The Cost of “Runnin’ on Empty”

Are you the kind of person who waits until the needle on your gas gauge is below “E” to fill up the tank? Have you ever pushed it so far you ran out of gas? When you add up the cost of time, energy, missed appointments, and the extra gas can you didn’t need; was it worth it?

I certainly have been guilty of procrastination in my life. In fact, by always “runnin’ on empty” (both literally and figuratively) in my teens and twenties, I dug a hole of debt that I almost couldn’t get out of and missed opportunities I will never get back.

Are you a Procrastinator?

In high school, I used to run out of gas so regularly it seemed like I spent more time walking to the gas station than driving in my car. By the time I graduated, I had a vast collection of gas cans to show for it, each bought at the special gas station sucker price. I spent hundreds of unnecessary dollars and hours that I will never get back.

If you have a gas can collection like I did, it might be an indication that you are an extreme procrastinator; but it isn’t the only one. Here are some other signs:

Old Coffee Grounds

Do you wait until the morning to clean out your coffee maker and prepare it to brew a new pot? I am usually so groggy in the morning that if the coffee maker isn’t ready, I’d rather skip the coffee and go to Barstucks than endure the pain of messing with it. If I had just cleaned and refilled it as soon as I had my coffee the day before, maybe I could have enjoyed a stress-free start to my day and saved a few bucks.

Cost: $3.50 and a headache

Center Seat

Do you always end up in a center seat on airplanes? Waiting until the last minute to buy a plane ticket seriously limits your seat options. If you had planned ahead and bought your ticket weeks in advance, you could have taken that nice exit row window seat with all the legroom. That’s not to mention the hundreds of dollars you would have saved on the ticket price.

Cost: $150 and 3 hours of sleep

Bounced Checks

Do you live paycheck to paycheck? Are you constantly calculating the number of days until the checks you write go through your account? Are you perpetually waiting to start a savings account until you get that next raise? Do you have to pass on a sale because you don’t have the money only to buy it at full price when you run out? Will you have to pass on a great business opportunity when it comes along?

Cost: $100 in overdraft fees, 20% on your merchandise, priceless opportunities missed.

Monopoly

Did you put off buying a house throughout the real estate boom waiting until you had enough money? Did you panic at some point because you couldn’t take it anymore and buy the first house you saw—even though you didn’t have any more money than before? Did the market peak and start heading the other way?

Cost: $50,000 and an unaffordable mortgage

The Price of Desperation

The problem with “runnin’ on empty” is that it leaves you in a state of desperation which puts you at a serious disadvantage. This is especially true with money.

Imagine that you had been working as an airline baggage handler for five years when 9/11 struck. About to go out of business, your airline announces pay cuts. Everyone is upset, but most of the other handlers understand that it’s either their pay or their jobs, so they go along with it.

If you had been living paycheck to paycheck those five years, trading in your car every time you got a raise, you would be in big trouble. Not only are you struggling cover your expenses already, but now you are looking at making less money overall. You are angry at the company, but you can’t do anything about it because you need the job more than ever. You desperately suck it up and take the pay cut.

On the other hand, if you had been putting money into savings over the years instead of buying new cars, your situation would be much different. With six months of expenses in your emergency fund, you have plenty of options. Even though you enjoy working with the other guys and gals on the ramp, you never really liked the job anyway and certainly didn’t like your boss.

Just to see what happens, you go into your supervisor’s office and tell him with confidence and professionalism that the job just isn’t worth it to you at the new pay grade. Worried that he might lose one of his most reliable workers, he puts a desperate offer on the table: He’ll promote you to supervisor and cut the normal six week training to four so that you can enjoy your new supervisor pay as soon as possible.

“Thanks,” you tell him, “but I can’t get bogged down in middle management.” You put in your two week notice and plan a week with your family in the mountains to center yourself before you start looking for a new job. Better yet, maybe you’ll just take a part time job and start that business you have always dreamed of. With a full tank, you are in control.

Creative Types

I haven’t run out of gas in years (knock on wood), and I’m no longer in debt up to my eyeballs, but I can sometimes still sense the powerful seduction of procrastination creeping up on me. Creative types tend to fall victim more easily to this kind of seduction because we tend to rely more heavily on our emotions than logic in the decision making process.

If this description fits you, I would suggest learning more about the business part of your brain. Everyone has both creative and business forces in their own mind, but one side often overpowers the other. Luckily, the mind is like a muscle and your business side can be strengthened.

The Leverage of a Full Tank

When you think about it, it takes just as much effort to fill your tank when the gauge reads a quarter as when it’s below “E,” but being prepared is infinitely more easy than running out of gas.

In life, as in driving, having a full tank gives you power in the form of leverage. One thing that you can count on is that things will go wrong. Murphy’s law hits the unprepared much harder than the prepared. In times of crisis, having something in your reserve tank gives you the power to control your destiny.