Money Obedience

At the end of last year, or maybe it was at the beginning of this year, I wrote about two goals I made for the New Year. I wanted to reach both of them by midyear, and that has passed us by a good month already. So, it is high time for me to review my progress – or the lack of it.

One of my goals was a business goal that I have not yet reached. We wanted to make some progress with our personal finance website, but that has not come about. There are many reasons to explain why I’ve not reached this goal. I think I’ve definitely dropped the ball in a major way. But the important thing is what I plan to do next.

What is my Plan B? We (my wife and I, who have been in this business together since the beginning of this year) are in the process of making a few changes in the way we approach the business of our website. We are also trying to set up a second related business. That’s good and bad. It gives us the advantage that we have two ventures, either (or both) of which should yield some good results. But, of course, that means I have just that much more to do, setting up two businesses instead of one. Still, there are almost five months left in the year, which was my deadline to see whether we can make a go of our business ventures, and by that I mean create positive cash flow, however small.

If I won’t reach my goal by the beginning of next year, my Plan C is to go job-hunting again. I am positive that I can do well in my learned profession, which I enjoyed doing, and I would like to go back to it in the case that nothing works out with my business ventures. If that happened I would also have to acknowledge that setting up a business was not my talent. Anyway, plan C would not be so bad for me personally.

My other goal had to do with marathon running. I wanted to break three hours (meaning run the whole 26.2 miles in less than three hours), but I failed to do that when I ran Boston. I missed my target time by only a few minutes. (When I set this goal, I didn’t give myself a deadline, so I can just try again, and I plan to at a marathon this fall.) I really don’t know why I didn’t make this goal, except that maybe I did not prepare well enough for the race. If you don’t know, Boston’s marathon is in early spring; I found it quite difficult to train harder on the dark winter nights or in the dark hours of the early mornings. Nevertheless, I am now running at a level that allows me to run with the elite runners in any race in the world including the prestigious New York City Marathon come November. Sure, my goal may have been a little ambitious in the first place. Nevertheless, what am I going to do about it? What is my plan B? Well, I am in the middle of preparing for a fall marathon – either New York, or another one close by. I am more dedicated this time to reaching my goal. I hope that I will be able to train enough so that I will still reach my goal even if it’s a little later in the year than originally planned. If I don’t reach my goal, my Plan C is to be content with my personal record, which is pretty darn close to 3 hours anyway.

Most important of all, I don’t feel bad about not having reached either one of these two goals. First, they’re both very ambitious. Second, it’s not like I can’t just give myself another chance. Besides, even if I go with plan C in both cases, I know that I will not be upset at all. Instead, I know that I will feel very privileged for having had the opportunity to explore some ambitious goals. Why would I be unhappy about that?

One of the supermarkets in our area sells produce at steep discounts when the produce has reached its shelf life as defined by the supermarket. We usually don't shop at that supermarket since it is one of the more expensive ones in the area, but when we drive by we pop in to see what produce is on super discount. The funny thing is that these sale fruits and veggies are actually ripe, and strangely enough, we like ripe produce rather than "cardboard"-like produce. So, why would we want to pass up 3 ripe avocados for $1 (guacamole anyone?), 5 peeled ears of corn for 89 cents, or 7 ripe bananas for 75 cents (banana bread anyone?)?

On Friday my husband came home with a bag of limes - 12 limes for 89 cents! Nice, big juicy limes. And what a great price. (You should see that man. He is beaming when he finds offers like that!) What do we do with all these limes? Very simple. We love Mexican food (and almost any other ethnic cuisine). There is no better way to spruce up Mexican food than to put a lot of fresh lime juice on top of it. Since we had the limes, we also had a good excuse to enjoy delicious Mexican food. So, we had dinner on the porch Saturday night - a very nice evening to sit outside and to share a good, relaxing time with each other.

Come Sunday night we found another great use for some more limes. After hearing a lot of toddler crying during my stressful day, I was in the mood to have a drink after the kids went to bed. Normally we would open a bottle of wine - usually a crisp white or rose on a warm summer day, but my husband suggested that we should make mojitos! We have lots of mint growing like weeds in the garden and even after the Mexican dinner we still had lots of limes in the fruit basket. What a great idea it was. Sure, I had to do a little bit of work to make the mojitos. (My husband did not even do as much as get the mint from the garden! ;-) He sure switched into relaxed mode way before I could even get the mojitos on the table.) But I found a great mojito recipe online mojito recipe - the secret is making simple syrup first, I'd say - and I really enjoyed making the drinks. I enjoyed sharing the drink with my husband even more. What a nice ending to the weekend!

