errantember

My Mom and I have very different ideas about money, security, and the relationship between them. Recently she's transformed from a life-long Democrat to a Fox News junkie who thinks Glen Beck is a hero. Her parents grew up during the depression, so of course she's inherited patterns from them regarding fear and money. The differences in our outlooks on how to make enough money to live have been thrown into start relief over the past year of unemployment. I've finally realized that although she has set an excellent example in many ways by being as financially together as she is, her approach to money is too fear-based to continue to allow it into my own planning and outlook. I can think back to decisions like the one not to go to Burning Man last year, when the Austin crew build the Temple. It would probably have been the most rewarding experience I could possibly have there to go along and participate, and at worst the expenditure might have meant I had to get a job a few weeks sooner than otherwise on a time scale measured in months, but I didn't go. I can look at hundred other small decisions where I've let that small, nagging fear at the back of my mind finally tip the scales, possibly including my current decision to at least temporarily re-install myself into a cubefarm, and they can all be traced back to that powerful maternal voice whispering in my ear. No more. I'm firing my Mom from her role as financial adviser. From now on, she's going to have to take it on faith that her son is an adult who can manage his own financial life, and she's going to have to figure out how to find her own internal security without knowing the details.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to deliver the message, and I'm a little concerned about what I might have to do to enforce it, but I'll probably send her an e-mail with the general idea sometime tonight.

It's amazing how much of reality is determined by whether and where one is pointed.

Budgeting is a very good case-in-point. Except for < $400/week from unemployment, I haven't had any income since December, and yet I'm not really that worried. Why? Because I have an increasing accurate budget that tells me that I can still survive for nearly a year on my existing money. This makes it possible for me to Take Steps to, instead of going back to the old full-time corporate grind, gain greater control of my time and destiny by becoming a successful independent contractor. And it doesn't just nail down events in a single, linear future, as useful as that is. It becomes a lens through which multiple prospective futures can be quantified, explored, and evaluated.
( Read more... )

I just torched my last credit card after paying its outstanding balance of $15. I'm currently reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover on the recommendation of my mother, who's sound financial advice is one of the reasons my house, which has appreciated 75k in the four years I've owned it, is my only outstanding debt.

As practice, I've successfully kept myself on a food and entertainment budget for the past 2 years. I just pull out the cash at the beginning of the week, and that's it for the week. A comprehensive budget is a little more challenging, but totally necessary for any degree of sane financial planning.

I might be time to practice guitar...

After re-taking part of my InvesTOOLS stock trading course online, I returned to my beleaguered portfolio to do some damage control. ( Read more... )