Living within our means

I'm sure you've all heard it: you must learn to live within your means. If you're a Dave Ramsey follower, you have heard it over, and over, and over, and over...and over... It may even sound kind of cliche, but I really do think it's true, but not only with money.

So, what does it mean to live within our means?

Financially, it means spending and saving in a way that is within our financial ability to pay it back. We're not charging up credit cards or accruing other debt in order to have "stuff". Dave Ramsey would go so far as to say a car loan is living outside your means, but I will not go into debating all his ideas here.

But, what about living within the means of our time? How many of us are stretched so thin that we feel like we are going to snap at any moment? How many of us have so many commitments that we are not able to do any of them, and other things, like personal relationships suffer? I really like the rule in our house, "people first, things second." (of course I like it, that's why I started it :) I really try to use this idea to help guide the decisions we make about our priorities. Things like school, sports, activities, church, friends, going out with friends, serving on committees, extra jobs, and all kinds of other things take our time. The time that is limited, since we are not superhuman. And when these things pile up too much, it wears us out and often puts the "people second."

How about living within our emotional means? Does that even exist, and what does it look like? To me, it means learning to soak up as much good stuff as I can, and let the rest go. It means taking a step back from things that may end up with me feeling overly stressed, underappreciated, or even just depressed. This may be the place where I struggle the most. It is difficult to say no to those negative people and things in our lives; in fact it may be impossible to get rid of them, especially if it is family or co-workers. If I'm not careful, I can easily get sucked into people's problems and situations that are not mine to worry about, but drain me emotionally.

So, getting rid of the people may not always be a solution. What we can do, however, is learn to discern what is worth our emotional commitment and what is not. Without a doubt, this is easier said than done. I wish I had a clear cut suggestion on how to accomplish this task, but I don't. If I did, I'd likely be rich and famous.

The point of this post: let's all make a pact to try to live within our means, with our finances, time, and emotional ability. It's not always easy, but the effort we put into it will pay us back far more than we often think.