When I was younger I took guitar lessons from a guy named Dave. He was the typical musician sort, with a tangle of black hair, a teaching style that mirrored his social skills and a fret board mastery that revealed exactly where his priorities were. I remember several lessons very distinctly, and one of the big bright memories involved me walking into class to find Dave cussing at a piece of paper in his hands. I mean really cursing.
As he was all too willing to share with me, his bank was charging him for a variety of infractions. Overdrafts and other costs were bleeding him and he didn't care who heard. Damn banks. F-chord them all the G minor.
I thought of Dave today when I fulfilled a goal I set for myself. I have grand ambitious of "getting my shit together" after I turned 30 in a variety of ways - stop eating junk food, build a skill set, organize my finances and other such nonsense.
Only I find myself doing them. I'm actually getting my shit together and acting like an adult. And today, after meeting with my financial planner (yeah! I have a financial planner) and choosing the best growth stock mutual fund for my retirement situation and setting up two 529 Education Savings Accounts for my kids, I walked out of a bank having accomplished something positive. It felt good. I wasn't going in to clear up a charge or make an emergency deposit. I was building something.
Part of me feels really good about educating myself about the financial world and then acting on it. I'm too late for some circles and not nearly late enough for others, but it felt good to me. It felt like the right time to do something like this. It was a good feeling, and hard to explain. What surprised me is I also didn't feel like I was losing anything, like a part of my freedom or childhood or whatever. It felt like it was time.
And I thought of Dave as I walked out. I wonder if he ever made friends with the bank. Probably not.
Of course I decided to invest in a borderline recession and have now entrusted my financial future to crooks and those who would step on the neck of an old lady for a profit. I don't really have an answer for that. Oh, yes I do...I'm a tool. But a grown up tool.
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Bravo! I need to become a tool too. I have my 401K and that's about it. Not really stuff I can live on at the moment. The future scares the shite outta me. I finally have zero credit card debt, but them darn school loans will plague me until I am 40!!!! Who knew 5 years at UNL would take so long to pay off? I sure didn't. But if it wasn't for the loans I wouldn't have the degree and if I didn't have the degree I wouldn't have the job and yadda yadda yadda. Money sucks when you are constantly trying to not drown. ::sigh:: Then you see people like Paris Hilton spending $500 on sunglasses. NOT FAIR! C'est la vie or something. Better stop rambling before it gets more twisted.
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