Money can be a sticky subject for many people. Most of us want more, but many of us don’t like talking about it. No matter how you feel about it though you need to look out for yourself first when it comes to money. That may sound selfish, but sometimes you need to be selfish in order to be responsible.
With that being said, there’s a few sticky money situations that might make you feel guilty enough where you find yourself making bad money decisions. Don’t fall into these traps.
1- Don’t lend out money
Maybe it’s a best friend or maybe it’s one of your close cousins that’s asking for the money. It shouldn’t matter who it is. Do yourself a favor and make it a rule that you don’t lend out money.
This may seem harsh in certain situations, but you need to hold strong to your rules. If you’ve already been lending out money then you can make it your new rule and let anyone that asks you for money know that.
It can be hard to say no to a friend or to a family member that needs money to pay for whatever it is that they need to pay for, but you need to look out for yourself. What if something happened and you needed that money for an emergency? What if this person never pays you back? What about investing that money somewhere so that it grows instead of waiting to get paid back from a friend, hopefully in full.
As selfish as it may sound you need to be responsible and look out for yourself. You need to be responsible with your money. It’s not your fault that they need money to pay for bills. They should have been more responsible with their money. There’s no reason why you should have to pay for their mistakes.
2- Don’t buy everything that is offered to you (girl scout cookies anyone?)
I’d call this the no cookies rule. Just because your neighbors kids are going around selling girl scout cookies doesn’t mean you have to buy them. That’s especially true if you don’t even want what they’re selling.
I see this happen at work all the time too. Someone in the office will come up to you and ask if you can buy something from his child to help fund whatever they are funding. Sometimes it’s hard to say no to these things because you’re put right on the spot and you don’t want to feel embarrassed.
Quit feeling bad about it! You need to think about your own finances first. You might think that spending a little here and there really won’t matter in the end, but it most definitely does. If you can’t afford to buy whatever they’re offering then don’t buy it.
If they’re selling popcorn and you don’t even like popcorn then don’t feel bad about not spending your money on it to support whatever it is. If you still feel like you want to contribute in some way then you can offer to make a smaller donation. Instead of spending $8 on popcorn you can give them a dollar or two instead to help out.
3- Don’t give in to your loud kid
I’m guilty of doing this to my parents sometimes when I was a kid. I would want something so badly I would eventually yell and scream because I wasn’t getting it. I couldn’t do it for too long though before my dad got me quiet.
Don’t fall victim to this strategy. It might be “easier” to just give in and buy your kid something so that they’ll just shut up, but can you really afford to do that each time? Do you really want to make it a habit that when they’re bad and loud they get something for it?
It’s rarely a good idea to reward bad behavior, but even if you didn’t want any parenting advice I would advise you to think about the finances behind such a decision. Can you really be spending this extra money that you didn’t budget for? Should you really be doing it? Wouldn’t it be smarter to put that money to use somewhere else?