From "Resilient Peacemakers" in The Wages of Peace
Westerners are pressured to be consumers, but earning enough money to consume or to pay off the debt accumulated by consumption can displace other life goals. As a ministry-minded financial coach, I have a lot of conversations with people where we uncover the realization that their goal is to attain enough money, somehow, to have both disposable income and disposable time. Even wealthy people often feel they have to work so much they do not have disposable time, and people with leisure time rarely feel they have enough financial resources to not worry about money. That is only a problem if we give in to the pressure to be passive consumers or to try to achieve goals other people have for us. If we do the work to understand what we value and what our goals are, then the strategies that balance time and money start to emerge. Some people say they just want a life of video
games and travel. As a financial coach, I don’t judge. I appreciate the honesty and clarity. We then work out the math for how to maintain that lifestyle with the minimum number of working hours not spent playing or traveling. I also have leisure goals, but I wanted a life of service and a more traditional family life and house. That is a monumental goal in our expensive modern society. The ability to attain a graduate degree, get married, have a family, buy a home, and do so while earning relatively little money in the nonprofit sector requires clarifying goals and investing time and attention to attain them.
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