And what do you mean by ‘breathing room’ anyway?
How much breathing room do we need to financially survive, let alone prosper?
This world is full of inconsistencies. We survive by adapting to them, regardless of how erratic they are.
For the person whose income is exactly the same as their expenses who finds him or herself unable to reduce expenses nor increase income: this is what I would consider a person without breathing room.
The inability to save when in a dire situation would be extremely confining, like being locked in a very small room.
In such a condition, I would not feel it appropriate to extoll the benefits of dividend investing. As previously mentioned (such as here and here), investing is never the first step.
The first step is to save and build an emergency fund. So the question here is what if the financial situation is so tight as to negate the possibility of savings?
If that is the situation, then it becomes a question of survival. Not a pleasant place to be, but then survival becomes the primary, even only, objective.
A person who finds themselves in such a situation may not have the vision to see their way out of this bind. Improving their circumstances should be the overriding objective; and it is likely that assistance from others would be needed.
In my view, it is only after a person has some ability to live below one’s means, has some savings, and establishes an emergency fund, can one realistically begin the process of investing.
Have ever found yourself with no breathing room? Let me know here.
The illustrations is from the 1869 book by Edward J. Woolsey, “Specimens of Fancy Turning Executed on the Hand or Foot Lathe”. Courtesy Phildelphia Museum.
The post Do You Have Enough Room to Breathe? appeared first in Smile If You Dare.