More Money Doesn't Always Equal Fewer Money Problems

There was a time when we had three children and made an average of $5,000 a year (yes, that's five, not fifty).  Then there was a time when we had four children and made $50,000 a year (yes, fifty now, not just five).  Is there a difference?  Yes!  There are certain thresholds of income that when you move above or below them, you can feel the difference.  But the difference is never as big as you expect it to be.

And that's what I want to talk about: the expectation.

We have all been guilty at some point of thinking that if we just made a little more money, our financial burdens would all be easier.  And maybe they would...  But maybe they wouldn't.  Look at your life right now.  Do you make more money than at times in the past?  Do you still have financial stresses?  If you're like most people, your financial troubles grew right along with your income.  So what went wrong?  Why doesn't our increased income improve our financial circumstances?

 

Money doesn't solve money problems.

Maybe that's too simplistic.  Money does solve many short term money problems.  But once those problems are solved, that just leaves room for more problems to take their place.  The point is everyone has financial stresses, but money alone won't cure them.  Hard work, good planning, self-discipline, and above all a grateful and happy heart might.

So don't let yourself look at other people's lives or your own imagined future and assume that your life would be better if you were in some other circumstance.  Make your life better today...  Be happy.  Be grateful.  No matter who you are or how much money you make, there is someone out there living a better life on less money than you are right now.  So rather than just wishing you were the one making more money, try being the one who is happier with less.


Marcia