{"id":1406,"date":"2024-09-23T08:55:54","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T15:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=1406"},"modified":"2024-09-29T08:53:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T15:53:12","slug":"why-patience-is-a-virtue-in-the-world-of-personal-finance-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id1406-why-patience-is-a-virtue-in-the-world-of-personal-finance-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Patience In Personal Finance: Why It’s a Tremendous Virtue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"patience<\/a>Although I haven’t conducted a scientific study, I suspect that most people of modest means who are successfully managing their money understand the importance of patience<\/a>\u00a0in personal finance.<\/p>\n

Let’s face it: Most debt-free people aren’t impulsive shoppers, or insistent on instant gratification — if they want something but don’t have the cash, then they wait until they’ve saved enough.<\/p>\n

An Unexpected Milestone<\/h3>\n

Patience has certainly played a ginormous<\/em><\/strong> role in allowing me<\/em> to build a healthy nest egg — not to mention keeping my debt to a minimum. I was reminded of that again after the Honeybee and I bought beautiful new end- and coffee-tables to cap off one of our remodeling projects: while loading the car with our old tables to give to a local charity, it dawned on me that we originally bought that furniture second-hand many years ago.<\/p>\n

When we first bought our new home, we bought one<\/em><\/strong> new furniture set to go into it: a kitchen table with six chairs. Everything else was “donated” by our parents or bought second-hand. Not that we cared. In fact, we ignored the urge to fill every room with brand new furniture because: 1) we didn’t have the money, and; 2) we weren’t willing to go into debt for five or six years to pay for it.<\/p>\n

Why Waiting Was Worth It<\/h3>\n

Looking back, the wait was definitely worth it. The Honeybee and I could have furnished our entire house when we first moved in (minus the kitchen set we bought) for about $12,000.<\/p>\n

If we had been impatient — and took out a 5-year loan for the full amount at an interest rate of 8% — we would have spent an additional $2599 in interest. Even today, that’s enough money to pay for a roomful of furniture all by itself.<\/p>\n

Over the years, our patience has allowed us to avoid a lot of costly interest payments. As a result, we’ve been able to afford some things much sooner than we otherwise would have — without being beholden to any lender.<\/p>\n

The Reality Is… Saving Money Takes Time<\/h3>\n

Anyway, that little furniture episode got me thinking about how long the Honeybee and I have had to wait to buy certain things we’ve wanted since moving into our new home in 1997. So I put together a little list of all the “big ticket” items we’ve bought since then — either for the first time, or to replace our second-hand stuff. (The numbers in parentheses note how long we waited before we could finally afford to buy each item):<\/p>\n