Paycheck to paycheck... |
Posted: October 27, 2013 |
I hear this expression quite often from my staff; just as frequently from the high-wage earners as from the low. Whatever happened to being embarrassed when one was “caught short” and didn't have the cash necessary to meet the bills?
I can totally understand someone who has been suddenly let go, and is trying to make ends meet on an unemployment check. However, folks who are gainfully employed, and can count on their regular paycheck, how does it happen that they can claim to live paycheck to paycheck? Why no savings for the “rainy day”?? Why has liquid “savings” become unpopular?
I will tell you how it happens.
1. Want – Americans have an incredible sense of “want.” They no longer live by the creed of “need.” See something on TV that tweaks their fancy, and zip, it’s ordered online. Soon to find its way to a storage facility (rented at $150/month or more). 2. Frugality – This is a forgotten philosophy. I own my own company, with 180+ employees, and at the end of the day, following yet another pharmacy representative luncheon I am alone in taking home the leftover salad. How can this be when I can afford to eat anywhere and anything in the world, and they cannot, yet I am eating the leftovers (perfectly good salad I might add). 3. Gluttony – No longer do Americans even get what they “want,” they get MORE than what they want. Their waistlines are a perfect example. I am sick to death of otherwise learned folks like Sanja Gupta, M.D. – you know, the neurosurgeon who couldn't make it in medicine, and now does wonderful articles for CNN, like the ‘miracle’ of marijuana – who claims most of the overweight issues in this country are eating fast food. The weight we carry is a result of a simple calculation...calories consumed = calories eaten. Regardless of the source of the calories, our weight stays the SAME if we burn as many calories as what we eat. Well, Americans are largely pigs. They yearn for restaurant plates that are heaped with food. They don't order the regular hamburger, but rather the “Big Mac.” They don't even bother to let their stomachs tell them when enough is enough!! 4. Taste creep – This applies to those fortunate enough in this Obama economy to have advanced in position and start making higher incomes. God bless em, but isn’t the first thing they do is buy a new car? They never missed a day of work due to car trouble before, but suddenly, a new car is necessary.
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