“If life always came easily to us, we wouldn’t benefit from it. The things we value are the things we’ve paid for. The victories we treasure are from the hardest battles.” ~ John Eldredge
The other day I finished reading John Eldredge’s book The Way of the Wild Heart.* It was a good book that I recommend to any man looking to become a better husband or father. The book contained the above quote and I was totally blown away by how true it has been in my life.Image may be NSFW.
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John was not talking specifically about finances in the quote, but how true is this statement in our own finances? Debt is “easy,” at least in the short term, because it allows us to get things without having to work hard for it. All we need to do to get what we want is to get approved for financing or swipe our credit card. Because of this we do not value our purchases as much and ultimately this leaves us unfulfilled, so we use even more debt to make us happy. On the other hand, when we work hard, save up our money, and make a purchase in cash we get a better deal on it because we want to get the best value for our hard work. We also appreciate it more because we put in more effort and ultimately we are more satisfied with our purchases.
This idea got burned into my head when I was a small child. My sister and I really wanted to purchase the original Nintendo and have one like all of our friends did. We saved up our allowance and birthday money and finally had enough money saved to buy one. After putting all the time and effort to buy that Nintendo we definitely took better care of it and appreciated it a lot more than if we would have just been handed one.
How have you seen this principal in your life? Have you ever saved up enough money to buy something and really appreciated it? Or have you used credit to make a purchase and not appreciated it?
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