Stimulating the Economy....

So the President is supposed to sign the economic stimulus plan into law this week. I, personally am pretty dang excited. What kinda sucks for college students is that the money may never make it to your pocket because they will re-route it to pay for any government debt that you may have (i.e.—student loans).

So here’s the dealio. If I get the money….I’m not spending it. Not on stuff anyway. I will put it toward this summer’s missions efforts. Or I will save it to help me get an apartment when it’s time. Or I will use it to pay off extra principle on my car, so I can finish my loan on time (I’m about 3 months behind and $600 would put me right on time…how convenient). My point is, I want to spend mine responsibly…instead of stimulating the economy, I would like to stimulate my economy, as selfish as that may sound.

All I’m saying is that America as a whole is a society FULL of debt. I use plastic to buy stuff we KNOW we can’t pay off anytime soon. So instead of paying $200 for a new…table and chairs [sorry, it's the only example i could think of] for our kitchen, we end up paying like $100 extra, or more. When if we would just be smart with our money we could have waited a little while, bought the table and chairs later, and then in the long run had a hundred extra dollars to spend on something else. If you want to stimulate the economy in the long run, stop charging all the time, unless you can pay it off right away. (unless it’s a super-emergency…which can and does happen on occasion).

Of course huge-ticket purchases, like cars and houses don’t really apply to this…I mean after all I have a car loan myself. But even at that, if those were the only debt every person had—we’d all be in good shape. Credit card companies? Mabye not so much, but whatever, it’s all good.

That’s kind of the same way I’m looking at this whole economic stimulus thing. I want to spend $600 extra dollars on paying of extra on my car loan, so my car will be paid off sooner. THEN I’m going to start saving money so that the next car I buy will be a NEW, foreign something or other that has incredible gas mileage and will last me like forever. See? Great plan, I know. I’m excited. And in 12 months, of saving the money I would normally have spent on my car payment, I’d have $1200. If I could get my old car to last 4 more years (which is probably possible) I would have a $5000 down payment for a new car. That would be like…25-30% down payment instead of the traditional 10-ish. SWEET. Can you say, low monthly payments? heck yeah.

Anyway, while your pockets are temporarily bulging from fun new money this May (which is even more fun because you won’t have to pay taxes on it), use your brain and spend it wisely. Have fun with it if you want, but don’t spend a $1000 because you have $600. Spend what you have and be thankful you have as much as you do.