It has been said that I am a shopaholic. I used to agree with those who said it, however after I pondered this I began to realize that I'm not. I catagorized all the different kinds of moneyaholics. I figured out that, shopaholic, isn't me. Let me explain in more detail.
Aholics! Now most of us, me included, think of alcoholics when this topic is brought up. There are all kinds of aholics in this world. Chocolateaholics! Let us first define the word 'aholic'. Dictionary.com identifies it as: "A person who has an addiction to or obsession with some object or activity. workaholic, chargeaholic" Funny that it mentions chargeaholic. That is one of the Moneyaholics. This is me.
The Moneyaholics:
1: SHOPaholic: The term or label we get when we have money problems. "They're just a shopaholic." This is how people identify us. A real shopaholic is one who has to buy something at every store they enter. They have to spend money or use their credit cards or checks. They have this addiction; to buy something every day. A shopaholic has a hole in their pocket and one in the wallet because of the money burn. If this is how you are, then you're a shopaholic.
2: CHARGEaholic: This person is me. I always had more cash than credit. Green talks! I can keep $20.00 in my wallet for weeks. The money talks, it says: "I'm actual money and do you really want to give me away?" My answer was always, no! So I would charge it. I didn't have to buy something every day, I just had to use my cards when I did. I felt like a real adult when I put it on the card. "Watch me! I'm using my Master Card today." How pathetic. But it's not really. When we want to be accepted into the world as an adult we want other adults to see us. Especially with a credit card. It was easy to use too. "It's not real money anyway." I always had more than one card, hoping the lady behind me would see all the cards I had. There was this feeling of having a wallet full of cards (and not the scan for savings ones either). It felt good to say, "Hey don't worry. I got you. I got you." and you were showing who ever 'you' was, your card. This was me, I am a recovering chargeaholic.
3: SPENDaholic: This person uses only cash or debit for everything. "Credit cards are for emergencys only." They save their credit but have to spend their cash. Or, they have no credit or debit cards but are always dead broke. "Hey man, can you spot me today? I forgot my money." When really they don't have any money. This is a spendaholic.
4: CHECKaholic: This person has no access to cash and has no cards but they go to anyplace that takes checks (there's not very many anymore.) and they use a check. As long as they have checks; they have money. This is their attitude. They usually don't have checks for long, the bank closes the account and they have a high bill to pay off.
The last one-
5: SAVEaholic: Ahh, the place we want to be. My father is the perfect example of this. He is proof that in this economy we can be DEBT FREE! He paid his house off the day the stock market tanked. He pays all the necessary bills and one credit card, which he pays off in full every time he uses it. All other incoming funds are put in savings. Family joke: his money has been there for so long it has mold. He is not a millionaire no, but he does have a nice savings account.
Once we have identified our problem AND admitted that we have one, we can start to fix it. No matter what kind of moneyaholic we are (besides a saveaholic) the fact is: we have a problem with money. We also want to change that! I wouldn't be writing this if I started as a saveaholic and was super with money. What benefit am I if I haven't lived it?
