More, more, more...

Do you ever feel like you just can't catch up? You'll never have enough money to be able to do the things you want to do on your house, or take that trip you want to take, buy that nice car you so desperately want, or that pair of shoes that you can't stop thinking about.

Tim and I recently purchased a perfect family home for us, it's quite large, has a beautiful backyard on a ravine, in a great family neighbourhood but it's totally outdated. We thought we will slowly just fix it over the years and make it what we want it to be. But now that we're living here, we want to do everything now so we can enjoy it now. Financially, that would not be the best scenario. We could just put it on our line of credit so we can live in it how we like it, but then we will be stressed about having the debt of our credit line. Why can't we just be happy with what we have and enjoy it? I feel like in this society, we always want more. A bigger house, a better car, more money. More, more, more...

Money is a huge stress in pretty much any marriage, or anyone's lives, unless they were born into money of course. It does take a while for young married couples to get used to paying a mortgage together, paying all the bills, buying those things for the house you never really thought about because your mom always took care of it (toilet paper - I hated buying toilet paper when I first moved out!, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, etc.). Financial stress is the cause of about 80% of divorces today. I think the key to not being stressed about money is to eliminate debt. Cut up your credit cards, only purchase things you can afford. Try to enjoy what you have and stop wishing for things you don't have.

A few weeks ago, Tim and I were walking around the neighbourhood and was so frustrated with working all the time and still not having a lot of 'extra' money. Instead of getting stressed and frustrated as well, I just said 'Look around, we are the youngest couple on the street, we have a beautiful house and a nice car and we're only 27. We must be doing something right.' Sure, we have a little debt, but we have learned our lesson with credit cards (GET RID OF THEM!) and we'll be just fine.

It's so easy to look at the negative side of pretty much anything, maybe we should try to look at the positive and appreciate the things we have.