What are YOU saving for?
July 31, 2006
I’m sure that we all agree that financial security is freedom – but what does that, specifically, really mean for you? After this exhausting weekend, I have a clearer idea of what that might be for me.
I’d like to have the freedom not to have to work overtime over the weekend (ok, this was a work-related spate of work this time).
I’d like to be able to go home on time to do whatever it is people do when they come home at a reasonable hour instead of two hours late everyday and still not worry that I won’t have extra funds this next paycheck.
I’d like to be able to travel at will on the weekends to see BF without being on a financial schedule.
I’d like to be able to get a manicure and pedicure after repeated ice baths retrieving bottled water from tubs of ice and running around in sandals on hot pavement, sand and rocks without thinking, hm, this means no eating out at all this month.
I’d like to be able to decide to go out and get my Master’s degree when I know what I want it for and not worry about how it’s going to be paid for and how I’m going to survive another grueling spate of school/work fulltime.
I’d like to not to have to work so hard all the time.
I’d like to be able to have my wedding now and not five years from now.
I’d like to be able to take advantage of any downturn in the real estate market to purchase a nice nest to make a home in without overreaching my budget.
I know that I’m already blessed: I have a positive balance emergency fund, no personal debt just my family’s, the discipline to continue both, a job that pays a relatively decent wage. But, the decisions to come (more school, marriage, home) will have enormous influence over those current conditions. And I can only hope, plan and save to make myself free to make the choices that are best for the long-term, and not make reactionary, coping, tide-me-over-til-next-emergency decisions.
In the meantime, I wonder, what sorts of freedoms are you all searching for?
edit: I can’t believe I skipped this part of my wishlist:
I’d like to be able to actually indulge in my comic books (TPBs and otherwise) that I’ve been trying to follow, instead of just drooling over them from afar. I don’t mean buying in rock star style, just buying a few every couple months or so. I must still be in comic-ly fulfilled fugue after Comic Con.
Wow, what I’m searching for is almost identical to what you are searching for, except:
1) I, being a guy, have no real interest in BoyDucky
and
2)Don’t care too much about the manicures/pedicures.
Everything else though is right in line with me.
Hi Daniel,
Well, I have to admit I breathed a sigh of relief knowing you have no interest in BoyDucky. After all, he’s a good catch! š
I realized after posting that although I thought my list was personalized, it contains quite a few items that other people are saving for. I’ll have to update it!