Being broke is a choice

If you have a decent job, such as being a cop or a teacher, a business analyst or tech support, being broke/living paycheck to paycheck is usually a choice. So is having debt. You alone decide how to spend your money. You alone decide how much house to buy, what kind of clothes to wear, how much to pay for a car, whether to bring lunch to work or eat out every day, buying bottled water vs refilling your own water bottle, etc. Those are conscious decisions.

What does that mean? It means you can make alternate decisions and decide not to be broke, not to live paycheck to paycheck.

Most of us tend to spend as much as we can, or more, no matter how much we earn. Most Americans have less than $1000 in savings. $1000! We have no retirement funds, or even an emergency fund. We are 1 emergency away from financial disaster.

Being broke is a mindset:

We think we need lots of stuff. We think we need a huge house and a fancy car. We think we need to impress our neighbors and our friends. Change the way you think and you’ll change your whole life. Make a conscious decision to pay yourself first, establish an emergency fund, a retirement fund, and then live on what’s left. In addition, look at ways to cut expenses. Those are all choices we can all make.

I’m not saying you need to be a cheapskate. But, frugality should be a part of everybody’s lives. You will never be able to retire if you consistently spend every penny you make.

Accumulating wealth is a mindset:

Stop accumulating crap. Start accumulating wealth. But, first we have to stop thinking that having wealth is always equivalent to being rich. It’s hard to be rich. Therefore, for some of us, thinking you need to be rich makes saving and investing an impossible task. Nobody wants to start an impossible task.

Wealth simply means abundance. Anybody can have an abundance. Start by saving an extra $100 a month. By the end of the year, you’ll already have more than most Americans have in the bank. Then, save an additional $100 on top of that as you cut out nonessential spending, and so on. Continue for 10 or 20 years, all the while slowly increasing your savings/investment rate, and you will indeed have wealth. It is very possible.

Conclusion:

Being broke is a choice, usually. So is having wealth. Buying crap is a choice. So is not buying crap and saving the money instead. You choose one or the other by the actions you take every day. Change your mindset and make up your mind to accumulate wealth.