Are you obsessive-compulsive about money?
Posted
Mar 20 2008, 08:03 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
"Financegirl" at Finance Gets Personal asks this question: Do you suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder when it comes to money? She offers 10 signs to look for so you can find out.
Just in case you're not familiar with OCD, the National Institute of Mental Health describes it like this: "an anxiety disorder ... characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Repetitive behaviors such as hand-washing, counting, checking, or cleaning are often performed with the hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away."
Financegirl's first symptom is: You get irritated when the cashier, while making change, gives you the paper money first. "Hello!" financegirl explains. "You're supposed to put the coins in my hand first, then the bills. Otherwise the coins fall all over the place!"
When your co-worker picks up your lunch, you pay them back to the exact penny -- no rounding up. The same persnickety behavior applies when you and the roommates are paying the cable bill. She writes, by way of explanation: "Let's see, that will be $22.16 for you, $22.16 for me, and $22.17 for Erica. Sorry, Erica, but it's your month to pay the extra penny. Oh, and everyone's total includes 13 cents for the stamp -- well, it's actually 14 cents for Kim and I, of course."
We can identify with this -- a bit. Don't we all have little rituals that, Wikipedia says, are an "attempt to neutralize our obsessions"? (We confess that our worst fear is burning down the house, so we always check to make sure we've turned off the stove before we leave.)
But we're not this bad: "You can account for every dollar you've spent in the past 10 years" is Sign No. 10 on financegirl's list. "Well, you have to keep track of your cash purchases too, because that's where most 'leakage' occurs!" she writes. "Plus, what better way to illustrate to your spouse that they're spending too much money on vending-machine purchases than through a pie chart in Quicken?"
