Why it Always Seems Like Money is Tight

There’s no way around feeling the financial pinch

The call I was dreading had arrived.

Our van was vibrating and making a weird noise. The mechanic was calling to tell me what was wrong and how much it would cost.

I knew it would be a lot, but it was still more than I expected.

“Why can’t I ever seem to get ahead?” I thought. “It always seems like every time I start to move forward I end up taking a step back.”

We’ve all experienced the feeling that I call “the pinch.” It’s where you feel hopelessly trapped in your financial situation. Where you worry if things will be okay. When it seems like you don’t have enough.

What’s fascinating is that you can feel the pinch even when your finances are in objectively good shape.

At the time I got the call about the van, my net worth was on a steady upward climb. I had a large cash cushion in the bank for situations exactly like this one. I was (and still am) doing fine.

But that didn’t prevent the sting of a large, unexpected expense.

Unfortunately, you will never get away from the pinch entirely. It’s human nature to get used to absolute levels but remain highly sensitive to changes in condition. It’s why you can fall asleep at 75 mph but wake up as soon as the driver starts braking.

Like it or not, we don’t keep score by absolutes. Your money situation might look good overall, but you feel the pinch if you were better off yesterday.

While you can never escape the pinch altogether, you can work to diminish its impact over time.

When you focus on the setbacks instead of the things that are going well, it’s a dead giveaway that you aren’t grateful enough.

Here’s an honest-to-God miracle: You’re not going to starve to death. I’m not even remotely in danger of hyperbole here; either about the facts themselves or their significance. You won’t starve to death. And the fact that I can say that with…

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