One Million and Beyond

Why there is no planning in my spending

By Matt - Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

When I was growing up I didn’t really have any need for money; I got most of the stuff I wanted and all of the stuff I needed. I understood that my parent’s weren’t rich and that I couldn’t have all the cool toys. But because I wasn’t expected to work, in fact my parents discouraged me from trying to get a job at the local mall they provided me with the necessities. They figured that school was more important and I was able to work at my grandmas business here and there for a bit of extra pocket cash. I wasn’t ever required to plan and set any form of financial goals.

On top of that I never or rarely saw my parents planning out their purchases. My parent’s weren’t bad with their money for the most part they simply didn’t spend money when they didn’t have it. Big-ticket items were often purchased with credit that was slowly paid off or bought on installments. Money simply wasn’t discussed at least not in front of me very often and when it was I wasn’t involved in the conversation.

When it came time for me to have some money of my own I simply spent it and didn’t really have any appreciation of what went into planning even a simple budget. By the time that I needed to start planning and keeping myself in financial check I was already in debt and spending my money to do the fun things. I was young and as youth often does I simply did the things that were fun for the sake of doing them. Credit became an extension of my cash flow, which is something I never learnt not to do. I stumbled from pay to pay and the idea putting some thought into my bigger expenses seemed so daunting that it was easier to keep myself busy and occupied with fun items and activities.

Not only was there little to no learning about finances I was never encouraged to plan anything or set any goals. My grade and high school careers were nothing more than an aimless floating along. I was smart enough that I could get good grades with virtually no effort. Planning came when it was time to write programs or play video games but that didn’t apply to school and when I started working it didn’t apply to my finances. Over time I’ve learnt to plan quite well and I do it for my job, yet the idea of planning my finances still brings some hesitation for the simple reason that I don’t have the years of experience and knowledge.

Because I don’t have a good comfort level planning my finances it’s left to the last minute, floating along is something that has gotten my by for years and its comfortable. Stepping out of this comfort zone is something that leaves me with fear because I really don’t know the best way to approach it, even though I’ve successfully done it in a business setting. It’s easier to float along barely scraping by than to potentially come up with plans that don’t come to fruition.

Getting over this will involve some baby steps and some collective thinking with my fiancé. This is something that shouldn’t be a problem but it will require stepping out of my comfort zone.

Technorati Tags: planning, money, finances

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