Tomorrow is often just another word for delay
Posted
Jun 12 2008, 10:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
This post comes from Nora Dunn at partner blog Wise Bread.
There is no tomorrow. Tomorrow is really a euphemism for "I can't think about that right now."
Have you ever caught yourself saying these things?
"Tomorrow, I get paid, and things will be easier."
"Next week, I won't have so many meetings at work and can spend more time with my family."
"Next month, I'll have paid off one of my credit cards, and then I will have money to save for retirement."
"Next year, I'll get a raise and then I can start saving."
"In a few years, student loans will be paid off. Then I can think about taking a vacation."
Later may not be better
"I can't start now. It's not the time. Tomorrow. Next week. Next month. Next year. Just ... later."
Later. Things will always be better later. Later, things will improve and you can deal with the giant dust bunnies of life that are quietly accumulating under your bed.
Here's the rub: Tomorrow will bring a whole new set of reasons why you can't do whatever it is you say you want or need to do.
Sure, you'll get paid tomorrow, but then you'll unexpectedly have to go to the dentist for a filling.
Sure, you don't have so many business meetings and deadlines next week, but at the last minute your boss will call and say, “We need you in the office." Or you will manage to keep your schedule clear, only to discover that next week is the week that your kids are away on a field trip, and your spouse is working extra hard on a project at work and won't be around at all.
Sure, you'll have paid off one of your loans next month, but you just bought a house and didn't take into account all the expenses of home ownership before signing on the dotted line. There goes your plan for retirement savings.
And that raise next year? Turns out it barely keeps up with the increased cost of living. Pocket change.
Waiting a few years for the loans to be paid off so you can take a vacation? I certainly don't condone going further in debt for a vacation, but don't expect that when the loans are paid off you'll magically have the ability to go away either.
Making excuses
Tomorrow never seems to come. There will always be a reason why you can't do something you say you're going to do if you've been putting it off.
New Year's resolutions are a perfect example. If you have to wait until Jan. 1 to implement a resolution, then I'll wager that you don't want it badly enough. Why wait? Why buy another pack of cigarettes on Dec. 29 because you aren't going to quit until Jan. 1? If you want to quit, quit. But don't use tomorrow as an excuse to slack off today.
Let's get real.
Financial extremes are everywhere. Some people know that tomorrow never comes, or they can't wait until tomorrow because it seems an eternity away. They live each day like it is their last, with little or no regard for their financial future.
Other people take the opposite approach -- planning for anything and everything that isn't about enjoying a nice dinner out with family, or taking that vacation, or otherwise living for today.
I once had a client who was focused solely on paying off his house. Everything else -- absolutely everything -- could wait until tomorrow. Retirement savings, emergency fund, even leisure time with his wife and child. It could all wait. He justified the overtime because the house would be paid off quicker. Emergency? He'll have equity in the house if he needs it. Retirement? Equity in the home is a place to start. Once the home is paid off, he said, he'll be able to focus on retirement funds (and other financial goals), and accelerate his savings instead of starting off slowly right now. He had blinders on to the rest of his life; all he saw was the house.
In the meantime, his child was growing up, and his wife was moving on. By the time the house was finally paid off, she left him. They had become estranged after years of an all-work-no-play life. After the divorce settlement, my client still ended up with a mortgage to pay, and he continues to pay it off today. He is now in his early 50s and hasn't managed to put a cent away for retirement. "Tomorrow," he still says.
Another client -- a young couple -- had a similar goal to pay off the house and didn't see a need for balance. They both made good money, and saw that with a lot of hard work and very little play, they could have their house paid off in three years. The light was at the end of the tunnel. They refused to save money on the side, continually citing the equity in their house as the ultimate backup plan for everything.
A year into their three-year plan, she lost her job. Although she was highly skilled, the job market in her field had slowed, and she remained unemployed for more than six months. They had to reduce their house-payment plan dramatically with just one income, but they still managed to put a few extra bucks on the mortgage. Then, the unthinkable happened: He lost his job too. He was in the same industry as she was, and their lack of diversification of skills proved to be disastrous.
Eventually, they got jobs (after drawing on the equity in their home to pay the bills), but are now earning way less. Paying off the mortgage is still priority No. 1 for them, but now it will take them more than eight additional years to pay it off with smaller paychecks and lost ground during their unemployment. That is eight more years of opportunity lost for all the other investments they said could wait until tomorrow.
This is just one example of how people can put blinders on in life and say they'll do something tomorrow. Financial negligence, having kids, getting sick, losing jobs, getting married, buying property, putting kids through college, and family obligations are all ways that your plan -- as perfect as it may have seemed -- will be railroaded tomorrow.
You have choices
This article is for those who are saying that they'll make those financial changes to their lives (whether it is starting to save for retirement or refocusing financial efforts) tomorrow. Maybe you balk at the concept of taking financial responsibility for your life; maybe you're up to your eyeballs in debt and see no choice but to plod on, living paycheck to paycheck.
I would argue that even in seemingly hopeless scenarios there are choices, but that is another matter.
Assuming that you have some leeway in life and in finances, if even a little, consider this:
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If you wait until tomorrow to start saving money for retirement, you will cost yourself untold amounts of money in the form of compound growth. Just take a look at the Rule of 72 to see how much time in the saddle will make a difference in doubling your investments many times over.
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If you wait until tomorrow to start accumulating money for an emergency fund, you will be unprepared for any emergencies that arise between now and then. This could catapult you into terrible debt, rendering you hopeless to consider all that you thought was possible tomorrow.
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If you wait until tomorrow to go on vacation, you may burn out long before you ever get a chance to board that plane.
If you can, find a way to achieve balance. If you say you will start something tomorrow, ask yourself why you have to wait. Can you take a few dollars now and direct them toward whatever you're waiting for? Don't tell me that a few dollars won't make a difference; we all know that the "latte factor" says otherwise.
Even if you put only a few dollars toward the emergency fund, a few more toward retirement, and your last few for a vacation or down payment, all those dollars will add up over time. You have to trust the process.
Life happens while we're busy making plans. If you wait until tomorrow, you'll have a whole new set of life circumstances to deal with that will throw you off course yet again. Don't be that person who wakes up one day wondering where life went and finds himself in a pickle, or worse -- with regrets.
The tomorrow you're waiting for never comes. So let's try to find a way to make it work --today.
Other articles of interest at Wise Bread:
"Feeling stuck? 100 ways to change your life"
"Outsourcing your life and creating new business"
"Extreme travel: How to go light and low budget"
