by Tricia
I’ve exchanged a few emails with Rob in Madrid. He’s left some great comments on here, and he mentioned a question in one of his emails that struck a chord with me. He was gracious enough to allow me to share this question with all of you.
Why do we struggle when we are forced into frugality?
Think about it for a moment. If you are in debt, you got that way by spending more than you make. For the purpose of this argument, let’s say you were living on 125% of your income.
At some point, the debt payments become too much and you are forced to cut expenses to make ends meet and to start paying off your debt. You are essentially spending less than you make and as an example, you are now living on 80% of your income.
You have 20% of your income that you are now using towards your debt. But wait a minute. You could have been living on 80% of your income the entire time instead of the 125% and accumulating debt?
For me, it’s been eye opening as to how much we have been able to pay on our debt. Once our debt is paid off, that is all money that we technically could be saving if we continue living on 80% of our income. But will it happen?
It was definitely a struggle to get to that point of frugal living. Why did we fight it so much and why didn’t we live that way sooner and avoid debt? Why is there such a struggle?
Thoughts?
