Temporary Pleasures

Lately, I've noticed some friends complaining about not having enough money. They look at me and say how can you just sit around and write all day and not have a full time job like the rest of us. I am told it isn't fair. When I was a pharmaceutical representative, my friends didn't know exactly what that entailed so they made it up and I let them. They told me what an easy job I had just dropping off drug samples for the doctors. It is the old poor me syndrome and it doesn't matter how much they make or do, they will always be looking over the fence and complaining about why someone else has it different (in their eyes most times, better.) When I was a drug rep. I saw many of my fellow drug reps. spend their money on designer suits, sports cars, watching ESPN (I liked CNBC) buying tickets to basketball championships, exotic vacations, going to 5 - star restaurants and ordering expensive wines. I spent my money paying off my house and investing it in the stock market (there were years I wished I had instead bought the sports car.) Today, my friends are still working and complaining about not having enough money, but when I look around they are buying smart phones (along with the high priced data plans,) watching cable/satellite television, and still going out to eat in fine restaurants. I still spend my time writing and watching the stock market gyrations while trying to figure out when to buy and when to sell. All these years of investing, I have found one nugget of gold and that is to invest in companies that you like enough that you consistently buy their products. Usually if you like what they do, others will also. I was in a conversation with a friend a while back who had severe money troubles. He said he just didn't know what to do next. He was behind in just about all of his payments. He told me he didn't make enough money. I asked, "do you pay every month to watch TV?" He said, "You know I do." I asked, "What type of cell service?" He replied he has to have the top tier data plan in order to take advantage of all the features his NEW Iphone 5 offers. I asked, "How many times to you eat out?" He shrugged his shoulders and said he was just too tired to fix anything after a hard day at work. I told him that my dad didn't make a lot of money, but we always had enough. Dad bought us a new-used car when the old one bit the dust. No pay TV, No Cellphones, and definitely no eating out. My friend told me that isn't an option today. I replied, "Being over your head in debt wasn't an option in his day." Today, I don't have pay TV, I have the cheapest ugliest cellphone you can imagine and we rarely eat out. It's not how much you make, it's how much you spend. I asked my friend if he could get out of debt by cutting the cord on all of these non-essentials? He said he needs them. There are only a few necessities in life. One is to be loved, to eat and have shelter. The rest are luxuries. When we confuse luxuries with necessities is when we will always struggle to survive. Living doesn't have to be a struggle and when keeping up with the Joneses is causing you to stay awake worrying at night is the time to take inventory of what you really need and what you can live without. It's not always an easy task to let go of the things that bring your senses temporary pleasure however.