If it wasn't for working on customer's computers I'd never see the front page of msn.com. Thanks to Microsoft ingeniously making msn.com the default homepage in Internet Explorer, and the average user's inability to change their home page from the default, I get to see it quite often. Granted I'm usually already typing in Google before the page loads, but today I happen to catch the title of two related articles.
Surviving (and thriving) on $12,000 a Year
Scraping by on $150,000 a year
Both are about a household and how they get by (or don't) on their drastically different annual incomes. The family with $150,000 a year definitely has other issues than just money, and bottom line they're lazy. I honestly don't have any sympathy for them. The girl on the limited income, going to school, helping her daughter, donating to church... now that I have some serious respect for.
Between these two articles I can closer relate to the poor girl, but still I don't think I try as hard as she does. Perhaps because I don't have to; I do make a few dollars more than she does. In any case, within the last year or so, personal finance has become very interesting to me. I have a spreadsheet of all my accounts with how much money I have (well don't have) and keep track of all the payments I make. It is interesting to me how it is all related, and how the interest of a credit card can really add up if you're not careful.
There are all the good financial practices my parents taught me growing up, but unfortunately none of it really sank in until I made my spreadsheet. Now I understand what it means when I hear, "A dollar is worth more today than it will be tomorrow." It may drive my girlfriend up the wall when I just sit there and look at the red and black numbers in Calc, but for some reason it just makes me feel better to really understand what is going on in my financial world. I can only hope that the rest of America, and the rest of the world, can get a better grasp n their own finances. I really believe the world would be a much better place if the poorer masses would quite giving their money to the richer minority through some absurd interest rate just because their too lazy.
On a related note I recently heard a song by Shania Twain called Ka'ching. It made me chuckle.
1 comment:
You use to drive me up the wall but I take the time you're using to read the black and red numbers to catch up on homework and other obligations. I take time away from you when you take time to look at your finances because I know you're doing it to make our lives easier or preparing us for a better future. The least I can do is let you do this and work toward advancing my future.
And I'm glad you finally have a Shania song you like.
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