In Search of Balance
Posted on October 22, 2006 12 Comments
In the immortal words of growing-up guru Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Well, here I am. Sitting down in front of my computer, focused on writing and doing my finances for the first time in forever. Over the past six months, I believe I’ve gone through a transitional period, and perhaps now’s the time to provide myself (and you, readers, if there are any of you left!) with some perspective.
When I started this blog in 2003, it was all about being in your early 20′s, being broke, working to get your foot in the door and trying to figure out how to live on a tight budget when you want nothing more than to live it up, define yourself and actually start an independent life. Those years were marked by insecurity – If I lost my job, would I get another one? Would I move back in with my parents? – and frugalness. Acquiring a professional wardrobe while furnishing my apartment, paying bills and staying on top of student loans were all concerns that were top of mind. As I’ve mentioned many times, I blew through my entire savings in the first two years I moved out of my parents’ house. I used this blog to get me back on the savings track, to stay committed and to share my learnings with you.
As my commitment to personal finance grew, so too did my net worth. I have started a retirement fund, grown my savings account and reduced my student loan debt (thanks in part to a loan consolidation). Although I started out making peanuts at my job, I’ve worked hard (often sacrificing personal relationships, frequently working late nights and some weekends), and have been rewarded with salary increases and promotions each year. In short, I’ve finally arrived in a good place, financially speaking.
But as my career becomes more defined, my savings grow and my knowledge deepens, a new set of challenges has emerged. I’ve been lately pondering these thoughts:
- How will I ever have enough money to purchase real estate? What are the benefits of buying a condo vs. buying a house? When’s the right time to buy?
- What’s more important to use savings to buy: a wedding or a home?
- How can I grow my savings faster?
- When life moves faster than I’m physically capable of keeping up with, what should I attempt to outsource (cleaning, manicures, finances, etc)? What should I keep doing myself?
- How can I get healthy when I work 10-12 hour days? Are stress headaches, weight gain, muscle atrophy, fatigue and weight gain really justifiable all for the sake of making a decent wage?
- When will I go back to school? Do I want an MBA? A master of communications? Something totally different? How does having kids fit into that vision?
- Do I even want to have kids? How on earth will I afford them?
- Am I saving enough for retirement? $10,000 after five years of working doesn’t seem like a lot. Considering that I’m probably going to need at least a million to retire.
- Is keeping a budget realistic, given the curveballs life throws at me daily?
- What is the ideal weekend like for me? How do I balance out my downtime between friends, family, my boyfriend and my individual needs? What’s affordable to help me relax?
OK, those are just some of the concerns on my mind. Clearly, they’re quite different than when I first started posting. But perhaps they’re universal, too. Everyone needs to spend time evaluating their priorities, then re-evaluating them. I remember that when I graduated from college, my top three priorities were like this:
- My family
- My career
- My relationship
- My friends
Now, as an adult, does my career trump my relationships? I’d like to say that at this point, my career falls below my family and my relationships, yet I consistently forgo gatherings with my friends, family and even downtime with Brian in favor of my career. I can’t say that will change anytime soon. If the choice – and it always is a choice – came between my job and a family party, I would probably elect to work. Is this healthy? Am I a workaholic? I don’t know. But I’ve got to do a better job of sorting it all out, because the time is going to come when the past will speak for itself. When I look back, the choices I made will tell me what my priorities were at the time. And it’s clear to me now that my job has overshadowed all of the other relationships in my life for some time.
But that’s somewhat misleading, because my career is invariably linked to my future. The money I’m able to save now, the decisions I make, those are all to secure a solid future for myself and my family. These past few years have been about building a foundation for my future. There’s not a day in my life when I take my mind off the fact that I’m doing it all for a reason. I just hope that I’m not missing my present for what I hope might someday be my future.
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12 Responses to “In Search of Balance”
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October 22nd, 2006 @ 11:42 pm
Hello Budgeting Babe, Good to see a new post from you, and one that speaks to my heart as well. I’m not sure that balance is an issue that ever goes away, no matter what age. The hard part is that the things that we neglect now may not be around when we actually need them/want them. It’s all about choices, and I find that there are always too many choices and too little time! LOL! I am finding that I need to have a schedule for everything: friends, family, work, school, fun, husband, etc. Whether that is weekly or monthly lunches with friends, date nights with husband…and hopefully being lucky enough to have a job that allows you to hop on your laptop at any time to get your work done!
