Perspectives

A day late and a dollar $hort

By Laila Muhammad | Last updated: Nov 12, 2014 - 8:34:51 AM

What's your opinion on this article?

liberated_voices_lm2014_4.jpg
“There are plenty of ways to get ahead.  The first is so basic I’m almost embarrassed to say it:  spend less than you earn.”  ~Paul Clitheroe, Financial analysts and Author

Debt is slavery plain and simple. And if we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that a lot of our financial problems come from the lack of handling finances appropriately. Yes a lot of us are really struggling, living from paycheck to paycheck, or just barely getting by. The cost of living is going up, but our wages are stagnant. Some of us have had to take pay cuts just to keep our jobs. Even if we have a two income household, times are hard. And it becomes a balancing act trying to juggle work and play.

bills_gr1.jpg

We have school tuition, car notes, mortgages/rent, extracurricular activities for our children and basic necessities for ourselves. Children are barely getting a few wears out of their clothes and studies show that in colder months we eat more, so we can expect to pay a larger grocery bill. For women, I know we will try to cut back on some things, but as far as our hair care routine, nails, facials, clothing and accessories, we have a hard time. But with the upcoming holiday season approaching, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday ads are already pulling us in. It’s like we become entranced with irrational spending and buying more than we need in the name of getting a great deal.

We have to be honest with ourselves, Black America. We have poor spending habits, don’t know how to save and spend money when we don’t have it on things that we really don’t need. It is time for us to really start budgeting, saving, and getting our priorities in order. My husband and I decided a while ago to forgo buying coffee at any coffee shop. Instead we make our own. We used to spend about $5 per day at our local coffee shop, about 5 days a week, which amounted to about $100 per month, on coffee alone. Seriously, a couple of containers of fair trade organic coffee and cream costs us only about $25 dollars a month, and it tastes better, and it’s more convenient. So we save about $75 per month on coffee alone. Imagine if we did that for all the non-necessities in life, how much money will we actually save?

We don’t know what the results of the November 4th elections are going to bring. What we do know is that we can’t depend on government to bail us out of debt, help with the housing crisis, revamp student loan debt, or provide aid for needy families. What we do know is that we have the ability to control how we manage our own money. And we have a duty to our families to ensure their food, shelter, and clothing.

So I’m asking us all, to strive to get out of debt, pay your bills and expenses first and then indulge when you can.  I long for a time when people will stop shopping when they run out of money. Like my parents used to do with us, they simply bought birthday, Christmas, and whatever other presents we thought were owed to us when they had the money, and that was usually days or weeks later. One of the worst feelings in the world is to be a day late and a dollar short on your bills each month because of poor planning. Let’s strive to be and do better, and get out of debt. Will you intentionally put yourself and children back into slavery? I didn’t think so.

coffee_laila_muhammad_book-1.jpg

May Allah (God) Bless us to not be impulse buyers, take care of our responsibilities, and get out of debt and not become slaves to a system that was meant to keep us down.

(Laila Muhammad is a Final Call production assistant, writer, and videographer based in Chicago. Follow her @liberatedvoices.blogspot.com, to purchase her pageBook “Coffee makes you Black … so pour me some more,” go to http://www.lailamuhammad1.wordpress.com.)