“The way you act today can affect the way you are tomorrow.”

I ran across the following quote today. “The way you act today can affect the way you are tomorrow.”

I was not planning on posting today but the powerful message this delivers inspired me. I would, however, change only one thing, the word “CAN” should be “WILL”.

“The way you act today” WILL “affect the way you are tomorrow.”

This is true of most things in life and especially in your financial life. Let’s change some more words to see the affect.

The way you SPEND today WILL affect the way you are tomorrow.
WHAT you BUY today WILL affect your finances are tomorrow.
How you SAVE today WILL affect your RETIREMENT tomorrow.
The way you HANDLE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE today WILL affect YOUR DEBT tomorrow.

Powerful words. Every decision you make today affects your finances and your ability to do things later. Whether it is 5 minutes, a day, a week, months or years later.

- Buying a new car means you will have to make $x00.00 payments for the next 60 months.
- Having that latte may mean you cannot go to the movie with friends this weekend.
- Buying dvds, clothes, cigarettes today means you have less money to save for your emergency fund, retirement, kids education.
- USING your credit card today means you will have less money tomorrow to use.

The purpose of this quote is to stop us and make us think of the results of our decisions. Add to this the time value of money, “a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow due to inflation.”

Incurring debt today when we do not have the cash causes us to pay more later. Not only in interest and inflation but also less ability to do things later.

I know this is where I am right now. My wife and I made decisions that we thought we could afford with two incomes. Then my wife was no longer able to work. Now we are using one income to pay for things we bought a while ago. We sacrificed our savings. We sacrificed our enjoyment now for what was in the past. Yes you can say we enjoyed it then. But now we are paying for it.

So before you buy, think about this quote.

“The way you act today” WILL “affect the way you are tomorrow.”

Does this fit in with your plans? Will it make you better or worse off? What are the affects this will have? What if you become unemployed? Ill?

Are you willing to trade the long term goals/plans/dreams for the short term satisfaction?

Just my 2 cents. Jim @ ChangeJarSavings.com