We live in a society where instant gratification is the prevailing attitude. We’re always being told how easy it is to have something now.
Everyone else is buying a new car. All your friends have the newest iPod or latest iWhatever. Everyone’s talking about that new restaurant that just opened, so you just have to go too.
What you must realize is that there is a fundamental problem with this. In order to maintain this lifestyle, you spend everything you have and then have nothing left over. To make matters worse, oftentimes you’ll spend more than you have and have therefore already committed your future income.
It’s important to develop an attitude based on delayed gratification. We need to realize that we don’t need everything right now.
I’m also not just recommending that you should save up for whatever it is you want to purchase. By doing this, you’re merely delaying the separation of you from your money.
It takes even more discipline to concentrate on purchasing investments that will in turn finance your lifestyle. You’ll definitely thank yourself later if you’ve been able to live by this concept of delayed gratification.

by Fiscal Musings » » Focusing on Delayed Gratification, on January 31 2008 @ 7:45 pm
[…] been quite some time since I talked about the concept of delayed gratification, and I figured it was time that I revisit it. It’s an important part of the wealthy mindset […]