Remember the self-absorbed, spoiled Veruca Salt from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" 
? In the first film adaptation of Roald Dahl's book (which I was a wee bit obsessed with in my youth), Veruca sang my favorite song, "I Want It Now!"
(Note: The following links to a video from a non-Wells Fargo website )
While I doubt anyone has golden egg-laying geese or Oompa-Loompas on their wish list, there are a lot of things that we want NOW—like a car, a home, or an education. But unlike young Veruca, we don't all have a rich father willing to pay whatever price for whatever we want.
Enter the lending industry: entities that will pay for what you want NOW, if you pay them back later—plus some. Sometimes that "plus some" (we're talking money in interest here, not your first-born child) can be pretty hard to swallow.
Take my home purchase. Each month, I'll be paying an average of $370 in interest on my mortgage. If I actually had my loan for the entire 30-year term without paying more than what's required toward the principal, that's almost $120,000 in interest.
Bleh. Just typing that number makes me a little sick.
But here's the deal: I'm choosing to pay the interest because, like Veruca, I want it NOW! I don't want to wait until I've saved enough to simply write a check for a house—I'd be waiting a long, long time. Instead, I'm relying on a lender to help me, and I'm willing to pay for it.
Sometimes I get frustrated by people—myself included—complaining about the debt they've taken on and the amount of interest they owe. When I become one of the complainers, two reminders help put things into perspective:
- Borrowing to get things NOW is a privilege—not a right, and
- Had I not taken on debt, I'd still be saving for many of the things I enjoy NOW.
My fellow Verucas, what frustrations do you have with borrowing to get what you want NOW?
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