Coming to Terms With Our True Financial Selves
A lot of people feel there’s a turning point or a poignant moment in their financial lives. You know, the point at which, when looked at in retrospect, their financial fortunes changed, seemingly permanently . This can be good or bad. On the negative side, many people cite a large purchase, such as a money-pit house, losing a job and going into credit card debt, or some life event, like an illness. On the positive side, I have friend that have cited an epiphany moment, like cutting up their credit cards, the birth of a child, or some other event that led to a serious re-evaluation of their financial situation and undertaking serious steps to change their financial future. For most people this means getting out of debt or putting away serious money toward investment and retirement planning.
For me, there is another type of epiphany, one that I think I reached in my mid-30′s while sitting on a beach, and that is the epiphany of financial acceptance. For many years, indeed since I was a teenager, I had big ambitions of becoming wealthy on an accelerated time-scale. I harbored thoughts of being a millionaire at 25, having multiple houses in various countries by age 30, and so on. I don’t even think I cared so much about the money itself, but the allowed this small town girl to dream big and was also a motivator to keep me at a corporate job that took more than 90-100 hours each week out of me. The job required a substantial amount of tolerance for being around intolerable people, and a fair amount of letting things roll off my back, as they say. In other words, the cost to my mental and emotional health, was substantial. So the realization I came to on this beach was that I would not reach the net worth goals that my younger self set, and this was not a symbol of failure or lack or hard work. By accepting the truth, that I have always been extremely fortunate, and had more than enough of anything I needed, I was able to re-think my financial goals and soon thereafter, made the decision to leave the corporate sector, and pursue the things I am doing today.
When I look back at that moment, I see that as the turning point of when I stopped “treading the corporate treadmill.” Eventually, my re-evaluation led me to where I am today, learning about sustainability and eco-friendly behavior and finding joy in simple living. I’m convinced I would be in a different place if I hadn’t come to terms with my real financial self and released the teenaged me from her artificial dreams.
Have any of you had a similar financial epiphany?
shared at this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance
Great post Elizabeth.
There were a lot of little moments of epiphany moments for me.
Investing – I read the Richest Man in Babylon at age 19 and realized how simple the basic principles of finance were and I have been investing ever since.
Career – I sat on a beach in the Islands and realized that others didn’t stress half as much as me about their jobs but they were doing well in their careers.
Income – I had a house fall out of escrow because I coulnd’t qualify for a loan even though I had the down-payment sitting in the bank and I realized I needed to increase my income.
Debt – I was talking to my uncle about credit cards and he said “Someone who makes as much money as you do shouldn’t have any debt”.
It’s amazing what will change your life.
Hope to Prosper, interesting moments that you recall. The career one was particularly striking to me, as I think at some point it clicked in my head that those who seemed much less intense about the job than me, were doing just as well… Thanks so much for sharing.