I had the cold touch of reality caress the back of my neck today.
It was a chance thing: a conversation that got me thinking, and in thinking got me to realize that in some ways while I am incredibly blessed at the moment, this all could disappear much quicker than I could possibly envision.
That gets the mind working, of course: How much are we paying now? If we got rid of debt, how much would we owe then? What do I have to have and what are really luxuries in my life? (Hint: Like most people, they are a lot less than I tend to think that they are.)
It was a needed reminder, of course. I got sloppy and happy over the last couple of weeks - a bonus and a retroactive pay adjustment will do that to you. Suddenly you feel flush and in control of things. Your plans tend to change a bit, the purse strings get loosened up.
And then the wind hits.
And then you get back on track to what you intended to accomplish this year in the first place. Because in this environment, banking on a career to carry you forward for the foreseeable future is a rather high stakes bet indeed. And one that I would rather face prepared than surprised.
I guess I was lucky in some ways. Whenever I thought I had a career picked out something, usually DIE-Versity mandates or someone yelling Equality, came along and made sure my hopes and dreams were dashed. Therefore I learned to live a frugal debt free life very early and although never rich was always able to stare the prospects of unemployment and such in the face with little worry.
ReplyDeleteMine is not so dramatic. Market forces, economies of scale, that sort of thing. In my industry companies go out of business or get merged quite frequently. I suppose my mistake was that I began to think this was not true this time for some reason.
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