Are you living for today or someday?

[Dancing Lotus]

It appears that the American dream is to own a big home and drive a nice car. Was there ever really a time when the America dream was just simply to live freely?
I think I would rather spend my money on family vacations, interests and activities then to invest it all in a house or car. I hate that the measure of a person's success is in the size of his house and not in the lives that he touches.

I wonder do any of you choose to live in a home that is less then you could afford in order free yourself. What about your car? Do you choose to drive a paid for pinto despite the fact that you could easily afford a Benz?

I think that when I retire I would like to get a little two room shack on a lake and hang up my car keys for good. Or maybe that's the problem.Everyone is waiting for retirement to live. Sorry about the rant, I'm just think out loud today.

[IntlMom]

I am totally living for someday - but my someday simply is because I want to live somewhere else, so desperately badly...... that I feel like I am just marking days off my calendar untill I can get back there and can "rejoin" life.

I know I shouldn't be that way - but I can't seem to make it be any different.

edited: thanks Ann!!

[Dancing Lotus]

Intlmom- I assume you meant somewhere not someone. And I get that.

As badly as I wanted to move to our current location I can't help but miss our old life. With our current housing crisis I can't help but think that this is our chance to move closer to my parents.

We moved to get away from family. They were a pain in the you know what. Well not my parents but others. Anyways, I know now that we were wrong. Oh so wrong. Not only do I need family, I want them. My mom is my best friend and things would be so different if we lived closer.

[acabin42]

Today IS my someday! I live in a 4 room house (no mortgage), and we own 2 cars and 1 truck. My newest vehicle is a 1994 and has almost 300,000 miles on it. I do not have nice new furniture, I think ours is probably over 30 years old. I am content with what I have, and wish everyone could be happy with what they have. Life is too short to be wishing it away, and fretting over material things.
God Bless You.

[andrew's mom]

I used to live for someday but not anymore. I never really wished the material stuff as much as I wanted peace of mind. When I started my spiritual journey 3 years ago I also imagined what that peace of mind might feel like. Three years later, the results and the journey are so completely different (in an awesome way) than what I expected. I guess is a way my someday is spiritual enlightenment. Everything fades in comparison to that. However, I still live in this world, have family, a job and responsibilities. I am learning how to weave the 2 and it's very interesting. My spiritual journey is actually helping me be better in all those other areas. I wish for more and more awareness and to never stop growing and changing.

[frugal is fun]

I think I'm somewhere in the middle. While I totally live within my means now I am putting ALOT of money away for retirement where as it is restricting the way I live now.

I'm not complaining because I hope its in Gods plan that I live to a ripe old age.

I do have peace of mind that my financial past isn't going to catch up with me because I don't have a messy past, I have a very clean financial past.

I don't loose sleep over money.

I have learned to live with less over the past few years and for the most part, I am content. There are a few things that I "want" but I have also learned patience. And my life is definitely more peaceful with less "things" cluterring up the place.

I bought a house that I could afford and my car is 10 yrs old with 170,000 miles on it.

[KeithBC]

I did, for quite a few years, live in a smaller, older house than I could afford so that I could eventually live in the place i wanted to.

Today is "someday". I am living the life I dreamed of, and to be honest, for most of my life I never thought I would get here. I live in a nice but modest, mortgage-free house on a reasonable-sized parcel of land, in a stunningly gorgeous location, among a community of interesting, involved, neighbourly people. My car is a small hatchback, not because I can't afford bigger, but because reducing my footprint on the planet is part of what I consider "living the good life". I have enough income for my needs, but not so much that I am tempted to live extravagantly.

We grow a lot of our own organic fruit and veggies, not so much to save money, though that is a benefit, but mostly to consume locally and be able to eat wholesome produce.

[rosey7415]

i have always lived within my means. i think that it was not always a good thing.

when i was young and full of energy, i was very poor. then when i got married, we got the house, car, house upgrades, etc. and lived within our means. we got things when we could afford them. i can't tell you how many junky cars we had when we started out cause we couldn't afford anything else. ( now that we have new it is so much less a headache.) what my point is.....actually, i am getting to one.....lol.....is that i wish i took more financial chances when i was younger and in good shape. i wish i would have gotten in the hole a few more times and gone on vacations. now that i can finally afford to go on vacations.......i am not sure if i physically can. it is a big regret of mine as i do love to travel so much. just putting this out there so that you younger ones can think about this. i know this forum is all about saving and being frugal and i have done this religiously.....too much so, i think now. i should have been more risk- taking. in a small way of course, i don't mean blow your whole future. just get in debt once in a while and enjoy what you want to. then go back to being frugal, etc.

