Is your lifestyle bankrupting your future?

I will always remember a car repair add that said “pay me now or pay me later” it stressed changing the oil in my car on regular intervals or face paying for a new engine later. This of course is common sense, develop the right habits and you avoid costly problems down the road. When it comes to our standard of living we face the same question will we develop the habits that allow us to retire one day and help our kids go to college ? There are more than a few of us who are unwilling or unable to live beneath our means who in the end will face very difficult circumstances because of that.

Our lifestyle can actually bankrupt our future if we don’t get it under control. It starts early these days, I remember a time when the first home you bought was a “starter home” with two bedrooms, a bathroom, and maybe a one car garage for the single, used car you probably got from your dad.  The house wasn’t very big, it wasn’t expensive, but it fit within the budget. The trend today is starter homes that look a lot like your parents’ home: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a two or three car garage to fit two new or leased cars. It is exciting, it is comfortable, and it doesn’t fit the budget very well.

If you are smart, you will start saving for retirement when you get your first job and never stop saving, you will start saving for college when your first child is born and never stop saving until the child is out of college.