Recently there has been a discussion on the WomenRV forum that I participate on regarding the cost of gas preventing individuals from traveling and pursuing their dreams. The discussion hit me in that though I have spent years of my life spending money it hasn't always been in following my own dreams. Now I am making much more independent decisions on what to spend my money on.
When I was much, much younger…. we are talking allowance days…my older brother and sister would sometimes come to me to borrow money because I was the one that hoarded her allowance. That didn’t last long. Forward to the 70’s and the graduate school years and you find me living on pennies. In fact during those times my future husband would make the remark that he was impressed that I could live on pennies and did not expect expensive dates. Early on I should have realized that in some ways I set the bar of expectations way too low for him.
On into the raising the family years, my husband reassessed my thriftiness and ability to be satisfied with pennies and suggested that my ability was not so much an ability to live on pennies but more the ability to live within pennies of my income. As the children grew older I might add that I developed an ability to live within pennies of the limits on my credit cards but this news was not announced. It just seemed important that though our lifestyle was not lavish, remember I was responsible for setting that original low expectation up front, I wanted some baseline of experiences for my children.
My brother, wise older brother that he is in his eccentric way, once remarked that having “enough” is defined not by what you have but rather by what you think you need. Apparently through time I have always managed to keep a secret list of possible wants and needs that can be called on to absorb any disposable income that should appear in my bank account.
After the kids were through college and on their own with jobs and paying their own bills I did finally faced the credit card balances and was able to erase them. Now the real adventure in budgeting began. It continues to this day.
It is the age old question do you save and save for the rainy day or do you use your resources to support what matters in the here and now. Do you delay gratification because of some fear of what might come and what money you might need or do you live within pennies of your income because of what might come. Because if you wait there may be no chance to do or see any of those dreams you were waiting to do or see. What is the balance that is needed in your mind and in your bank account? Who will lend you the crystal ball to look into your future?
What is that Quote that floats around the internet about reaching the end of your life screeching “Wow” and sliding into the final day, worn out and spent up to the very last, but exhilarated because you gave it your all up to the very last moment. That is what I want for myself… if I get to choose.
What is enough? How many dreams to pursue? I just finished a book, The Adventurer's Handbook: Life Lessions from History's Great Explorers, by Mick Conegrey, that discussed among other issues the trials and tribulations that the great explorers of history kept traveling through. When some of them decided to turn around, when they continued on. When they made it back, when they didn’t.
Life is about choices and keeping our budgets in line is about our risk taking and acceptance that there are no promises that will take care of tomorrow, health wise or money wise, no matter what we plan for. But the "balance point" is very individual based on our personal needs.
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