[craftypam]

i have always lived within my means. i think that it was not always a good thing.

when i was young and full of energy, i was very poor. then when i got married, we got the house, car, house upgrades, etc. and lived within our means. we got things when we could afford them. i can't tell you how many junky cars we had when we started out cause we couldn't afford anything else. ( now that we have new it is so much less a headache.) what my point is.....actually, i am getting to one.....lol.....is that i wish i took more financial chances when i was younger and in good shape. i wish i would have gotten in the hole a few more times and gone on vacations. now that i can finally afford to go on vacations.......i am not sure if i physically can. it is a big regret of mine as i do love to travel so much. just putting this out there so that you younger ones can think about this. i know this forum is all about saving and being frugal and i have done this religiously.....too much so, i think now. i should have been more risk- taking. in a small way of course, i don't mean blow your whole future. just get in debt once in a while and enjoy what you want to. then go back to being frugal, etc.

I have lived my life the same way as you have. We had junky cars for many years and are still not driving new. My car is 10 years old. We also did not travel when we were young; some of ours was because dh had a seasonal job. I feel differently than you do though about vacations. I now have very little debt; no car payment and no house payment and now we can travel. We will be married 35 years in September and went on our first week vacation 2 years ago.

Pam

Peace of mind and being debt free was more important to me I guess was my thinking.

[Rhiamon]

I think that because I am on a jouney of healing that I will find the things I need to do to get the things I need. If that makes sense, right now we are living for the someday in someways(living with my inlaws because we can't afford to live somewhere else) but we are working towards the someday we will live on our own. But in the last little while through some healing (not done yet) I have discoverd alot of what I "wanted" was right in front of me, and I was to busy living in my head and past to realize it. What I needed was to learn how to enjoy life, accept things, and realize that the people that truly matter are my husband and daughter. So I guess in some ways I have started to live for today. I am just glad I realized this at 30 and did not totaly miss my daughter growing up.

[gapeach]

I live for now. We have lived for years well below our means and with very little stress. We haven't always purchased new cars, we buy what we feel is a good dependable car for the money. We recently made a decision to build our dream home on acreage we purchased several years ago for cash. We could afford to put a lot of upgrades in this house but we won't. We've challenged ourselves to stay as close to budget as possible. I'm hoping to come in right at or under budget. We'll see. I can say without a doubt that I am content with what we have and how we choose to live. I know most of my friends can't say that.

[shoiji]

Good question. I am trying to live for today. Sure there are times I think someday I will live in Italy. The older I get the more I realize today is really not that bad.

[krbshappy71]

It appears that the American dream is to own a big home and drive a nice car. Was there ever really a time when the America dream was just simply to live freely?
I think I would rather spend my money on family vacations, interests and activities then to invest it all in a house or car. I hate that the measure of a person's success is in the size of his house and not in the lives that he touches.

I wonder do any of you choose to live in a home that is less then you could afford in order free yourself. What about your car? Do you choose to drive a paid for pinto despite the fact that you could easily afford a Benz?

I think that when I retire I would like to get a little two room shack on a lake and hang up my car keys for good. Or maybe that's the problem.Everyone is waiting for retirement to live. Sorry about the rant, I'm just think out loud today.

Thank you for your post. It really hit me on the spot today. My daughters tell me I live in the future, but my spending habits proved otherwise. I have a mug that has a saying about "its the journey, not the destination" and all that. I try to achieve both. If I kept up my current habits I'd be eating cat food in my retirement, so I knew it was time to change and try to straighten things out for the future. I'm not saving up or paying things off to have that big house and Benz, but my idea of luxury is just different than the big-house-Benz people. I still do have my pipe dreams, and "waiting for retirement" feelings definitely creep in.

Just wanted to say thank you and no you aren't alone in feeling like people (myself included) kinda do that. My parents absolutely did, so that was the example of living that I grew up with and molded into myself. I'd say the trick is to find a balance.

[mombottoo]

It appears that the American dream is to own a big home and drive a nice car. Was there ever really a time when the America dream was just simply to live freely?
I think I would rather spend my money on family vacations, interests and activities then to invest it all in a house or car. I hate that the measure of a person's success is in the size of his house and not in the lives that he touches.

I wonder do any of you choose to live in a home that is less then you could afford in order free yourself. What about your car? Do you choose to drive a paid for pinto despite the fact that you could easily afford a Benz?

I think that when I retire I would like to get a little two room shack on a lake and hang up my car keys for good. Or maybe that's the problem.Everyone is waiting for retirement to live. Sorry about the rant, I'm just think out loud today.

I think people need a healthy balance in the way they choose to live their lives. You have to live in today, but you also have to plan for "someday". People who don't plan for retirement end up like my father and so many others that I know. We planned for death or disability when we were younger...good thing we planned for disability or we would have been sunk years ago.

I don't want to live in poverty when I am old and the only way to insure that I don't is to plan for later. IMHO people who don't plan for "someday" end up wishing they had when "someday" gets here.

[cab54]

We definitely live below what we 'could' live.

And I am living for now. Not someday.

But, we are retired, comfy financially, and our kids are grown.

We used to be living for someday. I think everybody does at some point.