This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Household, Planning, Retirement, Social Psychology, Spending Plan, Stories, Values. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
02.16.2009
Nail Biting: A Bad Habit 
photo figure credit: coxy
We’ve had a busy few months:
- ScrapperMom got laid off off at the beginning of November
- At around the same time, our tenant announced that he would not be renewing his lease which expired on December 1st. This turned ScrapperMom into a Part Time Property Manager.
- We had to put our dog to sleep.
- Thanksgiving came and went.
- The Christmas season (from Halloween to MLK day) came and went, and we got all of our shopping done on budget.
- I’ve had to travel a lot for work.
- Our newest daughter was born.
- We had to make a major home repair.
During this time, we have not paid very much attention to our finances. Most of our finances are automated, so our bills still got paid on time, and I know that we’re generally doing okay. However, I really can’t say whether we’re still saving enough, or even whether we have anything to save.
Our busyness is really no excuse for taking our proverbial eyes off the ball here. The truth of the matter is that I’ve had my head in the sand since shortly after ScrapperMom lost her job. I really did not want to have to acknowledge the drop in income and figure out how to live without it. As a result, I haven’t looked out our Spending Plan in months, I have no idea whether we’re spending more than we earn. I do know that we have not yet made any retirement contributions for 2009 even though we are already 13% of the way through the year, and that’s starting to bug me.
Good personal finance is a habit like any other. Breaking bad personal finance habits takes time, dedication, and work. We’re all susceptible to falling back into our old habits, especially during times of stress, inattention, etc. I gained a few pounds over the holidays (no excuse again…), and I’ve been working to take the excess off again. Similarly, it’s time to get serious with our finances again.
Tomorrow I will draw up a new Spending Plan. I will find money to contribute to our Roth IRAs, even if I have to take it out of our savings. I will forget about our spending over the last month or two and focus on the future. I will get back into the habit of good personal finance.
Do you fall back into old habits? How do you get yourself back on track when you do? Share your story in the Comments section below.
If you liked this article, you may be interested in seeing some related articles:
February 17th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
It sounds like you’ve have a taxing and emotional past few months, but MITBeta: you don’t automate your retirement contributions?!!!
February 17th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Actually, I normally do, but last year we completed our contributions for the year in June, and stopped contributing at that point. So it’s just a matter of setting it up again for 2009. It’s very unlikely that we’ll be able to finish contributing early this year, even if ScrapperMom goes back to work at some point.