Keep up with the Joneses or else!

This commercial basically sums it all up:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFMwYNX5qUk

We have a mindset that we must have the best of everything. We need a bigger TV because the Smith’s down the street bought  a  56”. If our neighbour gets a new car, we must buy a more expensive one with doodads that we won’t even use. We buy expensive clothes and perfumes because celebrities sell them, and maybe we can be just like them if we use those products.  But, it’s not our fault entirely. We are bombarded everyday with commercials, billboards and magazine ads telling us we need to buy these things. We don’t need them, we want them. Somewhere in our brainwashed minds we came to a conclusion that we cannot live without these unnecessary desires.  And worst of all in this day and age, if we can’t afford what we want, we use credit.

Most seem to think credit is the greatest thing since sliced bread...  make the minimum payment and it’s all good. The only ones who win from all of this are the credit card companies. They  make a whopping 10-30% on the balance of what you owe on your credit card and people are ok with this? Most credit cards charge 19%. There is no guaranteed investment out there that yields 19% in one year;  well there are those  homemade posters stapled to poles on the side of the road, “Make 20% on your $$$$, Guaranteed!”. If you trust your money with creative people like that;  you should turn off your computer, sit in the corner and cry, because life has beaten you.

To fully understand the point I’m trying to make, take a look at the bigger picture. There are over 6 billion people on the planet.  If you can afford to eat three square meals a day, can afford simple clothing and have a roof over your head, you are among the richest people on earth which is about 10% of the world’s population.  The other 90% cannot afford the needs that we take for granted.  

Stop being sheep, or sheeples as I like to call them, and begin living life on your own terms. Buy houses that you can actually afford the mortgage payments on .  There are a lot of people with big houses and have cardboard boxes for furniture. Drive used vehicles that are lease buy backs; Imports are well built and fuel efficient . I laugh at the guys with a 3/4 ton truck that has no hitch, a pristine box liner and they spend $400 a month in gas. Buy clothing only when you need new clothing.  If you throw clothes out because your friends have seen you wear that outfit before, you fail. If your friends are that shallow, you may want to throw them in the garbage and keep the clothes.

Live within your means, not anyone else’s. Your desire to attain social status will backfire and you will be further behind financially. Remember, life was only a competition when we were in the middle of the food chain.