Friday, April 4, 2014

Early ups and downs

One of the things that I've really liked about reading around the personal finance blogosphere is how committed people are to reaching their goals -- and how open they are about how hard it is to keep it moving on a day to day basis. I've only been at this blog for a week, and only had my big "must have a retirement fund now" moment a couple weeks before that, and yet already I can see this pattern.

Objectively I'm not in a terrible spot right now; the guy in his late 50s whose retirement savings are wiped out after a year of unemployment (just featured in the NY Times) is way worse off, and so are, like, billions of poor people the world over. I am determined to wipe out my debt this summer and not get back into it unless I need a car loan (in case mine dies, not because I plan to upgrade) or a mortgage. I have a guaranteed income for the next 15 months. I have wonderful friends and family members that would back me up in a second if I needed it.

But despite these good things, I feel...wobbly. Maybe because none of my financials are going to budge for nearly a month now, until my next paycheck? That might have something to do with it. It's exciting to see my net worth jump so much at a time, and to pay off a big chunk of loan, and to open a retirement account. Waiting around, doing my job, for a month, until the next one comes in...that's a lot of days of "one foot in front of the other" where nothing is happening!

So, I guess I have to work on both moderating the spike in my mood when I something good with money, and also on moderating the low I feel on a day like today, when I'm convinced any effort I make is for nothing.

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