I Think: Wants-vs-Needs

By Mia Black
You gently rub the bridge of your nose as you ponder how you’re going to stretch your paycheck over the stack of bills piled in front of you. Number one priority is groceries. And now that you’ve put that off for so long, a quarter of your check will be dedicated to feeding the family. Well you know you won’t be able to pay anything in full, so you opt to just short-pay everyone. This moment no longer brings you to tears because you’ve struggled paycheck-to-paycheck for so long.

As you write the last check; your 16 year-old daughter walks in the front door. She is listening to her 80GB i-Pod with one ear and talking on her Nextel i930 with the other. She places her Inspiron notebook case on the couch, before coming over to kiss you. You give her a pat on the hand. She walks over and opens the refrigerator. Before she can complain that there is nothing to eat, you tell her you are going grocery shopping tomorrow.

Hold up! Rewind! Do you not see anything wrong with this picture? Before you sympathize with this situation, ask yourself the question, why is this teenager walking around with close to $1,000 worth of electronic toys and there is no food in the refrigerator? How do you short-pay the electric and gas bill, but continue to pay the cell phone bill for your daughter?

I hate to sound like an old person, but back in my day when you bought a “toy” its expense ended at the purchase, not like “must-have” toys of today. An i-Pod by itself will do nothing, you must continually purchase music. A cell phone has its monthly commitment, contracts, and don’t leave out the overpriced pretty little gadgets to decorate them. Let’s not forget the monthly obligation you must keep so your daughter can communicate wirelessly with her friends on her laptop. And because the parent has made the adult decision to purchase these toys, the paycheck is going to have to stretch a little farther each month.

For many parents not grasping the idea that being able to buy the toys versus actually being able to afford the toys, has forced many a household to run on a paycheck-to-paycheck budget. It is not just sad that this child has the top of the line cell phone and nothing to eat, but I believe this financially irresponsible characteristic can be passed down to this child. I’m not saying “financially irresponsible” in a malicious manner, because I believe in the dream of trying to give your child the world. But there is nothing wrong with the disposable camera dream if the disposable camera dream is what you can afford. Because instead of giving them the $300 digital camera, you have given them a life lesson of live within your means. You are doing your child no favors by giving them the world but not teaching them how to survive in it.