yearstartsavings2.pdfAh, the start of a new year. A time for changes and improvements. After months of reading personal finance blogs, I decided that in 2008 I would start my own and share my thoughts and musings.
I have never been one to make New Year’s Resolutions. I have never kept one in my lifetime. They have all been the self improvement type; I will exercise, I will save more money, I will stop smoking, I will eat healthier, etc. etc.
Why do we pick New Year’s day to make these changes? Why not a better day like our birthday? That to me is as good of a day as any. Give yourself a birthday gift of self improvement. You will not be lumped into the masses that make resolutions who break them either by the end of January, or even worse by lunchtime on New Year’s day. When your birthday rolls around the next year (unless you were born on February 29th) and you look at what you received for your birthday the prior year what percentage of your gifts really improved your life? My birthday is in November, I turned the big 4-0, and I asked the wife not to purchase anything for me. I used the time that evening to think about the upcoming year and what and how I can effectively change for the next year.
I also decided to look at “resolution”. Instead of thinking of it as the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, I decided to use another definition; the act, process, or capability of distinguishing between two separate but adjacent objects or light sources. I read “objects and light sources” and saw dollar signs. Dollars are light sources. You can use the money to either brighten your life or use it incorrectly to really darken it. In my case I want my income to brighten my life like a CFL light bulb. It will provide me what I need and last a long time. Choosing when and where to flip on the switch is a struggle. To live in the dark and save the light bulb until I really need it, i.e. pay off all debt without making contributions to our IRA and emergency fund, or to turn the light on every now and again, i.e. making payments above the monthly average and contributing to long term goals. Maybe some kind soul will donate a box of candles to my cause.
At the moment the song “You light up my life” is running trough my head.
Here is hoping 2008 will be a happy, prosperous and illuminated year for you and yours.
