Getting sidetracked can provide a valuable lesson
I want that Jeep!
That night, I created a vision board and pasted picture of a red jeep I found in a magazine. (more later on the vision board)
The next day I logged on to classifieds sites and found a ton of Jeeps for sale. And… was it a coincidence… I found a red one for 3K ! I was almost jumping out of my skin! Maybe it’s a sign!!! Let’s go see it I said!!! As we pulled into the sellers driveway, I knew it had been a mistake. The jeep was so rusted, there were holes in the sides. It looked worse off than the Jetta.
I sat in it and realized, I would never ever ride around in that car. Not only didn’t it project the image I had dreamed about but it was dirty, uncomfortable and seemed unsafe. I was crestfallen. We drove around to look at other used jeeps, some closer to our 10K budget but the image I had had of a Jeep had been broken my the clunky, loud, uncomfortable model I had sat in.
Hubby suggested we go to a dealer and look at brand new ones. They must be insanely expensive I said…
We walked into the dealership and met an elderly salesman. One of those career car salesmen who sell you the dream not the product. He did an awesome job even pointing out the plug for the cellphone and laptop… I walked up to the 4 door 2007 Jeep. ooooh I said. That is fabulous. I opened the door and slid behind the wheel. It was so luxurious and so huge I felt out of place after sitting in the cramped 92 Jetta.
Sometimes what you dream about isn’t really what you need.
And that’s when it hit me. This Jeep was way above our needs. Wwaaaaaaaay too big and just not a good reflexion of us as a family… It wasn’t us. Turns out it wasn’t what we needed or wanted…
We did ask about the price and to be honest, I don’t even remember what it worked out to. Because the dream I had envisioned for myself as a teenager of someday owning a red jeep and feeling free with my hair blowing in the wind suddenly didn’t fit with my lifestyle or my needs of today. The huge probably gas guzzling living room on wheels felt like it would weigh on me like a ton of bricks. Just sitting there I felt more potential stress than freedom.
Let’s just say, we are not at that stage yet. We have to become debt free first.
What this experience taught me about my relationship to money.
One thing I learned is that I do (or did) have abundance issues and I limit the flow of abundance by saying things like… it must be insanely expensive and feeling really stressed at the thought of increasing our debt any further. By living according to my means, I feel free and by changing my thoughts about money I am creating abundance.
By sitting in the older Jeep and then sitting in the newer one I realized that I had been holding this dream in my heart for 17 years without ever going to a dealership and getting behind the wheel to get the feel for the car and see if it was really me. Had I done this exercise a long time ago, I wouldn’t have felt like I was missing out because owning a Jeep just would not have been on my list of wants or my list of dreams. (and ultimately, I wouldn’t have felt I was lacking something for all those years)
On managing our needs and managing our money. I’m sure that we could have found a way to buy the new Jeep. But right now, our goal is to owe nothing so buying that car would have been foolish and would have made us forget to focus on our goals.
Wanting and Needing : There is a huge huge difference between a need and a want and it’s extremely important to make sure we make smart decisions… not emotional ones. Perhaps once we have everything we need we can start to get what we want too…
It’s great to have dreams and to step outside our comfort zone. I do it all the time. But after this experience, the next time, I have a dream, I’ll check it out, try it out… get close to it and then I can prioritize according to my needs.
Our car saga continues tomorrow.
