Disposable Monday #3

When it runs low there will be less splashing out.

Saving Money. It's so important these days to do it effectively just to be able to keep your head above the water. Now more than ever it seems since money, much like water, seems to flow in the same direction; back to where it came from. It merely passes through the fingers allowing you to keep only what you need at the time. It is a delicate balance that needs to be maintained. Keep too much of it and the ocean has less to give and there is going to be a drought. If the ocean doesn't let it go, there is going to be a drought. The ocean needs the river as much as the river needs the ocean. So what happens when the river runs low and the ocean does not want to let go? 

The financial world is as vast and diverse as an ocean and is far too intricate to detail here. From a singular perspective however, you make money and you spend money. If you're making more money than you need or want to spend then, brilliant. Well done, good for you. But that is far from the case for far too many people. Now, I'm not typically one to rant but it seems more and more nowadays that the more you try to save money the more somebody else desperately tries to take it from you. 

The case in point, household fuel costs. The vast majority of us have taken steps to reduce our fuel costs by improving insulation to eliminate waste or spending a great deal of money on energy efficient appliances to reduce energy usage. The energy companies themselves offer a great deal of good advice to their customers on how to make further savings and it works. Anybody who has taken steps to reduce their household fuel usage has undoubtedly seen the benefits in their bill. But then comes the twist. The energy companies have another agenda besides reducing their customers fuel usage and that's to ensure their own profit margin.

Let's not forget the shareholders.

So what happens then, when everybody has effectively reduced their household fuel costs? They put the prices up of course and any savings you might have just made are wiped out because the price didn't just rise a little, it rose a lot and yes, we all know that prices do inevitably rise and we understand that the energy providers have a great deal of expenditure to cover within the sector. Their own rising costs from sourcing to delivery but more importantly, and they're not shy about telling anybody, they have to protect their profit margin because theirs, it seems, is more important than anyone else's.

All in it together? Hardly! The ocean isn't only not letting go but it's also demanding the same flow from the river when it's just not there. There isn't a single person who isn't affected by this in one way or another. There is a significant portion of the flow that is being diverted into one ocean leaving less for the rest. Nobody wants to have less but most would be happy with a consistent amount of enough. Others however, are not satisfied with enough. They are not entirely happy with more than enough either. They seem to need a consistent amount of more and more and the best place they can take it from is from those who are happy with enough.