Seems like every news publication and medium that I am reading now has some kind of headline relating to the Terri Schiavo ordeal. For those who don’t know, it’s about a women who has been living for over a decade in a “vegetable” state due to a cardiac arrest. She is unable to take care of herself, has been living through a feeding tube and has yet to regain full consciousness.

Long story short, the husband feels that the feeding tube should be removed as he mentions how she wouldn’t of wanted to live life like this while others feel differently. The situation has become such a media frenzy that even various individuals of congress are getting involved in the situation. Although I’m sure that there are people on both sides of the fence who could debate back and fourth until the cows come home on what’s the right thing to do, it’s unfortunate that she did not have a living will to clearly state what she would of wanted should such a thing happen.

I remember when I was very young my parents decided to take a vacation by themselves, guess I was just a bit too much to handle, and so I was left with one of their good friends. In the midst of it, they told me how they were writing a will before they left incase anything happened. At the time I thought it was weird as they explained that without one the government would be the one to decide where everything they owned would go. I would of assumed that it would automatically go directly to immediate family members. Ever since then, I took things like this more seriously. After seeing all this fiasco surrounding the Terri Schiavo situation, I hope more people will start to create their own wills so that everyone knows exactly what you would want to do should something happen to you.

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Recently while watching the news, I saw a segment that dealt with handling ones financial portfolio and the main issue was addressing how people have trouble managing their bills with their current salary. As usual, a credit card was mentioned in the mix as a key culprit in making people spend more than they should. What was surprising to me was that the financial advisor’s recommendation to fix your habit of overspending with your credit card was to place it into a container with water and then freeze it until it becomes rock solid.

That way, you can’t just use it casually anymore. I’m not sure what the statistics are in terms of whether or not this technique actually helps people to reduce their credit card debt, but it sure is a creative way of doing it. I personally think it is kind of an overkill. It’s almost like someone trying to lose weight and in order to enforce themselves to start using their vehicle less to get more exercise, they take the engine out of the car.

In my opinion, I personally think it comes down to life experiences which helps to teach you the value of a dollar and with that you become more aware of your spending and cash flow. For example, I have personally worked at jobs that didn’t pay much and required a lot of labor. If I wanted something that meant that I had to work very hard to get it and that blowing my money off on some unnecessary item would make me look at it from a time perspective.

For example, if I made only $7 an hour and there was this item that I really wanted which costs $140, do I really need it that much where it is worth 20 hours of my time to get? Looking at it from a time perspective is one of the ways that definitely helped me to appreciate the value of a dollar. Of course most people with hefty bills are adults and there is no way they would trade in their higher paying jobs for a low wage one just to get life experience in this manner, but there are other ways which can be fun too.

One of my favorite hobbies are video games and I often play games such as role playing games which involve you having to go against enemies to collect funds. In many cases, the weapons and items you buy are expensive considering you don’t receive much after your battles. Since you know that it is not easy to make a lot of money at your current state, you have to think it over on whether or not you spending your money on that new weapon or item will enhance your ability to move forward in the game.

I have been playing games like that ever since I was a child and I can honestly say that I often look at my real life spending habits in a similar fashion. Obviously there are people that can’t stand video games, but I’m sure everyone can find something to help teach them the value of a dollar as once you solve the root of the problem, things will begin to blossom for you.

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