Hello again all! You cannot imagine what comfort I found in the words of Nancy and fellow blogger Jack. This 3-way dialogue is proving very helpful to me and helping me to feel decidedly less alone in my financial journey…rationally I know this is the case, but practically speaking is often another matter. It’s just nice to be able to relate to someone else.

Two further thoughts from me: (1) I have heard “You’re being too hard on yourself” all my life and have made much progress with that yet clearly I must continue to be gentle with myself; and (2) I just turned 40 three weeks ago and feel that if I haven’t got my money issues together by now, then WHEN?!? (mmm-hmmm, I know…gentle with myself…)

A couple of weeks ago Nancy suggested a topic for my blog might include some musings on Turning 40 & Managing My Money. I’m feeling reluctant that I have anything valuable to contribute on the topic because I think I “should be” more financially organized than I feel currently. Now I know what you’re thinking, “I’m being too hard on myself”!! But I’ll bet for everyone of you thinking that, there’s another one of you out there feeling just the way I do - that you should also be more financially organized than you are too. Which is why I (and possibly you) took Nancy’s course in the first place, because I wanted to become a person who has a grip on her finances, who lives within her means, who doesn’t have out of control credit, who can have/do the things in her life she wants to.

Progress not perfection the old saying goes. It was really helpful for me to hear Nancy’s timeline on her financial turnaround - particularly the part about it taking another 2 to 3 years after getting “stabilized” to get to “thriving”. It made me see that things are not terribly off track for me if her experience can be used as one instance of “average” experience for me to measure my own strides. I know it doesn’t happen overnite, I guess I’m a little frightened about running out of time before it all gets “there”…wherever exactly “there” is. I know I don’t want to have no money when it comes time to retire or to be forced to continue to work well past time I’d like to because I was the grasshopper basking in the sun of the summer while ants all around me got well-stocked for the winter!

That was where it was helpful to hear Jack say, if you can’t do 100%, shoot for 25%, it still helps. Of course it does, and as I’m learning to let go of “all or nothing” perfectionistic thinking, I realize he’s right, baby steps are the way to reach my goals. Eventually I will get there, I guess it just feels like I’ve been making lots of baby steps and any time now they SHOULD be getting larger! Patience is NOT one of my strong suits. I also realized in Jack’s breakdown of his large expense management that we are working with entirely different levels of income which makes his path very different from mine and my strategies need to suit my own circumstances.

So, I will continue to observe what others who are experiencing success are doing and learn how I can apply some of that knowledge to my own circumstances, making necessary adjustments along the way. I’m really starting to understand my parents’ lament of looking in the mirror and feeling like a kid but seeing an aging image staring back at me. Sometimes I feel so grown up…and at other times - especially around money - I feel like I have a lot of learning yet to do. Thankfully, if the Universe agrees, I’ve got a few more decades on the planet to figure it all out!

Until next time, Kat