Magiawen’s Hideout II

Unfortunately I spend a lot of time thinking about money.  Mostly about how I can live without much of it due to many reasons.  I think of self sufficiency as a personal challenge…not so much to “beat the system” or to do a responsible thing by the planet.  But if you think of it…if you figure out a way to live on less money then the demand that you have it is not so great and you can get down to the business of enjoying life….instead of working working working to build money up to HOPEFULLY enjoy later.

A friend of the family worked for Merrill Lynch.  She made sure just out of college that she secured a position in a large company and intended to stay there until she retired.  This is what she was taught was the prudent and responsible thing to do.  So she did what she was told was what she should do, secured the job, made sacrifices to keep that job, worked hard, put money into her 401k.

Now… it’s all gone.  All the money she worked so hard for, so she could enjoy her life later…..gone.  Twenty five years of saving…..gone, in one fell swoop.  Of course…this has happened to thousands of people over the years and thousands of people in the last few years.

And now…her situation is like anyone else who has worked all their life but didn’t put into a retirement plan.  She was told she must make a retirement plan because so many people don’t or can’t and that it is the responsible thing to do…and now gone. 

There are many things my father told me.  He told me that the easiest thing to do in America is make money.  Right after that he told me the hardest thing to do in America is keep the money you make.  Some more words of wisdom from my father, “The value of what you have is only worth how much someone else values it.”

This became a stark reality when my mother, many years ago went to a bank to ask for a small home equity loan.  They had purchased a home and had two vehicles.  They put approximately 15000.00 into the home in rennovations.  One vehicle had died…she needed a few thousand dollars to get a used vehicle.  The banker in town said, “You don’t have anything worth anything.”  Personally I think he was just being an asshole.

These types of things still go on today, even before the economic crisis.  When you are told what you have worked so hard for has no value, it demeans you as a person.  You have thoughts like…then why am I working so had if there is no credit for it in the future.  Just like the gal at Merrill Lynch…why work so hard if it’s all just going to be taken away.

And I think the most regretable thing about all this with her losing the 401k…..is that we have a whole bunch of people working damned hard, most of the time at the expense of their family…to not enjoy life NOW…but to do it “ONE DAY”. 

One day I will get to take that vacation.
One day I will retire and be stress free.
One day we will travel the world.
Sometimes that one day does not come….or if it does come…have you worked so hard your body is wrecked and you cannot enjoy it?

Face it… you don’t know what is going to happen.  You could have a car accident tomorrow. You could have oodles of retirement money saved and when you retire find you have medical issues and now you cannot do all these things you have waited 40 years to do.

I live in an extremely small community.  If I happened to tell people all the things that I have done, places I have went and experiences I have had, they would not believe me.  Why?  Because I am too young to have done all of it and, by their assumption, I would not have had enough  money to do all of it.  Small minds.  Plus there are so many people around that want everyone to think they are important so they claim to have done things they have not done.  I’m not a bragger…I feel fortunate to have had the experiences I have had so far, I am lucky to have been in some of the situations that I have been it that afforded me to do many of the things I have.

It’s all where you put yourself.  If you put yourself in a place that is going no where, that is exactly where you will go.  As I see it…no matter where you are, you can go anywhere from there.  People here in this small community say that if you are here you are trapped here.  I don’t see things that way…there are highways here that lead to other places….just like everyplace else.  If I drive far enough I can get on an airplane just as I could get on an airplane if I lived in a city of 3 million.

I am not sure how it is that people think this way.  You are only stuck if you let yourself be stuck.  Yes, there are things out of your control but you are in control ultimately in what decisions you make…and if you have made wrong decisions…make a new one and hopefully that one works out.

Winston Churchhill once said,”True success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

I’m not saying I do not have my moments, but I try to live up to that quote in my life.  To the best of my ability no matter what is happening I try to keep up entusiasm, things can turn around at any moment…and most often they do.

To me…even though your property and possessions may only be worth what someone else is willing to pay for them…and today it’s not much considering the economy.  I guess you just have to decide how much it is worth to YOU and only you and consider that each time you make a decision.