Wasting Money on What Is Not Needed

“People do not realize how important decisions are until they make the wrong ones.”
Unknown Author

My husband and I want to start going somewhere warm for a week in the winters, with our motorcycles.  That sounds simple and I believe it is, but what I found out is that we would also like to do it all: camping, motorcycling, hiking, touristy stuff and swimming.  We have been spending hours looking at RV’s and trailers trying to figure out the right set-up.  All I have figured out is that we don’t know squat about what we need in an RV.

These situations are:

1) A first world issue and something that a person in Haiti would really laugh at.

  • Worrying about the purchase of an RV or anything that is above the survival needs (food, housing, water, clothes and safety) is a first world issue.

2) Relates a lot to business.

  • Every day as a business owner, you are making hundreds of micro decisions and then you have a couple of macro decisions. There is a lot of money on the line.  You have to find clarity before you decide.

  3) Relates to anxiety and our personal decisions.

  • What did you have for breakfast? How many small and large decisions do you make each day?  Coffee, no coffee?  Gas in the car, not today? Fast food or pack a lunch? Donut in the breakroom, no donut?

I am learning a lot about how my husband and I, as a couple, look at and decide on big decisions.  While people might observe me as being impulsive, typically I am not; I have spent hours and hours of time researching and asking people about something or if the price is right.

Case and point: Our current camper, a 2000 Chevy 2500 truck with an older truck camper on it.  Got that for under $5000.  It was perfect for the price and did what we needed.  Kept us dry, we could even take the dog along and it had AC.  The bonus it is also an extra vehicle in case we needed one.

Someone asked me “What is the main goal you want to achieve with this RV purchase?

Because I couldn’t answer that, I realized we had more to figure out than just what to purchase.

We needed to have clear expectations.

Another person pointed out, “This is a house on wheels that goings over all of the bumps and dips. It is going to require maintenance.” And he recommended a budget amount per year.  I think he was realistic about the number he gave me.

We need to understand the requirements of the relationship.

My husband keeps pulling me aside to show me RV’s he is finding out on the web and I am blown away by the price and so is he.  I know that we will have to make an investment; I also know that I will be happier if I haven’t sunk a ton of lettuce into this thing.

We need to agree on a budget.

Also I can see that there is a learning curve to this, we don’t have to jump right to the top of the curve by making all of the mistakes with the first purchase. I think we can take it in steps.  So what we get first will more than likely not be what we have in three years.  I think we will learn and grow better this way.

Very few things are “Forever”.  A vehicle with an engine and all the parts of a house on wheels is going to get old faster than a real house.  While “location, location, location” works for a house, not so much with an RV.

We need to keep in mind that this isn’t a forever situation, this is for right now.

When we skip over these steps, with our goals, our staff or our friends’ things can get messy, people can get hurt or it can cost a whole lot of money.

Sometimes we just need to take a deep breath, step back, dream a little more and answer a few more of our own questions and create a clearer vision.

I’ll keep you posted on what we figure out.  I am enjoying the process and now that I am clearer about the details we need to get a closer to the results, I think this will be happening before January.

What situation in your life needs clarity?

 

Written by: JoyGenea Schumer
Edited by: Carla Jane Francisco

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