Stanley Johnson (2 of 5)

If you missed part 1 of this series, you may want to start by clicking here. Otherwise... How many of you remember these commercials? It's hard to believe it's almost been 30 years.

1979 - "Star Wars" Drunk Driving PSA Commercial

1983 - "Crashing Glasses" Drunk Driving Prevention Commercial by AdCouncil

Financial accountability reminds me of the "friends don't let friends drink and drive" campaign from the 80's. But in this case, it's more like: friends don't let friends break the bank for the sake of vacation when they just borrowed money for last months rent, are living check-to-check, have furniture in their house from Rent-A-Center, and still owe money to six different people. That's just good ol' fashioned irresponsible. Better yet, friends don't let friends spend $10 on lunch everyday (i.e., $50 a week... or over $2500 a year) when there are better alternatives. The list goes on. Of course, you can't control what people do with their money, but if you care about them then you at least have a responsibility to bring their frivolous spending habits to their attention.

Because the question is, would we still try so hard to keep up with the Joneses if we knew how broke the Joneses were? In my humble opinion, financial discipline is like muscle: Contrary to popular belief, we all have it... most of us just choose not to exercise it. Sacrifice is a very, very, (did I say very?) very difficult thing. In a culture in which we are programmed to believe that we are owed our instant gratification, who has time to wait until they can afford it? "Why delay when you can charge it today?" That is most certainly the American Way.

Here's A Quick Story: I have a coworker who has been at the job for over 10 years, and yet he is living check-to-check and has ZERO DOLLARS in his savings account. Put another way, he has received over 260 consecutive paychecks and does not have twenty dollars to show for it at the end of each pay period. And his debt level is through the roof. He is also one of those $10-a-day-lunch people I mentioned earlier, but that's not the point here. The point is that his car broke down last semester and (as I was advising him financially at the time) I suggested that he started taking the bus to work since the route was so convenient to him. Even aside from the obvious advantage of avoiding a car payment for a while, the difference between bus fare and gas alone would've given him an opportunity to make up some ground with his short-term finances.

Long story short, his response was "The BuS? Oh Heck No. That's for poor people... I work way too hard to be caught on somebody's bus! That's okay. I'll walk to work before I got caught dead on the bus."... And so a week later he had a new car. But (surprise surprise) it was repossessed just 6 weeks later due to missed payments.

His level of ignorance and pride may seem extreme, but my point is that we all have our fair share of pride to contend with. We watch enough television to where we're convinced that the we "deserve" a certain type of lifestyle regardless of what we can actually afford. To make a long story short, I bet you that he is not the only one who's pride is getting in the way of his prosperity. Why are we more concerned with how we look and what people think of us than we are about our own financial health? If you stopped working tomorrow, would your family be able to last even 6 months without a paycheck? And if not, then would those people who you are trying to keep pace with be able to help you out? Nah. Probably not. Instead, they'll still be at the deli sipping Cappuccino-Grande-Double-Latte's saying, "that's too bad what happened to Stanley Johnson, eh?... and he was such a snappy dresser too! I loved his car... I wonder if it's for sale."

And so the question that V and I find ourselves asking more and more often is, what is 2 or 3 years of extremely driven and calculated sacrifice in exchange for financial peace for the rest of or lives? Heck yeah we feel we're due a nice vacation just like everyone else, and yes a minivan, new camera, and a bluetooth thingamajig to replace my wired earpiece would be nice to have... But could we endure the delayed gratification and judgement that comes along with a little sacrifice for the betterment of our long time financial security?

When you think of things like no vacation, no cable television, no fine dining, no whateverelsepeoplebuy... for 2 or 3 years, the initial response may be, "wow... that's a long time". But here's the thing. Those 2 or 3 years are going to go by ANYWAY... so why not do something absolutely radical so that once that time is up you do not find yourself in the EXACT SAME situation or worse than you were in 2 or 3 years ago. Why not grab those years by the horn and brand them as the small price you are willing to pay for 20, 30, 40 or 60 years of financial peace afterwards. In the scheme of things it doesn't really seem like that much to ask. Why is it that when we look backwards, we always remark about how fast the time has flown by... but when we look forward with the thought of injecting financial discipline in our lives, 2 years suddenly seems like foooooreeeeevvveer? Which one is it? Does it fly by, or is it forever?

And no, "injecting financial discipline" is not a fancy way of saying that you can't buy Christmas gifts, have to go out and sell your car and must pawn your camera equipment immediately... But it does mean a commitment to at least start with the little things. Here's a perfect example:



When it comes to orange juice V and I consume about a gallon a week, if not more. With that in mind, we recently switched brands from our beloved Tropicana (Calcium enriched, no pulp, thank you) to some other brand that I don't even recall the name of. It's not the greatest tasting o.j. in the world, but it's good enough for the fruit and protein shakes that I make everyday. Why the switch? Well, Tropicana was getting expensive, and at over $2 less a gallon and over a gallon a week, just using a different brand of orange juice can potentially save us over $100 a year.

Okay, so this is where you say, "That's a ridiculous example"... to which I respond "EXACTLY!!!" Because if you understand that something as "ridiculous" as switching orange juice brands can save $100 a year, then it also forces you to ask yourself, "what are some of the bigger not-so-ridiculous things in my life that are causing my money to get away from me faster than I can save or invest it?" I think we all have more holes in our pockets and checking accounts than we realize.

And on that note, let V and I be the first to make ourselves, our finances, and our intentions transparent in hopes that, if nothing else, this will be our accountability and perhaps also spawn inspiration for someone else to take the challenge of working towards becoming debt free...

[To Be Continued]