See, how much unplanned pleasure a cheap bag of limes gave us during the weekend? And the additional cost? - 89 cents!!!

Donald Cole, an historian, talks about his life experiences in an interview entitled “The Power of Adaptation.” At the end of this interview it says, "Money makes a difference to a point, and after that there are very diminishing returns. People in abject poverty are less happy than people who are modestly well-off, but people who are modestly well-off are not less happy than very rich people."

What conclusions can we draw for our own personal finance from his statement? I think it is pretty clear that we need to focus on, first, avoiding dire poverty, and second, our meeting our basic needs. But the conclusion is that as long as we can keep ourselves and our loved ones warm and fed, it should not be so far a stretch from there to be able to lead a fairly happy life. So, for example, when we employ a retirement planning calculator or a net worth calculator, we should really make sure that we are setting ourselves up in a position that allows us to cover our basic needs. This in turn allows us to lead a happy life, if that is what we really want to pursue. The point is not to seek out a lot of money for luxuries, for having it in our retirement account or in our net worth will not add a great deal to our happiness.

Did you hear the one about the two boys who received gifts in their Christmas stockings? One got an expensive gold watch, and the other, horsecrap. On Christmas morning, the one with the watch was anxious - how could he be responsible for such a valuable and delicate thing? He vowed never to touch it just in case he'd break it. The other boy was ecstatic, and shouted "Santa gave me a pony! Now, all I have to do is find it!" In a way, this joke expresses what I'm driving at here. First, riches do not bring happiness, and second, gaining access to life's joys can be a matter of perspective.

Which brings me to another thought: Sometimes we may be too focused on money issues which can actually become the source of unhappiness. This can happen even if our economic well-being is not necessarily in jeopardy. Money and the luxuries money can buy can become another excuse to feel unhappy about yet another thing.

Don't get me wrong: money can also be the excuse to feel good, as long as you have sufficient amounts of it. I have known many happy people who were not that well off economically, and I have known at least as many people who have a bunch of money but who don't appear that happy to me. I know from my own life during which my income has fluctuated a bit that these fluctuations in income have never had a severe impact on my happiness. Sure, I did not feel so good when I made a bit less money after having made a lot the year before, but I never got to the point that my economic well-being was in danger. Besides, whenever I had a good year, I knew that it might not last and that I should not base my life style on such a higher income. When a worse year rolled around, I was not caught off guard. I still felt blessed that I had a great income the year before. This attitude has allowed me to adapt easily to new circumstances, especially a lower income. And the ability to adapt seems to contribute to my happiness much more so than a few thousand dollars extra in my bank account.

Let me ask you now. How well do you think you can adapt to new circumstances? And more importantly, what actually contributes to your well-being? What is important to you?

Late spring is my favorite part of the year. The weather is just perfect. It’s cool in the mornings and evenings, warm during the day. I have plenty of opportunity to spend time outside doing one sport or another or puttering around the garden. What could be better than that?

Finally, here in the Northeastern U.S. we have the perfect temperature to leave the windows open during the night. Not only do we get cool fresh air, it allows us to listen to the outside noises when we fall asleep. In the morning we hear the songs of all kinds of birds. (Suburban bliss!!) So, now is just about the perfect time of year for the body thermostats to be in sync. You see, when it gets too hot and humid, I need the windows closed and the air-conditioning turned on to feel comfortable, but we are about a month away from having to do this. (Then, wifey is bundled as if it’s winter, while I’m much happier.) When it is still too cold, the wife needs the windows closed even though I may proclaim that “spring is in the air!” (That happens as the temperature climbs to the upper 30s sometime in March, but I must admit that I have done it in February too. How would I love to open wide all the windows then! But, as we married people know all too well, we must compromise and we husbands must keep the wife happy. So, the windows didn’t get opened until about a week or two ago.)

But there is another benefit of spring that this frugal fellow enjoys. There is no need for heating and no need for air-conditioning during this time of the year. I am especially glad about not having to turn on the heat! It’s not that I am not willing to keep the wife warm – after all, I know she only enjoys balmy climate. But the price of oil and gas has increased considerably compared to the year before and our household has definitely felt the impact of higher energy prices. We cut back on other things like eating out so that the wife can still enjoy a warm house and so that we still stay within our budget limits. This is hardly a difficult choice to make, is it?

Anyway, here is to a few more “perfect” weeks of the year! You can rest assured that I will enjoy every day of this time even more than I enjoy the other days of the year.