Good morning & happy Monday!
“Being broke is a temporary situation. Being poor is a state of mind.”
– Mike Todd, theater & film producer, 1909-1958
I came across a survey from payroll.org that found that 78% of Americans reported living paycheck-to-paycheck in 2023. This is an increase of 6% from 2022.
That same survey found that 29% of Americans have incomes that don’t cover their regular living expenses.
These are sobering statistics.
The majority of us reading this memo do not live in that 78% stat of those living paycheck to paycheck … please understand what a tremendous blessing that is. It’s easy to lose sight of this blessing, so please consider this your friendly reminder. 😊
Now, I also know that a good many of us have lived paycheck to paycheck at some point during our lives. It’s stressful! It ain’t fun! I know I’ve been there before.
My first home was $23,000 with a mortgage of $161/month. I lived in a neighborhood that had low income and high crime. In the 4 years I lived in that 550 square foot home my lawnmower was stolen from my back yard and my home was broken into. Needless to say, I came from humble beginnings.
The home break-in really shook me up, so I decided my best ticket out of the neighborhood was paying off the mortgage so I could be in a financially strong place to find another home. And that is what I did. I basically lived on rice & beans and mac & cheese for a couple of years until the mortgage was paid off with my bank teller salary of $8.25/hour while simultaneously paying my way through college.
Here’s the thing … that season of life was a blessing for me. Here is what I often say about that season (and other challenging seasons of life too) … I would never want to do it again, but I also would not change it for the world.
There are so many lessons that can be learned while going through challenges. Sometimes the only way to learn these lessons is to go through them. I wish there was an easier way to learn, but the school of hard knocks if a very effective teacher. We tend to learn much more in the valley than we do on the mountain top.
I know many of you have similar stories.
Now, these types of stories oftentimes can lead to behaviors that are fearful and even unhealthy.
I remember when I was working at the bank, and I had a repeat customer who was in her 90s and would come in every 6 months or so and purchase another bank CD. She was never married, had no kids, and had well over a million dollars. I asked her what she was saving for and she replied something along the lines of, “You never know when an emergency may arise and I just want to be prepared.” Here this lady, who probably had never spent more than $5,000 in any single month in her life, felt underprepared for an emergency with millions of dollars in the bank. The fear of being unprepared for an emergency caused her to miss out on the blessing that money could have provided to her. Eventually some nieces & nephews were benefactors of her fear … when they received a sizable inheritance.
In my humble opinion, that’s no way to live.
This financial world is challenging because we are trying to balance two very important objectives:
- Don’t run out of money
- Enjoy the money I have worked so hard for
I have found the more we have experienced being broke in our life, the stronger the desire is to never be broke again. That desire can cause us to behave similarly to my elderly bank client and hoard money. If we are not careful that can put us in an unhealthy place where there is not a proper balance between #1 and #2 listed above.
Here’s what many of us have discussed and wrestled with: How do we fully enjoy the financial resources we have but make sure we don’t run out of money?
I know you don’t want to run out of money, I 100% get it. But I also don’t want to be at your funeral with stories about “he / she always wanted to do this or that and never did” and the beneficiaries are making a beeline to me following the service because they want to know about their inheritance.
As is with so many things in life, a balance is necessary here.
The balance is different for different people and different objectives and different circumstances and different goals. That is why we work so hard to make sure to understand you, and your objectives, circumstances, and goals … because the plan we have for you is not made for anyone else.
Thank you for the privilege of serving you and being on your team. If there is anything we can ever do to support you at a greater level, please let us know.
Have a wonderful week ahead!