Certain laws exist which we can accept or reject. When we choose to accept these laws, the knowledge and use of the law works to our benefit. When we aren’t aware or ignore the existence of the laws, it’s like fighting the current of a river in a boat.

Take Isaac Newton and his observance of gravity. Here is old Newton sitting under a tree. An apple falls onto his head. He observes gravity. He thinks and ponders this phenomenon, writes about it and it becomes the Law of Gravity: Newton’s Law.

A lesser known law exists. In the early to mid-1950s, C. Northcote Parkinson, a British scholar, observed and wrote about a phenomenon concerning work and productivity.

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

Parkinson’s Law suggests people generally take all the time allotted (often more) to complete a task.Think for a minute about a student. The student is assigned a book to read and write a report, due in two weeks.

The student usually takes all the time allowed to complete the task. The actual time it takes to read the book and make the report is the same whether done immediately or done at the last minute.

They could immediately tackle the task and complete it quickly. Often the student procrastinates and uses all the available time. This forces a last minute cramming to complete the task. The time it took to complete the task grew to the time allotted to complete the task.

Households’ expenses will grow to fill the available income.

Households have various income levels. Many of us are using just a little more than our available income. It doesn’t matter whether our income is $30,000 or $100,000 per year. With easy credit, we’re generally using about four to five percent more each month than the household brings in. This is a form of Parkinson’s Law.

It doesn’t matter how much we make. We’re growing our expenses just past our income in household after household. Being aware and managing Parkinson’s Law can be a great advantage in our quest for financial independence. Why are we spending just past our income?

My friend Art Consoli, who’s a business strategist, has a saying about the phenomenon. He always says “It’s because with the credit card cushion, people can spend just a little bit more over and over again, without any short-term consequences.”

Most people want to disagree with this premise.They can’t possibly live on any less money than they have coming in now. I smile and listen. They did so in the past. I ask them if they make a little more money now than they made five years ago. They always answer, “Yes.”

Next, I ask how they got by five years ago on the smaller amount of income. They tell me, it costs more to live today than it did five years ago. To a certain extent, this is true.

In most cases Parkinson’s Law is at work. They’re either unaware of it or they don’t attempt to manage the law to their advantage. Within two weeks of getting their last raise; it becomes unnoticeable. It becomes systematically part of the whole.

When you feed a dog ten ounces of food per day, does the dog notice when you feed him ten and one-half ounces per day?

When you add your five percent raise in pay to your 100 percent pay, will you notice it?

First you must discipline yourself to earmark it to go somewhere else, before it gets to be part of the whole.

If you feed the dog nine and one-half ounces of food, he’ll not notice the shortage. When you take five percent away from the total of the money you spend and save it instead, you’ll not notice it either.

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No Balance Due shows you how to give yourself the greatest gift you can — a life free of debt. Only after your financial issues are behind you, can you embark on a journey that leads to a life lived with more purpose, more passion, and more success. It’s available at bookstores and online at Amazon. The compact disc audio book is available at our book store.

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