There's a statistic out there that almost makes me physically sick. 70% of American households are living paycheck to paycheck. Take any 10 houses in your neighborhood and on average only 3 of those have any type of margin in their lives. I hope you're in the 30% and not the 70%.
The reason you don't have money is rarely from outside sources. If you want to see who's to blame, go into a dark bathroom, say "Bloody Mary" three times, then turn the light on. It's going to be scary because you're going to see the culprit...YOU!
There are lots of excuses for having no money and most of them are CRAP. The truth behind most of the excuses is that you bought stuff you couldn't afford with money you didn't have...and now you have a bunch of junk with nothing to show for it but stress and problems.
I am NOT one of the "Operation Wallstreet" goobers who think that there are "Evil Corporations" out there screwing the Little Man out of his money only to line the pockets of some fat cat millionare. While there may be a few people at the top of those companies that make A LOT of money, simply making large salary doesn't automatically mean scumbag. The stress and responsibility put on those at the top is much more than the stress you feel from your cubical. OH YEAH...AND THEY EMPLOY YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, SO SHUT UP.
I also don't think that marketing is an excuse for being broke. Yes, we are the most marketed to society in the history of the world, but ultimately each and every decision we make is ours. There are "Evil Corporations" out there trying to show us at any moment that what we have is not good enough, there's a newer version or a better way. And we, as Americans, follow like SHEEP and walk off the "financial ledge" without a second thought...until we can't make the payments on all the other stuff we've previously purchased.
It's time to stop being SHEEP, wake up, put our big boy (or girl) pants on and live with a PLAN! It's time to budget your money BEFORE it's spent. It's time to save for an EMERGENCY FUND to give yourself some margin. It's time to be content with what we do have and stop worrying so much about what we don't have (if you'll compare yourself to most other parts of the world, you're doing pretty good). It's time to use a word that most of us refuse to use these days, "NO". It's time to sacrifice some STUFF now to pay off debt on the STUFF you "had to have". It's time to save some money for your retirement and kid's college. It's time to start giving to others so we take our eyes off ourselves for just a few seconds.
