I have been a big gamer my entire life, but I am 28 now and my finances continue to be more or less terrible. I've been living paycheck to paycheck virtually my entire adult life.
One of the big reasons I have money problems is that I always buy new game consoles when they come out. In the past four years I bought a Wii U, a PS4, a PSVita, built a gaming PC and bought a gaming laptop. And then of course hundreds of dollars of games on top of that.
And that would be all well and good if:
1) I really liked playing video games.
and
2) I was financially secure.
But here's the thing. I don't like playing video games that much! Yes, I enjoy the entertainment value, but these days playing video games feels like watching porn. Yeah, it feels good in the moment, but I know I've wasted my time. I would rather hang out with a real woman than fap, and I'd rather have good finances than the latest game console. The days where I genuinely loved this stuff is behind me.
But for some reason, this addiction kept on kicking. When the PS4 came out, I lined up and bought one. And I bought Black Flag and Battlefield 4. Did I have any real interest in those games? Nope. But there went $520 USD. That money could have gone towards my student loan, or been a trip to Vancouver. But instead, I poured it down the drain.
So for me, it is a very big deal to not buy the Switch. I have spent so much time hyping myself up for the Switch, soaking up every detail of news and doing my best to convince myself that I'm excited. Sure, Breath of the Wild looks truly amazing, but do I really have 50+ hours to dedicate to a video game right now? What if I invested that time into improving my finances? What if I invested even 10 of those hours into improving my writing skill?
And then you have to consider that buying the Switch will also have ramifications over time. $20 here, $50 there. Every new game will have all sorts of marketing behind it, and I'll want excuses to use my Switch. More time lost. More money lost. Yes they are fun games, but is it really worth sacrificing my financial future, or time I could spend with friends or family? I don't think so.
So that is my big personal win for the day. I can't tell you how much effort it took me to work up the courage to cancel my preorder. But when I clicked that cancel button, I felt a genuine sense of relief. I have finally broken the cycle of stupid financial choices. Here's what I'm going to do with that $350 I just saved:
$100 towards my credit card bill
$150 towards a new bike on craigslist hopefully
$100 towards my student loans.
This is a relatively small choice in my life, but it is one that I think will have a large ripple effect. I'm really proud of myself right now. And that says a lot.
Submitted February 25, 2017 at 03:17AM by Lord_Yupa http://ift.tt/2mvAMsZ
