Financial Pressures

For several years I had felt like a failure because my husband and I did not own a house and we were in debt.  When we owned a home I was constantly nagging my husband to cut the grass and fix things around the house.  He was not a handyman and I resented that fact.  I was stressed out financially because 75% of our income was going toward our house.  Our marriage was strained due to the financial pressures of living beyond our means and the added work hours necessary just to stay afloat.

We ended up selling the house, moving into a rented home, sharing a vehicle and therefore reducing our financial expenditures.  More time was now spent in being together, getting into agreement and sticking to a budget.  We stopped spending money we did not have.  Now we have time to be together and we don’t work insane hours.  We are not all stressed emotionally or too exhausted to enjoy one another.

Society has developed a system of priorities that produces pressure for a high standard of living and really it’s a fantasy world.  The temptation is to live beyond our means, until the pin pricks the bubble of financial debt and the marriage ends in divorce.

I can relate to how I personally have been sold that lie from TV and the media.  I swallowed the illusion that life is all about having all the “stuff”.  And what a miserable lesson it was for me to learn that life is not about having all the toys.

No matter how much money I had, I always wanted more.  Money was constantly on my mind.  How I can make more money, how can I spend money, how can I have more things, and how do I get more credit?  Don’t tell me I wasn’t a slave to money.

I know I am not alone in my struggle and I pray that you too will within your means.  Remember it’s not about being a failure because you can’t live like the Jones’s.  It’s about clarifying your priorities and shifting your focus to match your true values like health and relationships and family.  What is true happiness?  I have never seen a U-Haul on the back of a hearse.  When all is said and done and you are at the end of your life, what really matters the most then?