I used to spend a lot of my early adult years deprived of wants and needs, on top of my adolescent years. I know I am not alone. There are a lot of people who spend their years deprived of their wants and needs, which makes us ripe for falling into the overconsumption trap.
It can sometimes be why, once we get financially situated, we begin to increase our expenses or spend on all the things we want. Subconsciously, we are making up for the years we couldn’t get what we wanted or, sometimes, what we needed.
Don’t allow this to become the thing that stands in your way of building a financial wealth. Understand that being financially responsible isn’t the same as depriving yourself. It took me a long time to understand the difference between the two.
When everyone else around you is spending and doing exactly what they want—buying coffees, eating out, staying up-to-date with the latest phones—while you can’t even afford a single lunch combo at a fast food joint (not by choice), the deprivation begins to creep in.
When you make the choice to not buy lunch or splurge on coffees while everyone else is still indulging in those things, it can make it hard to differentiate between the deprivation felt during hard times and the now-conscious choice that is being made.
But this is where the so-called magic happens and separates you from those who may have all those things but continue to run into money problems down the road—and those who decide to build wealth or at the very least a financial nest egg for the long run.
This time around, you aren’t depriving yourself because you are broke. I have heard many say something along the lines of, “I am not going to deprive myself of the things I want just for a better tomorrow when I don’t even know if I’m going to be here.”
On the surface, this makes sense—after all, tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Yet, every single person who has said that to me has reached their older years and now struggles with finances because they never planned for tomorrow.
There’s a good chance that you and I will be here when the financial decisions we make now will matter down the road—and we will be glad we made them. I’ve already experienced this myself. People around me were spending their stimulus checks instead of saving for tomorrow, and now these same people are hurting for pennies on the dollar due to 1) low income, which isn’t always by choice, and 2) not saving for tomorrow when they had the chance.
You aren’t depriving yourself when you are putting money back for future you. It’s one thing when everything that comes in goes straight toward living expenses, rent, bills, health, or whatever it might be. But it’s another thing when you open your banking app and see a decent balance staring back at you from savings because you decided to step away from the crowd.
I wrote this because it is a constant reminder that I, too, tell myself when I get the sudden urge to go out and get something I impulsively want, no matter how small or big the item is.
For example, Trader Joe’s has become a popular store over the last half-decade, and right now their pumpkin-flavored line is out. I am tempted to go as fast as I can, grab a shopping cart, put as many things as I want into my cart, including their pumpkin spice mini sheet cake, pay, and walk away happy.
But at the same time, I have used up almost all of my food budget for this half of the month and only have so much for the next half of the month. Yes, I could be like, screw it, touch savings, and justify it to myself—you deserve to get it, you went without for so long at times, there are people at the store right now shopping, it’s part of society, you can afford to be part of it now.
All these justifications and rational thoughts came to mind, but then I also found myself with another set of rational thoughts—you aren’t depriving yourself if you don’t go. You can go any time you want now. It’s just that now you have other goals, such as getting back into peak shape, limiting snacks and sweets. You don’t really have the budget right now because you made good financial decisions at the beginning of this month to set yourself up for the future.
It’s no longer about deprivation and not being able to afford to be part of society. Now, you are making reasonable decisions that align with your life goals. As you can see, I know the deprivation problem all too well and the lasting effects that come with it.
But I also know that I want a life that allows me to do both down the road—put as many pumpkin-flavored items into my cart and know that my investments cover them without having to rely on a single source of income.
That alone is enough to know that it’s okay to limit interaction with societal trends while making the financially conscious decision to build the kind of wealth I want for my household.
The Broke College Student 
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