Sometimes, Mother really does know best.
When you were younger, Mom nagged you to brush your teeth, eat your veggies, and clean your room.
You didn’t listen.
When you got a little older, she might have imparted more mature words of wisdom. You probably didn’t listen then, either.
Funny, but as you become more mature, your mother’s advice starts to make more sense, and you might realize that her advice wasn’t as dumb as you always thought it was.
For instance, she told you, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Amazingly enough, that is unfortunately true. Money has to be earned, and earning money is a lot more difficult than picking it off of trees. Earning money is WORK.
When you have to work for your money, you should be a little more conscious about how you spend it. After all, that new gizmo you want? It will take 45 hours, or more than a solid week, of work to pay for it. When you look at objects in terms of work required to purchase, it might help you to be more discriminating about what you really want.
Of course, there’s always a credit card. Banks are more than willing to lend you money to buy the things you want. And it’s easy enough to whip out the plastic when you want to buy something. But you need to consider the consequences of not paying that item off right away. Add another 10 hours to its real cost, because of the interest you will pay on the credit. Now, is that gizmo really worth 55 hours of your time?