“If you think short term, you work for the weekend and fall prey to the pleasure-based products that in the end steal your pleasure.”
More Than Enough Dave Ramsey
Short term pleasures are what kept us from financial freedom for too many years. We were in WANT WANT WANT mode.
I want a new car. I want to go out to eat. I want a new coat. I want to go on vacation. I want some new shoes. I want a pool. I want some new home décor stuff. I want this and this and that. And it was more than just me - there were 4 of us pretty much buying whatever we wanted. We were able to pay cash for most of it so we felt like it was ok. But there was always that black creature lurking around the corner who kept an eye on our spending. Its name was DEBT. We weren’t living paycheck to paycheck, but we were also not puting any thought into the amount of debt we had accumulated.
Because we were spending so much money on short-term pleasure, we were denying ourselves long-term, life-lasting, family-changing pleasure.
All of those toys, clothes, cars, restaurant meals (aka “wants”) – where are they now? GONE. And so is the money. Was it really worth it? Heck no. All of those things were temporary, short-term pleasures.
It’s funny. We used to think all of those things were so important to us. The other day we were making a list of the things we had given up. We had to think and think and think to come up with a list. We don’t miss those things. We are so excited about where we are headed, we realize the craziness in “living in the moment”. The “moment” will come and go. Our financial freedom will last a lifetime.
