Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Money Schmoney

I just sat in a 6 hour seminar on the Board of Pensions. My brain is a bit fried on the topic of finances, so this seems like a brilliant time to write about it.

I confess I've never put much thought into saving for retirement or having an emergency plan. As a single person, I've always had these romantic notions that I would just work until I keel over. But now I'm getting married and I am forced to consider another person's desires. And our future children's desires. That's kind of a big deal.

I happen to be marrying this really great guy who is really great at money stuff. I'm pretty sure he's been contemplating his retirement plan since he was five years old. That may be an exaggeration. He and I are coming from very different places when it comes to money, so those conversations are hard. I find myself maintaining a tension between holding to my dreams and respecting his dreams. It's a tricky thing which will require patience and listening.

After this seminar today, I feel slightly more prepared to have those conversations and move from the "lets give away most of our money and live in poverty" mode to something more like "lets give away a lot of our money but be smart about it and make sure we can provide a safe and decent home for our family" type of mode.

Wish us luck.

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