October 23rd, 2006 @ 12:54 am
Great to see that you are posting again Budgeting Babe. I think balance is the most important thing in life. Give “The Millionaire Mind” by Thomas Stanley a quick read (also availible on audio book). Stanley suggests that to even the richest people, those in the decamillionaire range, balance is more important than just making money. In fact there is a direct positive corrilation between net worth and a balanced lifestyle.
October 23rd, 2006 @ 5:55 am
Financial goals are just one chapter of our lives so it goes without saying that we have other important goals in life with regards to family, friends, career (I won’t mix career with money here…there are careers that make you happy but won’t make you much money). It’s more important to be a “valuable” person than simply focussing on net worth dollar amount. Like wilks says above, your value will increase with good balancing of all these aspects.
October 23rd, 2006 @ 1:11 pm
I hope you don’t stop posting now that you feel a little more financially secure. There is an audience for you at any point in your life, career, or net worth. I’d love to hear how you decide which weekends to work and when to go to the family events, how you deal with business-related weight gain (ugh, another hotel gym?), and what you attribute your career success to! Congratulations on the promotions.
October 23rd, 2006 @ 3:29 pm
Balance is important. You do not realize what is important until it is gone.
Financially, have you taken a look at Daveramsey.com. He is a financial consultant with some great ways of managing a budget and getting out of debt and building wealth.
October 24th, 2006 @ 12:08 pm
great post BB. Organizing/multi-tasking is one of the biggest headaches for most young working people today, and your post captured this beautifully.
Keep up the good work !
October 24th, 2006 @ 5:07 pm
Great post. I felt like you were writing for me. I have enjoyed your posts in the past, but I am *really* looking forward to hear your journey surrounding these questions.
October 24th, 2006 @ 7:30 pm
These are things I have been pondering too. I’ve begun a good book that may help with some of those questions. Though I cannot yet comment on its impact upon my life, it is called “Twenty Something Twenty Everything” by Christine Hassler.
October 25th, 2006 @ 1:03 am
Hey BB… great post. It’s definitely hard to manage balance, especially when you have many goals.
One word of advice on the advanced degree… I have a background in communications and chose to pursue that as my advanced degree. Although it has more than paid off in salary advances and job opportunities, in hindsight, I would consider an MBA. The degree is more recognized (making you more marketable), and tends to command a higher salary, even with other factors being equal. I also think it helps give a better head for business, which at the end of the day, can help us be more valuable to our companies.
Whatever path you choose, you will be successful because of your dedication. Best wishes!
October 29th, 2006 @ 6:05 am
You only have to be concerned about 2009 if you use rabbit ears to get the local channels over the air. If you have cable or satellite (which I assume 95% of the people do), DTV transition won’t affect you at all.
I pay 10/month to get all my local channels over cable (plus 3-4 others), and if I was using rabbit ears, it would be a lot cheaper to pay 120/year than to buy a new tv, when your old one is perfectly fine.
November 8th, 2006 @ 6:20 pm
Your post reminded me of Adam Sandler’s movie, Click. (It’s cliche, but rent-worthy anyway!) Maybe you can grade the importance of the work that you’re choosing in lieu of time with family, significant other, friends, etc. and determine on a by case basis if that day’s work is “worth it”? Good Luck!
November 24th, 2006 @ 8:26 pm
Hello,
I recently published an article on the dangers and benefits of student loans and other forms of college financial aid – here is a quote from it, in case you are interested:
Student loans repayment can be a real nightmare without adopting some strategies that would help the new graduates to organize their social and financial life. Here are some strategies they can use to do this:
- An additional part-time job;
- Freelancing is another option (meaning that they can do particular pieces of work for different organisations, without working all the time for a single organisation);
- They should try to keep their living expenses as low as possible (live in a smaller apartment, live with a roommate to share some of the expenses, find an apartment that is closer to the job, to eliminate the extra-expenses for transport etc.);
- To apply for forbearance (this is an immediate solution for hard times when the new graduate is in impossibility to re-pay the amount of money and the need for student loan consolidation becomes apparent; it is a temporary period, when the graduate can postpone or delay his or her re-payments until a later time on a federal or direct loan after the beginning of the re-payment, and when the student doesn’t qualify for deferral). The forbearance must be applied through the lenders of the loans.
- To consolidate the payments.
If you feel this helps, please drop by my website for additional information, such as federal student loans information or additional resources on private student loans .
Regards,
Michael