You Can’t Have it All

Apple Podcast Spotify

You Can’t Have it All

In his 1994 country ballad, Alan Jackson asks the question, who says you can’t have it all? Many of us live asking the same question. We live as though we can have it all. We may buy what we want and do what we want and arrive at a point where we are financially overwhelmed or so stretched on time that we can’t even breathe. When we reach this point where the rubber band has been stretched, very nearly to the breaking point, we have to accept the truth that you really can’t have it all. I want to help you come to terms with this truth today. But I also want to encourage you that there are some things that you can have. So, let’s begin unpacking this together. You can’t have everything you want when it comes to stuff. You can’t have the ideal car, the ideal house, the ideal neighborhood, the ideal clothing, the ideal food, the ideal school, the ideal toys, the ideal vacations. Did I miss anything? Ask anyone, even those who make more money than the rest of us, and they will say there is something that they don’t have that they wish they did. There is something twisted in our desires. We often want what we don’t have. You might reply today that you are content, that you have more than you need, and that you don’t desire to have any more than you have today. If that is the case, you are light years ahead of most of the human beings in western society. Good for you. Stay there. Teach others to be content in the way that you live. But you are an anomaly and a rarity, so today’s episode is going to be for the rest of us who wish we could have more than we do today. The difficult truth is that you and I are only going to have so much money to steward. We may steward much, or we may steward little. Regardless of whether you think you ought to be making more or stewarding more, what you have and what you are making is what you have to work with. It is imperative for each of us to identify how much money we have to work with, and to make choices about what we are going to do with that money. Instead, many of us live in a fantasy world that buys first and figures out whether there is enough money to afford it later. This is financial suicide. It will eventually catch up to us, often in the form of increasing credit card debt. If you have credit card debt that you are not paying off every month, in many cases, this is a symptom that you are ignoring your financial reality. But this financial reality is like gravity. We can pretend that it doesn’t exist, but we are subject to it whether you like it or not. The key is identifying the things that matter most, and making sure we fit at least a few of those into our budget. You don’t have to buy $50,000 vehicle. There’s nothing inherently wrong with buying a vehicle at that price, but it isn’t a necessity. It isn’t something that you have to have because you’re an American, or a West Tennessean, or a member of a particular social group. If you make that choice, it may mean that you are going to have to do without something else in your budget. Recognize that reality, and don’t try to cheat it by spending first and thinking later. It is painful to say no to the things that we cannot afford. It is even more painful to dig out of the hole that is dug and spending more than we make. So, here’s your homework. Sit down and identify 3 of your highest financial priorities. Maybe it is a nice home. Maybe it is a vacation. Maybe it is sending little kids to private school. Maybe it is eating out. Write down where you want your money to go and then assign the money you have to work with towards those priorities. It may be that you were only able to fund your first priority. It may be that you can fund multiple priorities. But make these choices rather than those choices being forced upon you in painful ways somewhere down the road. But it’s not just in the financial realm where we have to make choices. I would argue that an even more important area to focus on in our choice making is time. Time is an even more precious resource than money because you can’t make more of it. And we are spending time every moment of every day. We can’t save time like we can save money. So, where are we spending our time? So often we are on autopilot and allow our time to go towards things that really aren’t even important to us. Then we complain about not having the time to do the things we really want to do. Sports for kids are an area where our culture spends a tremendous amount of both time and money. Time driving kids back and forth to practices, time sitting at the ball field. Is this where we really want to spend our time? You might reply that there is no better use for your time. Great. Keep it up. But are there other things we would rather be doing with your time? If you can’t have it all, what do you want to have? Do you want to have enough time to sleep? Time to exercise? Quality time at the dinner table with your family? What about a date night with your spouse? What about time to read? Is there a leisure activity you would like to spend more time doing? One difference between time and money is that everyone has exactly the same amount of time. We are all on a level playing field, 24 hours a day. You can’t have it all in 24 hours a day, so what do you want to do with what you have? Let’s do the same exercise that I challenged you to do with your money. Identify the top three best uses of your time. Then ask yourself whether you are spending any time on those three things. If not, some other things may need to go to make room for them. What a tragedy it would be to live a long life doing the things that are less fulfilling than other things you really want to do. Here’s a quick pro tip: set a screen time limit on how much time you were on social media. This is low hanging fruit that can be reduced to something reasonable and could be replaced with something that you would much rather do in the long run. Choose the fulfilling rather than the easy. Choose the things that have lasting reward, not the cotton candy that is sweet but not ultimately satisfying. At Foundation Bank and McKenzie Banking Company we want to help you to be better stewards. We have great tools that can help you steward what you have better, and we employ unique strategies to provide accountability to help you do it consistently. We would love to be your financial partner. Start your next financial conversation with us today at foundationbank.org. It really will be worth your time. We hope you’ll subscribe to this podcast to it in your favorite podcast app and share it on social media. Until our next episode, God bless you.

-President Chad P. Wilson, CFP

Today’s episode of “Money Matters” was written and recorded by President Chad P. Wilson of Foundation Bank/McKenzie Banking Company on November 18, 2025. This episode does not constitute financial advice. Please consult a financial professional to discuss your specific needs. Any rates mentioned are subject to change and are accurate as of the recording date. Foundation Bank/MBC is an Equal Housing Lender, Member FDIC.