Lazy = No money
By Stew
Okay, that title was just to get your attention. People who have little money are certainly not all lazy. A lot of people struggle to make ends meet while still working hard. My point is that many times we allow money leaks into our lives simply because of laziness.
Lazy people miss out on deals or discounts because of procrastination. Coupons? Too hard to cut out and use.
What about sweat equity? Sometimes a house owned by a lazy person does not appreciate because he simply does not make the effort to paint or clean or decorate. He does the bare minimum in his yars and then loses money when it comes time to sell.
The lazy person does not save money by doing research before making a purchase. We have more information at our fingertips than ever before, but a lazy person will buy the next shiny thing only after listening to a salesperson’s recommendation.
Another area that a lazy person can overlook is the savings that can be realized by doing one’s own work around the house. There are many home and even appliance repairs that homeowners could do themselves if they only took the time to read a manual or just tried to fix something on our own. My dad recently fixed his own furnace and saved himself $600.
Lazy people often lose money by paying late fees and extra interest by paying bills late. It is not that they do not have the money to pay the bill – they just do not mail the payment on time!
Lazy people do not practice proper car maintenance – oil changes are put off, tires are bald, wiper blades disintegrate – not for lack of money or time, but simply because of a lack of responsibility.
Lazy people do not keep good records, they lose warantee paperwork, have trouble recording tax deductions and forget to write down critical financial information for their spouse in case of an emergency.
I have to confess that laziness sometimes creeps up and takes money out of my wallet. What about you? Does your laziness cost you income? Does your laziness increase your spending?
Article by Stew
Photo by Misserion
November 24th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I like to take advantage of my laziness. To do so I had to internalize the following: 1. doing something correctly, and now, will save me effort in the future. 2. a little bit of up-front micromanagement can yeild huge rewards. These sound like good “productivity tips”, but they are also good “lazy” tips. See, by taking advantage of those, I get an extra few hours a week, in which i get to be a couch potato. I don’t get all productive with my extra time, I play video games.
Examples:
1. Sam’s club: fewer trips to the store (and cheaper!) means more time and money.
2. Keep a list of errands i need to run on a weekly basis, so when I am near an errand, do it then. (frees up saturday)
3. General frugality: no NEED for overtime, if i live within my means to begin with. It also means that i don’t get stressed about work — I have a lower paying job (compared to similar options) but I have a lot of fun there! (add 8 hours of psuedo-leisure time to my day)
The overall point here, is that lazy is not bad, if you accept that you are lazy and use it to your advantage.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I agree to a point but it also depends on it its worth it. Is it worth it to go out of your way just to save a few cents? Lazy might also save them time or give them the time to do something else.
November 24th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Good topic especially since there are often many many disagreements as to what constitutes someone as being “lazy”. Pretty sure wars have been fought over how to define that one word. Personally, I like to link it back to the law of consequences; the law of sowing and reaping…
Lazy simply means unwilling to put forth effort. While there are undoubtedly a large number of individuals who want to pawn off responsibility and its associated work to anyone they can find (their mom, co-workers, the government, whoever…) in my experience, most people don’t fall into this category. Most people I have met are willing to work, they just work hard doing tasks of questionable worth.
To put this in perspective, if you are a college student and decide to put copious amounts of effort into developing your beer-bong skills instead of the mastery of calculus or writing effectively then you are not actually lazy. You spent many long hours and worked hard at the funnel mastering the ability to down 8 beers in 2 seconds. No matter how hard you worked though, it is extremely unlikely that beer-bong mastery will actually move this person closer to their goal of graduating.
Likewise, many people spend hours on end in front of a television where they are investing time and, arguably effort, following their favorite characters on their favorite shows. They know every character’s motivations, skills, history and especially what they did in last weeks episode. Makes me want to ask whether or not this effort actually move them closer to, or further from their goals. Do they even know what their goals are?
Hopefully it is obvious that a consistent refusal to put forth effort (ie:laziness) will cause a person a lot of pain in their life. The proverbs state that someone who is “..slack in their work is brother to one who destroys…”. It must also be stated that hard work alone isn’t enough for anyone to reach their goals. Hard work that is driven by solid planning is what will bring results.
The time we have available is finite and, unless we use the resources we have available wisely, we will end up working in an endless wheel that goes nowhere. Working hard chasing the pleasures of the moment at the expense of the future and wondering why things aren’t working out the way we wanted.
I guess that is the heart of what diligence really is, hard work wisely applied joined with a willingness to endure short term discomfort for the promise of future rewards…
November 25th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Call it lazy or too busy to pay attention to details…either way I’ve been guilty of this…We all have the same amount of time in each day…we choose our priorities each day. It does take concentrated effort to confont poor habits and make better decisions. These changes are worth it. If I have poor money management skills I have nobody to blame but myself.