How many times have you heard this phrase? How many times have you said it?
How many times was it true?
I was thinking about this the other day while talking to my wife about this thing we want to do when we start making money from our real estate. See, we don’t need the income right now. The Air Force pays me plenty well (especially when we get rid of debt). Sure, we could just compound that income, but since we have to give to receive we decided we want to give money to a cause.
I thought about other people who talk about “when I win the lottery” and how they will pay off their debts, buy things for kids, visit family. And how they don’t do any of those things even a little right now. Why not? Because they aren’t priorities. It’s closely related to the lifestyle inflation problem: the more money you make the more money you spend.
So would we really? Would I start giving money to something or start spending or saving for things that I don’t now? Are my priorities going to shift because my income increases? Would yours? Be honest.
If we’re being honest, probably not.
I’m not saying start spending $1000 a month on something (I mean you can, if you want). It could be $10 or even $1. But it needs to be something. I just need to build the habits now so that when I increase my income it’s already there.
I’m not saying you have to. But if you ever hear yourself saying “when I have more money”, take a moment and think about whether you need to reconsider priorities.