The Many Benefits of Delaying Gratification

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originally uploaded by Carly Jane1

Do you remember looking in the toy store window as a kid and drooling over some toy?  I do.  For me, it was American Girls' Felicity doll.  I still remember how much she cost: $84.00.  That was a massive sum for a 9-year-old girl.  I got about $2 a week in allowance and, after tithing, I saved it all for that doll.  By the time I had saved up all that money, I had something even more valuable than a very exciting package coming to me in the mail.  I had learned financial self control.

Sadly, that value has been lacking in our society as a whole for a while.  The popularity of Keynesian economic policy ("spending our way" out of economic crisis) has given license to our greedy sinful natures.  The entitlement mentality, growing credit card debt, the housing bubble, and even
the obesity epidemic all reveal a woeful lack of delayed gratification in our society.

How would the world be different if we relearned to work hard and wait for the good things in life?  Maybe we could find complete satisfaction in what we've earned.  Buying a new car with cash that we've saved; paying off the mortgage on a house that teaches kids to share a room; seeing genuine gratitude on their faces at Christmas...  Perhaps the current economic slump will help us find these simple pleasures again.

RESOURCES
Living With Less So Your Family Has More
Where Keynes Went Wrong: And Why World Governments Keep Creating Inflation, Bubbles, and Busts