Learn how practicing delayed gratification is the first step to become debt free.
Needs vs. Wants
How many times have you ventured into a store for a specific item and come out with several others? It's a typical occurrence, and as much a part of the American experience as apple pie and muscle cars. Unfortunately typical doesn't also mean affordable. These extra purchases add up and contribute to consumer debt much faster than you'd probably care to realize.
If you're committed to a debt-free lifestyle, you must learn to separate your purchases into two categories: needs and wants. The needs are items that you must have right away-the bare necessities of life that help to ensure your existence. The wants are the items that you want to have right away, even if they aren't essential.
Pay As You Go
Since a debt-free lifestyle requires that you only purchase as much as you are currently able to afford, the ability to distinguish between needs and wants becomes very important. After all, you don't want to purchase several items from your list of wants only to find that you no longer have the money that's required to purchase several of your needs.
Beware of Wants Posing As Needs
It's fairly easy to identify milk as a need and a CD as a want, but not all purchases are so easy to label. For example, it might be easy to consider donuts as a need because they're a food item, when in reality they're just an extra lurking in the grocery store and therefore a want.
Get in the habit of scrutinizing the contents of your shopping cart each time before you check out, and you're sure to find at least a few wants posing as needs.
Delay Your Wants
There's nothing wrong with purchasing wants, as long as you have the money to pay for them. Make sure your needs are covered; and then if there's money left over, go ahead and reward yourself with a want or two.
Just understand that there are going to be times when there simply isn't enough money to cover your wants. These will be the times to practice delayed gratification. Recognize that it simply isn't realistic to expect to get everything the moment that you want it, and that the occasional delay isn't a big deal. In fact, as the term "delayed gratification" suggests, you're likely to enjoy your purchase even more when you've had to wait and work for it.
Challenge yourself to practice the art of delayed gratification, and take a debt-free life off of your list of wants.
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