Living the life you want means different things to different people. Being able to make the choices you want gets a lot easier when you have a firm grasp on your finances.
This has been a struggle for me since childhood.
Since I can remember I have had a have / have not relationship with money. I love having it but I always manage to chase it away.
Until now of course. But it took a long time to get here. A lifetime of big highs and big lows.
I’ll never forget the time I bounced a check for a pack of cigarettes in college. I think the pack cost maybe $1.25 and I didn’t have it in cash so I wrote a check. And the check didn’t clear. I didn’t have enough to cover this tiny amount. My god.
That pack of smokes cost me $16.25.
I wish that was the only story I could tell like this. But I could fill a notebook with all these ridiculous tales.
My senior year in college, I was working full time. Sure I had to pay rent and my living expenses but I had never had a budget and never seemed to have enough. I would pay for dinners on my Amex card and have my friends give me cash for their share. That would hold me over till my pay day. I bet you will not find this money trick in any financial gurus best selling book.
For a college student, I had a really good job. At that time I was making $25/hour typing my heart out for a Boston hospital. The best class I ever took in high school was typing, that skill has saved my financial life more than once.
But who can’t live on $25 an hour when they are 20, still in school and eat rice and beans all the time but bounce a check of $1.25?
So the story of my financial life goes. Was it a conscious decision to not live within my means? Or was it a self worth issue? Clearly I had never heard of abundance. I thrived when I bottomed out.
What was I doing with the money I made?
Money training, never heard of it. Learning how to manage my money? Not yet. Track your money. Have a budget? Hell no.
Welcome to the beginning of my financial life. It’s a rollercoaster so buckle up and pay attention because I don’t want this to be you at any age!
It took me a really long time to realize that self worth was right on par with my net worth.
[…] There was this very long stretch when I completely avoided my finances. I knew things weren’t where I wanted them to be so it was easier to just pretend there was nothing to see. […]