It was ignorance, but like you said I took the easy route out to remain ignorant. I knew I /should/ have been paying closer attention, but I chose to believe everything was fine so that I didn’t need to spend the time required. I had other things I’d rather do.

Even now that I’m watching the budget I’m finding it difficult to stick to it and even track some of the numbers. Although I do have a system forming from the effort.

Its like having two people who develop cancer. If one person finds a lump and knows thats a bad sign but doesn’t see the doctor, they are making a choice.

If another person finds a lump but doesn’t know anything about cancer then they are unlikely to recognise the significance of that symptom.

It took us a long time to learn enough about finances to recognise that we were not managing our money, we were simply paying our bills. In that time we moved 3 times for my husband’s work, had 2 children, bought a van and our first home and still did not know how to properly set up a budget or that we should track our spending.

I really wish that Personal Finances were taught in school. I remember taking an economics class, and all we did was play stocks with pretend money. I think a much more rigorous education in mortgages, personal loans, making budgets and determining cash flow is needed.

Interesting reply on the debt part. I can get the idea of not paying any attention, but I still think that happens because it is an easier choice than doing to work to find out what you are spending.

@jacqjolie,

Two months!!! Ugh, that has to be a hard choice to do. Way to go to stick to your plan.

@ The Rat,

That isn’t too bad of a problem. A minor loan that is under a month almost doesn’t count for how little interest it will cost you.

@Simple in France,

Buying a home is always hard. In France, I suspect even more so since the term ‘historical’ takes on a whole new meaning over there.

Tim

The problem was that I had already used up my monthly income to make a final payment on my vehicle. As a result, I ended up doing something I never do. I decided to borrow on my line of credit for a three week period. The rate on my PLC is only 4.25% and its only a temporary measure, it’s just that I hate doing it because it goes against my approach to things. Regardless, I would rather do that than end up having to pay more in taxes. So, to answer your question, I think I made the right decision, only because it’s a temporary measure for lack of good calculations.

Nice thread.

Today I made the slightly difficult choice to possibly pick up another 2 month contract job because my investments aren’t doing as well as I hoped so far this first quarter of 2010. But I promised myself that I wouldn’t dip into my principal savings in retirement and I have to stick to that or I’ll never make it long term. Those 2 months can pay for another year off, and I’d rather spend a little more in the upcoming years than go completely bare bones or have to worry.

We had no clue to how much we didn’t know about personal finance.

When his income went up 5 years ago we just assumed I could be a stay at home mom and still buy the things we wanted, so we had a baby.

We never sat down to see how much money we would have to Live on after all the bills were paid.

We went and bought a $20,000 van and ended up with a $28,000 loan without checking what that would do to our cash flow.

For the next 5 years we were blissfully ignorant to how much money we were overspending every month.

We sent away $600/m to pay our loans and credit cards and 5 years later our debt was still $30,000.

Learning to live within our means for us meant that first we had to learn what our means even were.

Now that we know I think it can be said that we are making choices when we decided to Buy or Not Buy.

But before there was no thinking, no awareness just action.

While most would say this choice isn’t a terrible one to have to make, it really wasn’t a slam dunk. For us, we realized we couldn’t really live life to its fullest while we are working, no matter how big our house was or how expensive our cars were. We will stay in our condo, continue to drive a ten year old truck, invest and save prudently. When we stop working in our 40′s, I’m sure the lightbulb will turn on for many people we know that wonder why we live the lifestyle we do.