disabilities there may need to be adjustments for such, otherwise it comes down to wants really – and that is were things go crazy train for some. Many of us confuse true NEEDS with WANTS and spend all our money based on false assumptions and beliefs, and that can be devastating when we run our lives on such faulty information.
Our wants on the other hand are all over the place. Some can be happy in shanty’s where others will never be happy even in gold plated castles. Why? That is something you have to look deep inside yourself to come up with the answer. Wants are very different from person to person. Sadly too many people try to fill holes in their lives with material possessions, and when they do they all discover there is never enough. So they seek out ever more expensive and bigger toys and man made things to impress others with and in doing so trying in vain to find a happiness that will always be illusive to them – they will never ever find it. Not that way.
Sure they will get a temporary sense of satisfaction – but in a few days, weeks or months it always fades. The big shiny thing is not so big or shiny enough anymore – someone else always has something a little better, and a little more impressive. This is a fools game. The only way to win is to refuse to play to begin with. Instead base your life first on what you need, and second on what you truly want within that ability to afford it and you will begin to immediately live a better life.
So what do you need?