The term affordable has two meanings. On the one hand, it indicates that something can be achieved and, on the other hand, it expresses that something can be paid for.
Easy, affordable and difficult projects
We all have projects, which present a certain degree of difficulty. Thus, if a student has the aspiration or the project to achieve an average score (five out of ten), this is a relatively easy idea to achieve. Continuing with the same type of example, a student who aspires to get a good grade (for example, a seven out of ten) is faced with something affordable, that is, it is not something easy but it is not excessively difficult. On the other hand, if a student tries to obtain the best grade in his class, we would be facing an aspiration of great difficulty. These examples allow us to remember that something is affordable when it has a certain degree of difficulty, that is, it is something feasible and achievable.
From a practical point of view it is not advisable to have unaffordable or unattainable projects. For example, it would not be reasonable for an overweight person to set out to set a record in an endurance test. However, we must not forget that the difficulty in the objectives is what makes them stimulating, because doing easy or affordable things does not have the same motivating component as achieving seemingly unattainable achievements.
What is within the reach of our economic possibilities
If we can buy an object or use a service with our salary, we will say that it is something affordable, that is, that it is possible to pay for it with a certain normality. If something goes beyond our economic possibilities we will say that it is not affordable. It is not possible to establish a fixed criterion on what is affordable and what is not, since it is a question that depends on many factors (mandatory expenses, the priorities of each or individual economic circumstances). Normally it is said that a product is affordable when its acquisition does not involve a great economic effort.
It is not the same cheap as affordable
The term affordable is sometimes used as a synonym for cheap. This use is incorrect, as these are terms that are not interchangeable. While cheap and affordable have a subjective component and may be related, they do not have the same meaning. Thus, something is cheap when it has a reduced price, while something is affordable when it can be paid.
Therefore, a product can be very cheap but not affordable, since the price is really low but this does not imply that it is affordable for everyone (for example, the price of gasoline can be cheap in comparative terms and, at despite this, it is not affordable for a part of the population).
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