Rich people are so…

I think you grow up thinking one way or the other about life and just keep that same perspective. When I was a kid, being raised by super-religious, timid parents, I heard things like, “it’s easier for a camel to enter the kingdom of heaven, than it is for a rich man to pass through the eye of the needle;” and, “if they’re rich, they must be greedy, and greedy is evil;” as well as a host of negative associations via gestures, negative expressions, off-hand comments, and even the occasional insult.

“look at that rich bahstid”

It was tough to reconcile all of those messages with the fact that we lived in a very affluent community – just not in a good neighborhood. My house was positioned just north of a major highway, and just west of a railroad. We never talked about OUR money, just the money we didn’t have, or the money that others had.

And, we mustn’t have had a lot, because I was often alienated from my fashion-conscious students counterparts due to my cost-conscious clothes. Now that I look at it, everything about me said ‘poor’. Poor in spirit, poor in money, poor in social acceptance. Eventually, I just accepted the fact that I was poor.


Fake it ‘till you Make it.

Then came adulthood and the YUPPIE 80’s, with all its ‘conspicuous consumption’ and New Age approach to reality (think Stuart Smalley and/or Shirley MacLaine) and I found myself even less equipped to deal with money. Everyone seemed to have it.

All I could manage was to think that if I PRETENDED to be rich, then money would just magically flow my way. Of course, no matter how much I tried to imagine the right things, or really see myself as being rich, I didn’t grow my income or net worth very much.

I can now see that I have the choice to take a better path. What I’ve learned about money isn’t necessarily true. Moreover, most of it was probably patently false.

Gratefully, I’m left with nothing. No awareness, no bias, no nothing – just a desire to get with the program. And some ideas on how to do it.

First, I have to get a handle on my money, and our money. I’ve let my wife handle all our finances and bills. I actually have no idea how much things cost! Isn’t that stupid?? How can I grow if I have no benchmarks?

Next I want to look at the patterns of my spending and investing and work with my wife to come up with a real plan. When we hit a goal, we’ll celebrate.

That step is going to involve a lot, so I wont really think about it too much for now. First things first…