As I was driving home from work this afternoon, I noticed a billboard for a local rent-to-own store. It showed a family (all smiling and snuggling, of course) relaxing on a beautiful sectional couch, watching a huge TV together.
The only words on the billboard were the name of the company and a slogan….
You deserve it!
WHAT!?!?!? Do they mean that we’re all entitled to own furniture and electronics like the family in the picture owned? Well, they probably didn’t even own it. They were probably only renting it with hopes of one day owning it.
Our culture has become so self-centered that we believe we are entitled to all of the luxuries money can buy, even if we don’t have the money to buy them. People who frequent the billboard’s store are people who are renting to own, one of the most expensive ways to acquire things. By the time you make all of the payments, you’ve overpaid. Plus, the value of the item usually goes down before it’s paid off. What a rip-off! And it’s all in the name of having all of the things we deserve as quickly as we can get them.
None of us are entitled to anything! If God chooses to bless us with material possessions, then we should be thankful. If we work hard and earn the money to pay for items we want, then we can consider buying them. But going on a rent-to-own payment plan just because we think we deserve something is ludicrous!
The smart money is on working hard, paying off debt, saving for a rainy day, and then having some splurge money to buy things we want. When we get our priorities in line, we’re able to buy items without draining our family’s savings account. Our families deserve the security that sound financial decisions can bring.
