Needing to be very busy procrastinating this morning (anything to avoid actually cleaning off my office desk), I idly flipped through a morning newspaper. Full of ads, of course, as it is Labor Day Weekend, and many will be shopping.
One color, two page spread caught my eye, as it was intended to. SALE! SALE! SALE! THREE DAYS ONLY!! And in the middle of the page were multiple photos of furniture with price listed only as “$5/month!”
Now, under the ad, it is possible to see that the actual price for each of those items is $250. So at $5/month, it will take 50 months to pay off any one of them. Fifty months: over four years for items that may very well not last four years as they are probably cheaply built.
And way too many will be suckered into this. Eventually, they will be living in a $5/month hell.
On occasion, I’ve asked people who are struggling financially just to sit down and make a full list of all their debts, their monthly payments, and what is left over after those obligations have been met. One time I did this, the person in question had a grand total of $72. That was it, for food, clothing, car repairs, any other incidentals. Survival was possible because family had taken pity and offered free housing, most of the food, plus carried the necessary cell phone charges.
This is no way to live. It’s just pure misery. It’s bondage, and bondage of our own making.
And now I shall start my desk-cleaning tasks. It is my way out of bondage as well. Parts of life just are not pleasant–but they must be done if we are to have freedom and lightness of spirit. Handling our finances–and our paperwork–are holy acts.
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