Difficult to keep up with the Joneses...

The Joneses...an interesting topic to consider and delve into when time permits. Your neighbors purchase a new car and the question comes to mind, "Is my car up to date? I did hear some noise under the hood yesterday". Your neighbors express how much of a fun time they had on a recent cruise they experienced, once again questions which put the focus on their joy and our lack of. These situations are not rare, if anything we rather not admit to ourselves how selfish we are. Since the 90's consumers have been overly selfish and lost the ability to control their urges for consumption or, in these cases, for keeping up with the Joneses. As you can see depicted in the image from the Federal Reserve Board, the ability consumers have had to access credit has lead to an over extension to the concept of living within your means. Due to our current state of economy consumers are seeing that financing their cars, houses, and expenses will be more difficult as time progresses, requiring consumers to consider saving for purchases instead of paying with credit. Please share thoughts on this topic and tools that may have helped you in avoiding the debt amidst a society which cannot say NO to wants.