I know we've had a lot of money wobbles in our 35 years as a family. Decisions that cost us money or actions that sucked opportunity away were plenty. I couldn't begin to make a complete list. Some were subtle, still are subtle, decisions, lack there of, procrastination, or jumping too soon, had negative impact on where we find ourselves today.
I guess though, the same can be said for recoveries. Neither of us are financial wizards. We just hope we learned from time to time what makes better sense for us. Recovering from financial misteps is hard. It's even harder, mentally, to recover from wobbles that weren't caused by our own actions. We've gotten lucky at times. An expense we were planning came under budget. DH had a good sale right before a major child expense came up. We can't count on those as recovery, but they are appreciated.
Our recovery plan is mostly to pause on anything major and belt tightening on day to day spending. It's also once again pulling out our spread sheets, fine combing our checking ledger, and looking ahead at what we need based on our values and priorities. October will be that kind of a month. We're doing ok, but I want to be feeling secure. I want to know the next wobble will be met with us armed to prepare to recover. This hopefully keeps us balanced fiscally, without overly stressing and letting money needs haunt our dreams.
I had to laugh at the frog... Hubby is stuck between I need to save for my old age (we are senior citizens LOL) and I need for the grid to go down or nuclear to happen. Since he is a HAM radio operator and is involved with Homeland Security, he heard about the radioactive waste at the elementary school in Missouri from nuclear weapons that had been made/stored there. I just add when he is wanting to the grid down list. When there is money for it I will get it. Amish neighbor said after walking through the house, the only thing I needed was a way to heat water for bathing. I showed him the 15 qrt. water bath canner... he said that would do fine. LOL
ReplyDeleteNeither sound like debating practicality. We are not prepared for nuclear catastrophe or the grid to go down. I try to be reasonably prepared, but not an armegeddon strong perso.
DeleteChef,
DeleteGrid going down and nuclear actions are not good choices! Grid can go down for a bit but not long term. Bath water is good for either eventuality, long term or short.
That Kermit meme just about sums it all up at the moment doesn't it!
ReplyDeleteKermit speaks my language.
DeleteIt's a tussle to know where that line is between spending and saving. I do have a small spend sometimes to balance it out because as you say you only live once and shrouds don't have pockets. Arilx
ReplyDeleteAhh, excellent point. Who wants to scrimp for an unsatisfactory life.
DeleteEarlier this year I was going to pull my IRA out of my investment fund and put it in an IRA CD, but noooo. I was too lazy to do it and now I'm down 8 thousand bucks. Nothing I did, just waited, hoping the stock market would correct itself. So, now what do I do? Leave it in there and watch it turn to dust or take it out and suck on the 8K loss and be happy it's not more? Ugh!
ReplyDeleteI share your pain. I don't know the right answer.
DeleteKermit is my kind of person.
ReplyDeleteHe's a good frog.
Delete