Don't daydream your way into debt

It's easy to get carried away with visions of the life you wish you had, Hamm writes, but don't let daydreaming get in the way of financial reality.

|
Gaston De Cardenas/Reuters/File
The 54-foot mosaic pool lined with 24-karat gold, of the South Beach mansion formerly owned by fashion designer Gianni Versace in Miami Beach, Fla.

I am really looking forward to the day where we move into the country. I dream about it, in fact.

I don’t really loathe where we currently live, but recent construction has taken away the nice view that I used to have out of my office window.

I like to think about wandering in the woods every day, enjoying a great view whenever I want it, collecting mushrooms in the spring…

It’s a vision that I daydream about. 

Right now, we have enough cash on hand to buy the piece of land we want. We could break ground pretty quickly thereafter if we were willing to incur some debt.

Here’s the problem: we never, ever want to be in debt again. Period. Debt is not something we want to have in our lives.

So, we wait.

It would be so simple to give into that daydream. We could be moving into the house we want by the middle of next summer. I could have that view really, really soon.

To have that view, though, means going down a financial avenue that I don’t want to go down again.

I want tomorrow’s life today, but the sensible part of me knows I don’t need it. In fact, to have that vision in my head, I’d have to introduce things back into my life that I simply don’t want there.

I imagine hearing the birds in the trees and the wind through the leaves, but I don’t think about getting the debt bills in the mail.

I imagine the wide open spaces outside my front door and the great view out of my office window, but I don’t think about being tied to work because we don’t have plenty of money in the bank.

As beautiful as that daydream is, it’s not a picture of the full reality of how things would be.

I’d far rather wait around until the time comes when we can do it right. I’d like to own that house I dream of, but I’d like to own it without the stress that comes with going into debt for it.

For that, I’ll wait.

The post Wanting Tomorrow’s Life Today appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Don't daydream your way into debt
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Simple-Dollar/2013/0923/Don-t-daydream-your-way-into-debt
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe