Where are Your Priorities?

I stayed away from the New York Times for a whole day while enjoying my first year anniversary. But when the digest came Sunday morning, the day we checked out of our love oasis, I couldn't resist. I peeked.

Sure enough there was an article that fired me up. It was titled Moonshine or the Kids. The link is below.

The article unveiled the ugly choices many poor families make in serving their households and families (or lack of service, I'd argue). The article focuses on families in the Congo but I must shout out from the rooftop that it is far from isolated in that area. We, here in rich America, do a disservice to our families too in choosing moonshine over our kids.

In this well-written article, Nicholas Kristof, features one family that is facing eviction, isn't equip with the most essential safety features to save their children's lives (a mosquito net in this case- think car seat in ours), and has a child that is about to be evicted from school because they can't pay the $2.50 a month tuition. Now, before you go sending them a check WAIT! Continue reading and you'll learn that the head of the household and his wife have cell phones that cost more per month than the debt on their rental home AND the tuition of their children COMBINED. The head of household ALSO spends about $12 a month on liquor. Talk about a catch! (I hope you read the sarcasm here.)

Now before you go spewing off about how people live in other countries, take a hard look at yourself and your neighbors. An equally challenging article to supplement this one could talk about our gross spending on things both frivolous and not THAT WE CAN'T AFFORD AND OUR DEBT SINS.

But before I digress too much.....
I want you to look at your weekly and monthly expenses. Count every penny. Where does your money go? Is that aligned with your goals this year (you do have goals don't you!?)? What do you find yourself saying, "I wish we had money for that." Or, "Too bad we can't afford that." If you are saying it to a scarf you see in a window for $85 fine. But, if you are saying that about your child's summer camp options, STOP YOURSELF and look at your own foolish splurges that benefited NO ONE.

You and I could have a long talk (ok debate) about what a luxury item is versus a necessity. Take a cell phone for instance. Many of you would say NECESSITY! I'd say LUXURY. Especially when you consider that only 10% of you REALLY need it for business sake. AND, the fact that it costs 3 times as much as your landline does. So, just by discarding your landline you rationalize that YOU NEED IT. You really are making me chuckle (on a good day). Mad on any other day. Especially if I hear you crying about what you can't do for your family. Go watch some more TV.

Whew. I told you I was fired up! Life is full of choices people. Make good ones.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/opinion/23kristof.html