You just got paid from your job, and you feel like you can buy anything you want to (within reason.) Within a few days all your money is gone (from buying junk) and now you have to sit bored waiting till the next pay day. But while you had the money you believed that there was more available, then you checked your balance and you have maybe five dollars till you overdraft. I’ve experienced this in my life, even just recently, just not to that extreme of within a few days.
But for me it was a case of buying more then I should have. Coupled with the fact that I went out of county and took my significant other shopping. But I did enjoy that day which more then made up not being able to do anything for about a week. Now if I hadn’t enjoyed myself but instead bills pushed me to the edge then I might have been more upset and angry. Even more important was that I wasn’t stressed out, cause I knew I would be getting paid by the company I own soon.
Now that my (good) experience being short term broke is over I do have to look at it through someone else’s eyes, someone who was broke cause of expenses or from overspending on material things with no pay in sight. I would have freaked out and been stressed.
No buffer – This would have been the biggest issue, cause if any unexpected expenses came up (think car being towed) then I would have been worried. Which would have been way out of my comfort zone.
Debt Cycle – I call this where you get in debt to hold yourself over till the next payday, only to pay back the debt and be broke again. Think about it, if you use your credit card to pay all your bills then as soon as you get paid you pay off the credit card. If your not careful you could be broke again since you “lived” off of the credit card, which would start a bad cycle that would be hard to break.
Couldn’t Go Out – This affected my significant other more then me. With no money to freely spend we wasn’t able to get out and I had to remind myself I can’t spend. I ended up putting the debit card inside a drawer until I paid myself. I knew if I went out and just charged the amount I risked placing myself in the Debt Cycle, which I wanted to avoid.
These are the big three for myself that being broke would have limited.
P.S. Happy Fourth of July and try to stay out of debt during this Holiday Season.