I’m in new car season. Also known as pumpkin spice latte season. I hate car shopping.
Concern over ‘lemon’ buying fills my head. It shouldn’t. The regrettable purchase
from the shifty sales guy hasn’t ever happened to me. Always in the back of my
mind though.
The shoulder slumping reality that another item needs purchasing
(another blasted thing!) forces me to imagine life as a hamster. Not the bad
smell or the short life span (although that too) but the endless wheel spinning.
Oh the spinning! Do people ever really
get ahead? I don’t mean get rich by discovering an unknown talent like uh…spider
whispering. You know, lure them to their doom (I’d pay huge!). I just mean
paying debts, growing wealth, saving money and traveling. How common is it for
families and individuals to graph their income as a steady increasing line
while keeping their expenses line relatively stable?
I understand that making money and ‘getting ahead’ requires
attending to small things and overseeing everyday purchases, no scratch off
lottery tickets or Monster energy drinks. Even after all the penny pinching, dollar
skimming ways households manage to level the field, it still seems like certain
people make deals and some just survive. We either get it or we don’t.
Some women can craft and some can’t; some men can dress and some can’t.
Not that my spending isn’t occasionally frivolous and piggish.
I can eat like a state fair rat once the noisome folks are gone; it costs a lot of
money OK…so sue me!
Anyone can improve through discipline though. If ‘getting
ahead’ means more income that outgo, I have to be content with small progress.
Loosing ‘hands’ are inevitable in games of Texas ‘hold ‘em’, but anyone leaving
the game with more money at the end of the night than at the beginning is successful.
I need to get a little more income if I am going to get a new
car though. Poker isn’t an option. Even if I do get enough money for a new car
with the extra income I haven’t improved my lot. Sure I have a new car and
that’s awesome but it’s kinda worse. My paid off car was getting me from one
spot to another under the same speed limit (usually) and costing zilch. Old cars
break down and need constant maintenance putting the owner in the poor house to
keep the clunker running. So get a new car and make payments, still in
the poor house, but driving to it in a nice car. The hamster wheel keeps
spinning.
By the way ‘poor house’—super old phrase. It just kind of
works though.
I have an Altima from 2000 that runs quite well considering
the high mileage and the condition of the front. See I get a little close to
that cement barrier in the parking lot and frequently run the bumper over the
edge. So it is hanging in there but showing signs of wanting to fall into
traffic, death by speed bump.
I am doing a fair amount of whining here with no real argument
for anything but contentment. Sometimes we need to just vent.
After that though edit the bad language out and post it.
My arc of responsibility for savings over the last 10 years
bends toward progress. I’d like to keep it that way but I have my ‘needs’ and
preferences. Vacations are a preference and I take a large one every year. I
don’t mean riding a limo through Europe large, but a decidedly spendy trip whereby I leave Oklahoma at least. I need something to push me through the busy summers
at work, a carrot propelling me forward through the dog days of the busy
football season. Vacation is that carrot.
Until I discover a hidden talent or learn to budget, the
complaining about VERY 1st world problems will continue unabated.
God Bless.
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