This has been a long and fraught week for Americans as we waited through the vote counting for the determination of the Presidential election.  Not everyone is happy with the results.  And this highlights one of the most important money lessons there is to learn:  You can’t have everything you want.  If it were possible to have everything you want, I would be retired and living in a 26-foot long Airstream travel trailer towed by a brand new SUV while I tour the United States.  Instead I am working full-time from my guest room in a job that I love and I tow a tiny teardrop camper with an 8-year-old Subaru on weekends when I am able to get away.

You can’t have everything you want.  You have to accept what you have and do the best you can with it.  I have a job that I love (I get to help people achieve their dreams!!).  I’d rather have a job I love and make less money than I would if I had a job I didn’t love.  My life isn’t extravagant.  But it’s comfortable and offers me what I need.  I’ll never have an Airstream camper or a brand new SUV.  But I will someday have a good quality camper that I can stand up inside of….and likely a used SUV or pickup truck to tow it with.  And until then I have a teardrop camper and a Subaru that take me on a lot of adventures.  I can’t have everything I want.  But I can make the best of what I have got.

If you try to have everything you want you’ll end up in a financial nightmare.  The struggle with debt is a very real thing for a lot of people.  A mortgage payment or car payment that stretches the budget can cause sleepless nights as you try to figure out how to also pay for food and utilities.  Add credit card debt or medical bills on top of that, and suddenly you’re sinking so fast you don’t know how to get out.  The best way to manage debt is not to fall into it.  Do you need a place to live and a mode of transportation?  Yes!  Do you need it to be exactly the one you have always wanted?  No!  It’s better to start with what is financially manageable and move your way up over time.

Sometimes making the best you can with what you’ve got is easy, like when you choose store-brand products over brand names at the grocery store, or when you buy clothing at second-hand stores or at big-box discount stores rather than at boutiques.  Sometimes it’s more disheartening, like when you take the bus instead of owning a car.  Sometimes it’s ridiculously frustrating, like when you have to accept that you just can’t afford a trip to Disneyworld so you staycation instead.

You can’t always get what you want.  But you can make the choice to be happy with what you do have and make the most of that.