Stop Blaming Yourself AND Get Your Spending Under Control
There’s far more demand for our spending than we can ever keep up with.
But that doesn’t mean we need to wallow in debt.
Competing priorities and demands on our spending pull at us every moment of every day from every angle.
Take, for example, a summer vacation to a theme park. Everyone must walk through a gift shop to exit the park in which they’ve already been spending money all day and likely paid $100+ per person to enter. Advertising is built into the experience.
Historical Origins
The ubiquity of advertising is contemporary, but the origins are not. Consider this, from the 1928 book Propaganda by Edward Bernays:
A company “cannot afford to wait until the public asks for its product; it must maintain constant touch, through advertising and propaganda… to assure itself the continuous demand which alone will make its costly [manufacturing] plant profitable.”
Falling for the allure of advertisements seems to be rooted in our very DNA. English colonists were gullible enough to move to Virginia because of the government promoting precious metals and jewels there, despite ample evidence to the contrary. This led to “a kind of natural selection…of people who were willing to believe in advertising.” (H/t: MWK)
We are quite literally a nation of people who said “yes” to an advertisement or bought in (pun intended) to propoganda.
Spending
In modern society, advertisements typically target our discretionary spending. However, there IS a cultural expectation that everyone should aspire to be a homeowner; so maybe the propaganda around essential spending—like on housing—is just as strong, though less overt.
Let’s look at essential spending, where housing and food prices continue to rise and childcare costs take a significant chunk of a family’s budget. Food and healthcare costs can be addressed another time; for today, let’s start start with housing, then continue with childcare.
Housing
Due to increasing housing costs, 40% of people now spend 35% or more of their monthly income on rental housing. Homeowners spend over 40% of their monthly budget on their mortgage.
For comparison, most finance experts recommend spending no more than 30% of gross monthly income on housing. Side note: housing prices vary widely by region, with California, Hawaii, and Florida being the most expensive.
Childcare
Then there’s childcare costs, and other challenges parent’s face due to serious policy failures such as the lack of nationwide paid family leave and affordable childcare.
In many parts of the country, childcare now exceeds the price of rent. A number of my friends spend over $2000 per month per child on childcare or schooling. Nationwide, families spend between 8% - 19.3% of their income on care for each child, according to the US Census.
Well, what about you?
If you’re wondering how to manage your budget and are finding that housing or childcare are disproportionately large expenses, first, give yourself some grace. Generally, it’s not ideal to be in a state of intense stress when dealing with financial questions. Self-compassion and forgiveness are very useful here.
Even though there are serious structural and systemic issues that need to be solved at the policy level, we can’t necessarily wait around for the government.
In fact, if, month-after-month you’re unable to build an emergency fund or save for retirement, it may be time to deeply reflect and reevaluate:
your sources of income,
where you’re living, and
what the best childcare arrangements are.
There are likely no easy answers, but there can be better solutions. It may take some time to evaluate, research, and develop and implement a plan, but I believe you CAN find a path to better financial health!
Do you believe in a better financial future for yourself, too?
If you can’t truly say “yes,” then my free upcoming workshop may be just for you. Join me on August 28th for a Money Mindset Makeover and together, let’s reveal those limiting beliefs, remove them, and replace them with a more empowering money mindset.
Want support with your budget or other financial goals?
Book a 20 minute discovery call with me and let’s see what we can figure out.
