Making present decisions that give peace to your future self

BY ARETHA GRAVES

In this present works, community members are constantly pressured to make decisions in “the now”; buy now, pay later, fast food drive-thru, microwave dishes, check cashing, payday advance, instant credit. All these features could be argued to be useful, they save time, and in emergency situations, some things can’t wait. 

Once upon a time, when this writer taught the hardest classes when saving towards future goals was the subject. The participants were impatient to reach “the good part”; the home purchase, and the business start- up. They were less enthusiastic to find that the things that would have the greatest impact on their successes would be the ability to project their future needs and develop a plan to meet them. Or, even more painful, acknowledging and resolving the financial mistakes of the past found in their credit reports. It was difficult to inform them that part of their present predicaments was because of their past frustration with planning and failures to prepare. That is part of “financial maturity”. 

If the constant desire to possess materials presently outweighed seeing the benefits of self-discipline, restraint, and avoiding fees and interest, community members will always pay more for the same items that planners purchase. Many times, without training, young adults in control of their own finances will want every payday to be Christmas. Purchasing trinkets, snacks, and recreations rather than planning for necessary and future expenses is a painful lesson. Controlling impulses and desires is a subject that could fill this entire edition, so this writer will stay on the topic at hand. 

All of this is said as a caution; if merchants and lenders know that certain demographic groups are resistant or unable to plan for long term savings, the merchants will plan to offer convenience, but sell debt without offering a good or service equal to the money spent. Community members end up spending more for either the same product, or worse yet, a lower quality product. 

In an Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) workshop, the group learned from the owner of a local urban radio station that the station’s listeners had the purchase power potential of 300 million dollars! But this writer wonders, how much of that purchase potential is wasted in late fees, interest fees, over limit fees, processing fees, financing fees, expedited fees, or other charges meant to reduce the impact of the purchase, but enrich the individuals and companies offering this “instant solutions to our community members. The seeming “answered prayer” could very well be a trap that keeps your purchase power reduced and you in financial trouble even longer. 

It is only then that we realize that the convenience to the customer isn’t so much the service being provided as the benefit of fees collected or overhead gain of cheap food, other products, and services sold at a premium for an exponentially higher price to the benefit of the seller. A good example would be potatoes; raw potatoes are usually sold for $3-$5 for ten pounds, you may pay the same price for frozen hash browns or fries that simply need to be cooked or warmed up. Still less time and preparation are the fast-food fries; hot, fresh, and ready at the window. But the price you’ll pay for one large serving is the same price for the ten-pound bag of potatoes! 

When examining how far your dollars should go to make the most impact, one simply can’t say they bought food, what was bought was convenience, and it was paid for dearly. Examining the total yearly cost of fees, interest, and penalties against the item purchased. No doubt, the price of the item was covered several times over. So, in the end, was it, is it, worth it?

As a final insult to injury, many goods and services cannot be bought in the community, which means community members are not at all beneficiaries in the circulation of these monies, except as providers. There is little to no opportunity for our members to compete to offer goods and services for better prices or at better terms.

These are all things to ponder now instead of simmering in the future what you could’ve, would’ve, should’ve, done years of income and/or tax refunds if you’d only known better. Proper preparation means peace that you made the right decisions, played the ‘long game’ and used the dollars you had to your best advantage for the future.