My father had a very basic financial rule: don't spend more than your income. He lived by that rule all his life. He didn't have great luxuries, but he didn't need anything either. He used to tell us that whenever we could, we should save something for the unexpected, because that way we would be able to face any emergency.
Those few rules stayed with me. And although I have had times when my income was much higher than my father's, I have always managed with a criterion of scarcity.
In the years of my youth I had no major problems with my income, I worked part time and that was enough to cover the expenses of my family of four, I could pay for my children's school, dress them adequately, take care of health expenses and take them out on vacations.
Of course, there was always something non-essential that was missing, like a more powerful stereo, a bigger TV, or a higher quality video camera. Sometimes my wife would push me a little to get more work so we could have better gadgets.
But there were two things that were important to me. One was free time, I'd rather have less money but more time to take my kids to the park or spend walking around town. I was also worried about falling into that vicious circle where more and more money is needed to buy new things and enter that endless path of infinite consumption.
The first time I felt a little lack of money was when I got divorced. It added up to the expenses of my new home and the money I had to give to support my two children. But that was a problem I could easily solve, I just had to look for more hours of work as a teacher, and the offers were plentiful, it didn't cost anything to get more work.
At that time I started working at night. Three times a week, between six in the evening and nine at night, I had additional hours to my usual morning shift. That schedule allowed me to have the afternoons free to take my children to their after-school activities, such as music school, swimming, karate or soccer. Sometimes I got very tired, but I still had a lot of energy in my body. I kept those schedules until my children finished their university studies. Then I slowed down until I retired in the early 2000s.
However, I never had as many financial problems as I do today. To give you an idea, in 2007 my income was over eight hundred dollars and now I have to live with barely one hundred and seventy, the economic crisis in our country made my income dust. My great advantage is that I have no children to support, in my house only my wife and I live.
With such a reduced income I have had to adjust my priorities. And although it may seem strange to you, the first priority is not food, that is in third place. The first one is medicines, I take two medicines that are essential for me and I can't do without them. The second priority is the maintenance of the vehicle, I live in a quite remote area where public transportation is insufficient, so for us the use of the vehicle is almost indispensable, if we did not have it, it would be very difficult for us to do our daily shopping.
The truth is that I never imagined that in my seventies I would have to give up such basic things as visiting family living in the interior of the country. Making any long trip with my car is unthinkable, the cost of gasoline is high, and bus transportation has also become very expensive. Fortunately I live in an area where nature is generous, a short distance from my house I can walk to where the mountains begin, see streams, listen to the birds singing and enjoy the dense vegetation.
Fortunately, this time of low income has touched me at this stage of life where I have no children to support. I can't imagine how those who are younger and have small children do it. The truth is that for them things are much more difficult than for me and that is why many young people decide to leave the country to look for a better future.
Although the economic situation is sometimes very tight, I try not to give it so much importance, at the end of the day it is something I cannot solve. I have many things to occupy my time, I listen to music, I play the guitar a little and from time to time I write a note like this one. All that gives another flavor to my days.
I am publishing this post motivated by the initiative proposed by my friend @ericvancewalton, Memoir Monday, in its twenty-two week. For more information click on the link.
Thanks for your time.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).
Logo creado por @themanualbot
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