If we have spending problems, but blame our income, we don’t make appropriate changes because we put the blame in the wrong place. We blame our income when we should blame ourselves. We complain about our paycheck, when we should handle our finances differently. Let's discuss some of the most common spending problems.

Table of Contents* Spending Problems Often Result from Small Purchases That Add Up* Spending Problems Often Result from Worthless Purchases* Spending Problems Often Result from Self-Entitlement* Eve’s Entitlement* Amnon’s Entitlement* King Ahab’s Entitlement* Beware of Self-Entitlement from Any Source* Spending Problems Often Result from Impatience* Don’t Be an Esau!

Most people throughout history wanted necessities, but the more common problem today is having too much stuff. In the past people wanted food and clothing, but we have too many clothes and we eat too much food. Mark Twain once defined civilization as “a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.” We spend too much money and accumulate too much stuff. It’s no surprise that storage is one of the fastest growing industries. An article titled, “Self-storage: How Warehouses for Personal Junk Became a $38 Billion Industry,” reads:

Despite recessions and demographic shifts, few building types have boomed like self-storage lockers. The self-storage industry made $32.7 billion in 2016, nearly three times Hollywood’s box office gross. Self-storage has seen 7.7 percent annual growth since 2012, and now employs 144,000 nationwide. One in eleven Americans pays an average of $91.14 per month to use self-storage. The United States has more than fifty thousand facilities and roughly 2.31 billion square feet of rentable space. To give that perspective, the volume of self-storage units in the country could “fill the Hoover Dam twenty-six times with old clothing, skis, and keepsakes.”Self-storage: How warehouses for personal junk became a $38 billion industry

When I drive down the road and pass storage units, I wonder what’s in them that people don’t need and can’t get to easily, but still feel the need to keep. How many owners are still paying off the credit cards (see next chapter!) they used to buy that stuff in the first place?

Typically, when we have too much stuff, we should recognize two things. First, we are spending too much money. Second, we don’t have an income problem. We have a spending problem.

Even people with low incomes are still able to enjoy commodities that years ago would’ve been considered luxuries—cell phones, cars, computers, televisions. Most of us can comfortably live off much less if we avoid the spending problems that plague us. I use the word “most,” because some people work hard, are financially wise, but still struggle to make ends meet. For the rest of us, let’s figure out how to make our money go further by examining the most common spending problems.

Spending Problems Often Result from Small Purchases That Add Up