OFtM Principle #3

Guess what's inside! You're going to love it.

One for the Money returns today for principle #3: Learn self-discipline and self-restraint in money matters. There are tons of quotes in here that are worth your time. Let's start with, "Young couples should recognize that they cannot immediately maintain the same spending patterns and life-style as that to which they were accustomed as part of their parents’ family."¹ Every young married couple needs to hear this over and over again until it sinks in. I should start giving framed versions of this as gifts at weddings. It would make me really popular.

I feel very strongly about this quote because I see it ignored so often. People who are still in college buy big screen tvs with their student loan refunds. If you have to buy a tv with money that you borrowed, then you can't afford it. In fact, if you have to buy any depreciating asset (more on this term in another post) on credit then you can't afford it. Consumer debt is bad. That statement needs no qualification.

Young couples (and singles for that matter) need to embrace being poor for a while. There are tons of options for getting what you need for cheap. Thrift stores have much better clothes than they once did. You can get nice things that are essentially new for a huge markdown. Online sources like craigslist and freecycle offer more ways to get things that you need (and even things you just want) for a reasonable price. The tradeoff is that you have to spend time finding good deals. But when you're poor, time is much easier to come by than money. Use your time to save yourself some money.

In our "self-indulgent, me-oriented, materialistic society,"² we ought to be a group of people who stand out as being different. Let me tell you a secret: stuff doesn't make you any happier. It's a poor substitute for happiness. Helping others makes you happier. Living within your means makes you happier. Gratitude makes you happier. "Gratitude is a Spirit-filled principle. It opens our minds to a universe permeated with the richness of a living God. Through it, we become spiritually aware of the wonder of the smallest things, which gladden our hearts with their messages of God’s love."³ Rather than striving to buy on credit the largest things we can, perhaps we should strive to be grateful for all of the small blessings in our lives. There's no glamour or happiness in paying off consumer debt, only pain and misery. However, a grateful attitude will pay dividends for years after that big screen has stopped working.

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1 "One for the Money" pamphlet, pg. 6^↩
2 Ibid^↩
3 Bonnie D. Parkin "Gratitude: A Path to Happiness" April 2007 General Conference^↩