I really hope the Financial Samurai is kidding with his latest post on debt reduction and weight loss. I really hope that he's just being wacky and looking for link bait or something to further Yakeziefy his web presence. 😉
Here's his premise: Buying the plasma, leasing the convertible, and living way beyond your means rocks. Paying off your debts rocks. Score a win-win! Likewise, gorging yourself on sweet, fatty, high-calorie foods feels great. Dropping all of that weight feels great. Score another win-win!
I'll take it a step further. Getting on I-95 in a stolen Porsche, flooring it, smashing into seventeen cars, and getting featured on World's Wildest Police Videos is a blast! Getting out of prison in seven years when you got five to fifteen for good behavior? Wow, what an accomplishment! Three-bagger win-win!
Uhhh, no. Let's break this down, shall we?
- A felony will follow you around for the rest of your life. You'll be locked out of a whole bunch of jobs. You won't be able to be in constructive possession of a firearm. You won't be able to vote. It's definitely better to never have committed a felony than to have served your time for one.
- Obesity has lasting consequences. First off, losing 10% of your weight and keeping it off for five years is a bit of a long shot: twenty to one. Beyond that, your heart has worked harder carrying that extra weight around, so it will probably fail you faster. Being fat costs you money. Even after you take the weight off, you can't, um, win for losing: pollutants that were stored in your flab are now in your bloodstream. It's definitely better to never have been fat than to get fat and then take it off.
- Likewise, getting deep into consumer debt leaves life-long financial scars. It handicaps saving for college, saving for emergencies, saving for a house, saving for retirement. If the debt was bad enough, it could mean a short retirement, or none at all. Missed opportunities. Strained relationships. Hobbled philanthropy. Lower standard of living. Broken dreams. It's definitely better to never have been in debt than to get into trouble and then bail yourself out.
Now, of course, I'm not being quite fair: getting out of debt is a good thing, losing weight is a good thing, walking the straight and narrow is a good thing. Getting out of messes is better than not getting out of them. But let's not get into messes just to say we got out of them, m'kay? 🙂
Ha! Nice parallel, however, your example is too extreme. I really believe everything is rational and quite logical.
The reason why we eat so much is because we LOVE food more than we love to look great, or work out. It’s when we get TOO fat and feel a little disgusted, that we then start losing weight and working out because that feels better than looking/feeling fat.
We get into debt, b/c the pleasure that money we don’t have buys us is GREATER than the burden of debt. We at some point have a natural turning point where we can no longer get into more debt, have a change of heart with our finances, and therefore plan to get out of debt. Conquering debt is a great feeling.
I honestly believe people who Yo-Yo with weight and debt have some of the best time.
Cheers, Sam
@Samurai: Justifying overindulgence with the thrill of overcoming the harsh consequences of that overindulgence is weak.
Doing things in moderation avoids the harsh consequences.
Just trying to help people understand why they do what they do. Otherwise, everybody would be really rich and really fit!
Its all good everybody!