Resolutions

Remember this post? Well, it’s been a year and I have to be honest – I didn't keep my resolution, I never took over our finances. I was lazy, the live in was happy doing it, and so nothing changed. This year is a different story though. Completely different, actually. As of January 1st the live in dropped his financial responsibilities cold turkey and has agreed to go on a financial diet. Aka a budget.

I put together a monster of a spreadsheet which outlines our finances on an annual basis. It impressed the live in. It also terrified him.

You see, for the last seven years I have been wandering through life in financial bliss. Okay, I was clueless…it wasn’t until last week that I learned how much my take home pay was. But, regardless of my total reliance on the live in, he had it pretty easy too. In a way, he had total financial freedom himself. Spending and saving as he pleased. My eyes were opened to accounts I never knew we had, in banks I never knew existed, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn of off-shore accounts or funds in Swiss banks. The live in knows his stuff, I’ll give him that. Saving, however, is not really his specialty.

So, you can imagine the state of concern he is currently in regarding our new financial diet. Over the weekend he came to me and asked…"how do I get to buy things?” “Like what?” I asked. “Like the things I need to buy.” And our conversation went on and on like this until I learned that the live in doesn’t even know what he needs to buy – he just wants to buy.

My friends, it’s the 11th of January – I hope your New Year’s resolutions are off to a great start. Mine have been challenging so far, including this financial one. However, just like I told the live in, we’ll be thanking ourselves at the end of the year. So hang in there!