Can I Afford It?

Two middle aged gentlemen with whom I was acquainted had remarkably different tastes, especially about what they spent their considerable wealth on.

One loved driving relatively new luxury European cars and had his annual holiday in the “family” home, which his father had built at Tin Can Bay when all his kids, including my acquaintance, were pre teens.

The other spent his money either on stateroom cruises in exotic parts of the world or brief exotic holidays in places where $500 a night for hotel accommodation was regarded as being on the low side. He drove a 12 year old Holden that he had bought second hand.

Every time they met up they would discuss their most recent car purchase or their most recent cruise or land based holiday.

On each of these occasions they would greet each other with the same “ Jeez I wish I could afford the sort of holiday (sort of car) that you have.”

My definition of “afford” is simply being able to meet your financial commitments as and when they fall due.

The concept of being able to “afford” something has nothing to do with which suburb you live in or which school you went to or what your mates are doing with their money.

If buying something demands that you can’t pay for it now and therefore need to borrow to seal the deal THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT!