Here is a little question to ask yourself. How often do you think about your personal finances, income, investments and expenditures?
I have a colleague who admits to calculating his net worth daily using Quicken, which seems not only a little unhealthy, but frustrating since presumably the daily changes are very small. On the internet we frequently see short money management articles and it is tempting to click on these either in the hope of either learning something useful or demonstrating to oneself that one is now beyond needing this kind of advice. In other times, unless one is a Buddhist monk, (and maybe even then), I suspect that we think about our own wealth, or lack thereof, pretty often during the day, if only in a glancing way. It’s a little materialist stream of consciousness in the background: “Wonder what the raise pool will be this year. Payday tomorrow, FICA deductions should be over soon. There’s Jerry – wonder how much he makes? Can we afford to go to Europe again this year? Be nice. Pity about the dollar, though. Should probably do it again before the kids leave home. That last Visa bill was a nasty one – time for another family conference – I’m not made of money (although I do ok, probably a good deal better than Jerry if the truth were told. I think.) If the kids get into Cornell it will be another story, though. Belt-tightening all round. The Beemer goes past 50k miles soon, no more free services. Maybe I should get a new one before tuition starts. Probably a bad idea, though. Market’s up today, should look at my portfolio again or did I do that yesterday? Oh, here’s another article on getting to your first million. Wonder what the raise pool will be this year…”
