Money rituals that reassure
Posted
Jun 30 2008, 12:37 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Lately I've been feeling better about things financial. The bottom line could be healthier, but I'm trying to concentrate on what I have rather than what I don't have. To wit: retirement monies from my previous career, an emergency fund, a university scholarship, a part-time writing job, a well-stocked pantry and cheap rent due to my gig as apartment house manager. I also have the useful life skill of being easily amused: long walks, yard sales, meals at home, writing to friends, going to the library and doing The New York Times crossword puzzle all make me happy.
Still, I sometimes get jumpy about the lucre. This tends to happen after I've read the newspaper or online news sites with stories predicting doom, gloom and recession. It also occurs whenever I pay attention to grocery prices for very long. The anxiety is vague and free-floating, but the hypervigilance it inspires is very focused indeed.
I look at my bank balances. I call the credit card company to find out what I'll owe that month. I add up the change in my two coin banks. I check my cache of cash. I look over all the food I've stockpiled.
Once I've done all these things, I can relax. Yes, it's somewhat compulsive behavior -- but it works. After I've inventoried my resources I feel much calmer about my ability to pay the bills.
Incidentally, I'm not the only one doing this.
Frugality gone wild?
A reader who calls herself "Librian" has been focusing on money lately. Librian was diagnosed with a mild case of obsessive compulsive disorder exacerbated by her husband's layoff, her own job being chancy, and her mother's serious illness.
Librian has "all kinds of rituals" to soothe herself, many of them financial. She uses coupons, sends away for rebates, sells extra possessions online, searches constantly for good deals.
"I realize that I am on the verge of going overboard," she writes. "I just seem to constantly think 'How can I save more money?'"
She and her husband have a nest egg. Their debt is limited to a mortgage and a student loan. But the uncertainty of the times seems to have affected her the same way it affects me. Both Librian and I know we're probably going to be OK, yet we still worry. Probably far too much.
Bean-counting, literally
Librian and others posted their thoughts on a Smart Spending message board thread called "Money rituals that reassure." I started the thread to see if anyone else gets these urges to inventory spare change or sacks of beans.
Regular reader "Pepperdoo," who put herself and her husband on a get-out-of-debt plan, says she also checks her food supplies regularly. It is reassuring, but it's also practical because it lets her plan meals for the week.
Checking bank balances and bills is a lot more fun these days because Pepperdoo no longer lives paycheck to paycheck. "What a turnaround," she says.
A reader named "DC Metro Crab" believes that it's natural to count money more often when times are tense. Then again, she's always been a little anxious about dollars: "Checking my accounts/net worth is something I do for fun."
Lately, DC has hesitated to spend money on things that aren't strictly necessary -- even if she's saved up for them. The economic downturn has also made her "more antsy" about investing in stocks vs. hanging on to her cash.
"The only thing that eases such anxieties for me is to focus on something else that I enjoy doing," DC writes, "like going to farmers markets, cycling, reading books and eating."
Some things really are worth it
That sounds like good advice. Although I get irritated with those who claim it's my job to uphold the economy by spending lots of money, I do believe in supporting small local businesses. Farmers markets are a great example. Over the weekend I visited one and spent $5.99 for a pound of cherries. Normally I won't spend that much for meat. But I knew that a farmer was profiting, rather than an agricultural middleman or a supermarket chain. I grew up in a farm region and know how hard it is for small growers to make a living.
I could spend $5.99 on a half-gallon of ice cream that's actually become 1.5 quarts of ice cream thanks to downsizing. Or I could spend $5.99 on something that's both delicious and healthful. Besides, I could afford it because I'm careful the rest of the time and thus able to treat myself occasionally.
A reader posting as "The Buffett Way" admitted to the same kind of hypervigilance that plagues me, but said we should both be focusing on life, not finances.
"We can't look for security in money -- it's the wrong place," Buffett writes.
What I think I'm looking for is reassurance rather than security. There's a slight but important distinction. Making an inventory of available assets, whether that's a checking account or my supply of tuna, reminds me that I'm able to take care of myself. That's reassuring.
When I think about money as "security," I get a mental picture of someone sitting in a bank vault surrounded by piles of cash that he is unwilling to share. I don't want to be Scrooge McDuck, backstroking through an ocean of dollars and singing, "Mine, mine, all mine!"
Yet I also don't want to be the kind of person who spends like there's no tomorrow. Because there usually is a tomorrow, and it generally costs at least as much as today did.
Most of the time, I'm OK with that. Every so often, though, I need to count cans of soup and spare change. I don't think that's a problem as long as I realize the reason I'm doing it -- and as long as I can still shake loose $6 during the Washington cherry season.
