You’ve moved out of your parent’s house and you’re finally on your way to financial freedom. There’s one thing you don’t have yet to complete your life goals. A relationship. Relationships are funny in way because every person you meet may like you, hate you, or have no idea what they think of you. That’s the beauty of dating. But after a while you soon realize that you can’t save money like your pals and you’re soon deeply in debt.
What a lot of people don’t realize is a relationship is an option in life. People may look at you differently if you don’t date but soon after awhile, you may notice a nice return on your money and little less stress on your life. I’m not saying to drop relationships completely but I’m trying to recommend that relationships are a temporary debt relief strategy.
Let’s take a scenario here and chart out the numbers. Say, you meet a partner and you decide to eat out three times within the week. You’re going to be the nice fellow and pay for all three. The dinners will average forty bucks a dish totaling out to be one hundred and twenty dollars. The next week, you get a phone call and that relationship is now over. If this pattern keeps going, that’s $6,240/year. After that full year, you’re still single, $6,240 poorer while the other man working on his career track and investments is now $6,240 richer.
Now, you’re probably getting the idea that I’m sexist. I’m not. When people get into debt, they try to see where the money is going. Credit cards, clothes they don’t need, and food. They don’t open their eyes and realize it’s on the worthless dates they go on week after week.
After all this, I’m sure you’re still thinking “Hey, I’m still going to date, money is not as important as love and I don’t want to be lonely my whole life.” That’s great, you have to have an optimistic view on your future and plan accordingly. While you still try to find that partner, you are going to have to write all your expenses down on paper and include “relationships” as one of them. This is of course, if you’re single and dating. If you’re married, you shouldn’t be reading this article anyways. Once you figure out your “relationship” budget, you will then be able to determine how much you can spend on movies, dinners, vacations, etc. This way, when the month ends and you look at your bank statement, you will be able to determine where the money has gone.
Of course, there are many other ways to save you money. Cutting back on your groceries, getting rid of the things you don’t need like satellite radio, cable television with the three hundred channels, or just eating at home.