Money Listens

No, no, no
Stick to the stuff you know
It is better by far
To keep things as they are
Don’t mess with the flow, no no
Stick to the status quo

This is the chorus to the hit song from Disney’s blockbuster High School Musical. The film was released in January, 2006, and became the most successful Disney Channel Original Movie ever. The film’s soundtrack was the best selling album of 2006. If you haven’t seen it yet, borrow the DVD from your neighbor’s 10 year old. If the kid won’t let you borrow it, watch Stick to the status quo on YouTube.

Everywhere we go we hear “No, no, no, it is better by far to keep things as they are.” I recently read an article in a national financial publication about purchasing a car. The author wrote that there were two ways to buy a car. The first was leasing and the second was a car loan. He proceeded to elaborate the pros and cons of each method. The idea of saving up the money and using cash to obtain a vehicle never even occurred to him. That’s because the status quo is either a lease or a loan.

When it comes to saving the status quo is zippo. In the 1980s Americans saved about 10% of their income. Today it is -.2%. Isn’t that the idea, spend everything you make?

The whole point of High School Musical was to not “Stick to the status quo.” We have to make this decision every day. Maintain the status quo or start on a new choice. What will it be? The status quo is broke. The status quo is debt. The status quo is, well, status. Buy things because of the status that item will give you. Because everyone else is buying one. Because you want one.

Every day with every financial decision, we either have to stick with what everyone else does and with what we’ve always done or make a choice to “mess with the flow.” I hope when you have an opportunity to “mess with the flow,” you’ll do it and make a real change.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 6:41 pm and is filed under A to Z, Saving More and More. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.