There was a conversation today where a group of people were saying how dumping the credit card was the key to getting out of debt for them. As it turned out, every time they introduced the credit card back into their lives they ended up getting into some kind of debt.

With that thought the topic then swayed into a talk about credit in general and how you it forced them to learn to be resourceful without it as many of us grew up as if credit was the way to acquire your needs in life. I personally always did view credit as a privilege and not some kind of essential. Though, I personally use items like a credit card constantly and make a profit out of it because of the rewards.

I was trying to think of what was the hardest thing for me in life if I didn’t have say a credit card. Overall, it’s the sheer convenience of not having to carry so much cash all the time and that certain vendors, like an online store, is dependent on that payment method. If your answer is something like you can’t afford a certain item without it then you know your habits needs fixing. The key thing is to not be dependent on it first and foremost.

So there is an Earth hour event today starting 8:30pm local time. Essentially, everyone is supposed to turn off their lights for about one hour to conserve electricity. This is one of those things normally too where it makes sense to do anyways as from a financial point of view you end up saving money by being more conservative and resourceful with things.

Although, there is one irony about this as there are a lot of suggestions that people should do things such a record live video during that hour or amongst other things do some live blogging. Would think that you are using up a lot of electricity to do things like that huh?

I have personally tried to learn a little more over the years in terms of ways to conserve energy. Funny thing is though since my lifestyle revolves around using a lot of electronic devices that there isn’t just a simple alternative to say a laptop in doing things on the road.

But, it’s always nice to see events like this as usually you can learn a thing or two that you could possible adapt into your lifestyle. Help save the environment a little and also money.

One of my friends was telling me recently on how his parents still uses this really old TV that looks like it is at least 7 years old. The interesting comment was how he mentioned that to him five years should be the cut off period to start replacing something for most items.

This is one of those things where depending on the situation not updating can either cost or save you more money. For recreational things, like a TV for personal use, I think you should generally keep it until it breaks down. I say that mainly because most people buy the latest and greatest without really taking full advantage of it anyways.

If the sole reason was for productivity though, then that is a different story. For example, just a few months ago I was at an office and the secretary was literally still using a typewriter and they had piles of documents everywhere. Like with that even though it isn’t broken, I’m sure investing in a computer would help a lot.

When you think about it, I guess this is just like investing in anything and whether or not the return is worth it as oppose to basing it solely on a want.

I was having a conversation today with another person that brought up a topic about being resourceful. The example came from knowing a person who struggled with money and that he won’t drink water that comes from the tap. Instead, it must be bottled water that he purchases.

He then gave a confused look over that and mentions how if the person was that paranoid that he should simply boil it first. That then led to a comment on how the person must not of been a very resourceful person. More often than enough you can usually find what you need with the things you already have around you as oppose to just buying new things.