I’m hesitant to make New Year’s resolutions. I don’t like to give my word unless I know I can keep it, not even to myself. Actually, especially to myself. So I’m really going out on a limb here by declaring in this oh-so-public manner that I am going to start socking money away, and I’m going to do it by paying myself 10% out of every paycheck I receive before any blood-sucking creditor gets so much as a shiny damn dime.
The last time I had a real savings account was when I was in the third grade. Each week, the teacher would pass out little banking envelopes in which to deposit our stash of pennies, nickels, dimes and the occasional quarter. It was fun to write the amount on the outside of the envelope and then see our fortunes grow from week to week. I don’t recall what ever happened to that money. I suspect I eventually browbeat my mother into letting me take it out and squander it, and I’ve been squandering ever since.As I grew and no longer had the luxury of being a burden on someone else, it amazed me how many people had their hands in my pocket every month. Rent, utilities, food, car payments – and this was before big banks figured out how to grab us by the short hairs and keep us enslaved forever. That’s a whole other descent into the bowels of hell.
At barely 1% interest these days, I’m not expecting to get rich any time soon. But with the money out of my immediate eyesight and the safety hatch of a few days transfer time, it will give me just the pause button I need when I come across that fabulous (insert your temptation here) that I just have to have this very minute.
Since the paychecks of a freelancer vary, I fully expect to hear the fiscal anti-Christ whisper in my ear that 10% of this check or that won’t make a bit of difference in the grand scheme. “Piss off, old dark one,” I will say.
Happy New Year.
