Late Blooming

I am not a naturally thrifty person. I love spending money the way an alcoholic loves a drink. The idea of financial comfort I developed growing up was to be able to spend money without thinking about it. Through much painful personal experience, I’ve proved to myself that there is no amount of money that can hold up to that definition of financial comfort. I have looked for other approaches to money.

In the 1980’s I discovered an organization called the New Roadmap Foundation. At the time, they sold a course on tape about becoming financially independent. Since then, they’ve published a book , “Your Money or Your Life”, about their views on money. Desperate to escape my spendthrift ways, I sent in my $60 and got the course on tape. It was a revelation. They talked about looking at how much time and “life energy” you traded for money and seeing if you spent that money in ways that brought satisfaction to you. The course describes 9 steps to take to become financially independent and I could see how it could work. For me. I just had to apply the principles I learned in the course.

There was the rub. I’m a big dreamer and I can envision a lot of very practical dreams, but I’m not good at following through on them. I have made progress on this dream of becoming financially independent. I’ll never forget the terror I felt that first time I cut up my credit cards. I burned candles and had a little ceremony to give myself strength. Now I have no credit cards and life is better without them.

I’m not, however, satisfied with my financial progress. At the ripe old age of 53, I’ve stopped looking at life as a wide open vista and started seeing it in terms of “the time I have left.” One of my dearest dreams is to finally get to the point where my relationship with money is sane and comfortable. To that end, I’ve decided to start this blog – to share my money adventures and to keep myself accountable. I invite you to join me on this journey. Perhaps you will find something of interest for your financial journey.