Image Courtesy: E Bartholomew
Have you ever heard the saying, “Patience is a virtue?”. Knowing how impatient I am, my mom used to tell me this whenever I'd get upset about something not happening when I wanted it to happen.
Having patience can not only help you deal with a number of situations in your life but patience can also save you money.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most patient person in the world. When I want something, I want it now. If you tell me that you will be here at 1pm, I would really like you to be there at 12:55pm. On the flip side, if I tell you I will be there at 1pm, you should expect me to be there about 12:50pm.
Being impatient has cost me tons of money in the past. It all goes back to me wanting it NOW. I've written several times on this blog that electronic gadgets are my weakness. When I saw something I liked, I'd go ahead and purchase it without planning for it or thinking about how it would affect my finances. Of course, the end result of my impatience was a mound of credit card debt.
I hate to even think about how much money I've thrown away by not waiting. We all know that there are usually big sales around certain times of the year. If there is something I wanted, I didn't have the patience to wait for a sale. For example, last year, I wanted a new flat screen TV. Instead of waiting for the big sales at the end of the year, I bought my new TV in August. Of course, around Christmas time, I saw the same TV advertised for about $200 less than I'd paid just four months earlier.
These days, I'm better at being patient in my personal finances. I plan and save for my next purchase. I still splurge every now and then but I manage that by setting a small amount of money aside each month in a special account for that purpose.
What about you? Does your lack of patience cost you money?
i cannot say that it has impatience has costed me money because at the time when i want something i am normally flat broke and by the time i have the cash, the excitement of impulse buying is more often than not largely dissipated. lol
definitely...i bought a wii for myself for christmas..while i do enjoy it, i clearly could have waited to buy.
Great article. My hubby (who is normally thrifty) has an addition to the latest Blackberry...he is trying to convince me to get the latest model. He has bought the latest model the last 2 summers....and now my stepson has the first one. He has difficulty with patience. We also ended up buying blue ray (which I would not have done if I would have known the issues with it) early, getting a dud model, returning it and finding out the same model was several hundred dollars cheaper at repair time. They ended up replacing rather than repairing our model (Samsung).
I waited to the last second to buy school supplies this year (based on a very busy summer) and ended up getting great sales. Patience does pay off.
Impatience kind of cost me thousands of Pesos(Philippine Peso).
I paid someone much more than I should have. I didn't look for alternatives. Only later did I know of better and more affordable carpenters than the one I hired.
patience is one of humans biggest faults