Living a Better Life
(featured column... from the editor's desk)

Better Late than Never!

by Michelle Jones

Children are special.  They listen to everything you say when they are little, or at least (hopefully) most of what you say, and then when they grow up they repeat your own words back to you.  Today, my 16-year-old daughter did just that and I couldn’t have been more proud.  She encouraged me with one of my own ultimate mottos for life… “better late than never!”  More...

At the time of this writing Christmas is less than 10 days away and although our entire town put up their Christmas lights several weeks ago, we did not.  Like many working families our schedules have little room for anything extra and putting up outdoor Christmas lights certainly qualifies as EXTRA.  However, we did manage to put up our tree two weeks ago and a few of our favorite holiday decorations throughout the house.  The few outdoor lights that we do have managed to find their way next to our front door, just in case we might somehow find the time to put them up.

Well, as you may have already guessed from the title of this article, we finally managed to put up our small set of outdoor lights… at 10:00 p.m. last night!

They’re beautiful.  The children are delighted, and so are we.  And it took less than an hour to get them set up.  So why, WHY, did it take us so long to get them up?  They’ve been sitting right by the front door just waiting for someone to get the job done, but day after day we passed them by thinking, “no way, we don’t have time for that.”

This morning, while driving my daughter to school, we were talking about how pretty the lights are when I said, “and it didn’t take very long to put them up, why didn’t we do them sooner?!”  She replied with no hesitation, “well, better late than never!”  I love it… she had no concern for why we were late getting the job done, or even for the weeks we lost that could have been enjoyed with beautiful Christmas lights hanging from our front porch—which is probably just a ‘mom thing’ anyways.  Instead, she is just happy they are up.

I couldn’t help but smile as I replied back to her “yes, that is what I always say; better late than never!”  I paused for a moment and then added with a chuckle “and that’s because we always are!!!”

Seriously though, I believe these words with all my heart and have no doubt that they apply to all areas of our lives, including our finances.  Here are a few examples:

* Have you not been putting enough (or any) money into a savings account, until now?  Better late than never!

* Have you never worked with a household budget to manage your money better, until now?  Better late than never!

* Have you thrown away thousands of dollars of grocery coupons, until now?  Better late than never!

* Have you been in debt for years, but are finally getting out?  Better late than never!

* Have you neglected your finances completely, until now?  Better late than never!

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it."
- W. M. Lewis

No matter what our reasons are for putting things off, whether it’s that we can’t get to them because we’re too busy or that we just don’t want to do them, what matters the most is that at some point (and hopefully sooner than later) we take care of the people and things in our lives that need to be taken care of.  e just have to MAKE time for them.

And always, always, always… BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and the BEST year yet!

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Copyright © 2006 by Michelle Jones, author of Dealing with Debt, Frugal Family Recipes and Basic Budget Planning... for Those Who Hate to Budget. All rights reserved.

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