Comments on: “Money lets me show up.”

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 13:57:48 +0000

In reply to Corwin @ Engineering Your FI.

So powerful being FI!!!

And better for the pangs of “regret” being stuff that’s less than important than the top things :) ie human vs skateboard, and son vs work project.

Money doesn’t solve everything but it sure can help us improve in many other aspects.

Thx for stopping by!

By: Corwin @ Engineering Your FI

Corwin @ Engineering Your FI — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 21:15:15 +0000

Hi J!

Great story, and I really appreciate the fact that you acknowledged having momentary pangs of regret after giving up the board. Most people tell stories of giving with no regrets at all, so I really appreciate your honesty.

A few examples of how my wife and “show up” now that we’re FI:

* My son is home for the summer after his first year in school, and he really didn’t want to do any summer camps. So rather than being forced to ship him off to a daycare or camp he doesn’t want every day because I have to work, I can spend most of the day doing fun stuff around the city with him. And yes, I have pangs as well, about the projects I’m not getting done, but I try to remind myself that in 10 years he’ll probably want nothing to do with me ;-)

* My wife’s Mom has been struggling with health issues this year, and needed to move houses. Because we’re FI my wife has been able to spend a tremendous amount of time helping her Mom with those things.

* We have now signed up for a program called GreenChoice with our electric utility – every kWh we consume they purchase from wind farms in west Texas, so effectively all our energy is renewable! We’ve wanted to do that for a long time, but held off to get to FI ASAP. In retrospect, it’s really not that much either, just $0.0075/kWh.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 20:10:45 +0000

In reply to FI for the People.

Well every time I think of this or my old board I do get a big ol smile on my face so I guess the “repayments” are coming in the form of that :) Plus honestly I’m just really proud of myself for not only thinking so fast on the spot, but then TAKING ACTION as I tend to overthink and psych myself out of things so I’m glad I just went with my heart with this one and pulled the trigger… Gotta work on doing more of that as time goes on!

By: Mike Roberts

Mike Roberts — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:55:38 +0000

Great story! If it doesn’t hurt to give it, then it probably wasn’t something of value to begin with. The best giving is sacrificial to some extent, but the personal blessing you gain is well worth it. :)

By: FI for the People

FI for the People — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:41:55 +0000

Love this story. I have a hardwired scarcity mentality. My wife and in-laws don’t. And what I’ve learned from them is that if you’re genuinely generous, you often not only get repaid, you get repaid (sometimes in dollars,
sometimes in goods or services, and, often best of all, sometimes in good feelings) in an amount exceeding what you gave. Sounds like that’s what may have happened to you here already. Or maybe you’ll get even greater “repayment” at some totally unexpected time down the road. Good on you.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 13:58:01 +0000

In reply to Paul.

That’s a sucky feeling to have :(

I know for me “enough” started sinking in when our net worth crossed around $400k, but why that is i have no idea as it certainly *isn’t* enough – at least to survive on its own lol… So it’s definitely one of those mental things, at least for me. I know people that are content with $1,000 in their bank, and others that are always worried or wanting more at $1,000,000 so it seems everyone’s so different….

I also know for me that it started feeling better when I began crafting my *lifestyle* more so than my income. I.e. trying to live a better happier life *daily* so the cumulative effect got bigger and full of joy regardless of the money (for example, whether it doubled or tripled or went down to $0 – there is no stopping me from going to the coffee shop every morning or taking walks or going to the pool in the middle of the day!). And thus since i’m happier more consistently I worry less about things like money or anything $hitty out there. Which isn’t to say i have off days or all my problems are trivial (I felt like death the first part of the year!) but just that focusing on the ideal lifestyle improved my overall mood and mind. For what that’s worth anyways… Maybe for you an extra $1,000/mo would solve all your worries so you can focus your energy on trying to pull that off ;) And if you stash it in a *separate* place it won’t be sucked into the vortex of expenses like your other “extra” money!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 13:38:26 +0000

In reply to Elizabeth. SO COOL!!! I WANT TO SEE THE PIX PLEASE!!! :)

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 21:50:27 +0000

Such a great story! I was teary-eyed at the end and you didn’t need to shorten the post. I appreciated the thought process that went into it. In my mind these are what money blogs are made of – real life stories.

My husband was a big skateboarder during his teenage years. Even recently, his photos were used by a company and paid him with a cool skateboard as compensation. They liked the 80s vibe of the photos and his skills were ahead of his time.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 12:37:39 +0000

Thank you for sharing your story. I think its an important to self reflect, at least for me its something I constantly struggle with. I would love to be more generous, it’s just hard when you are still walking a tight line between comfort and what I perceive to be ruin. I do very well, but never have extra. So I constant feel like I’m stuck in that mode of…. (using an airline analogy) “secure your mask before assisting others”? When do you stop feeling that way? Anyway, as a family our needs are met, but we also live at a much lower standard than most of our peers. I know there are many factors that could help with this but all they do is seemingly enhance anxiety. I reverse budget because tracking at a granular level is mentally exhausting. Also, there is a fine line between frugality and living a normal human life… It always seems like every penny we make, even when we have windfall get immediately consumed by a non elective need. Especially now, with inflation eating everyone’s lunch…

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 11:17:37 +0000

In reply to Sunny.

Ugh, thx…

Can’t even blame it on Kate as I copied her line wrong! Lol..