Work/life Balance And The Debit Card - Do You Have Any Clue Where You Are?

Work/Life Balance and the Debit Card - Do You Have Any Clue Where You Are?

When I asked women about their top five nightmares, winding up a bag lady featured in almost all their scenarios, right along with not having enough money to retire safely.^a —Liz Perle

A FEW YEARS AGO, Steve, Shauna, Adam, and I drove down to Austin for the weekend. We ventured out of town on a winding ranch road and got lost. Our car has a navigation system, but it was preprogrammed to display our final destination. Well, that didn’t help. I knew where home was! What I wanted to know was, Where am I right now and how in the devil do I get on the right road to take me to the interstate? It took several minutes to figure out what was wrong and reprogram our preferences. In the meantime, we were driving farther away from I-35 . . . not closer!

Just as you need a map or GPS on a road trip, you need a financial plan to help you get where you want to go. You begin by pinpointing where you sit at this moment (your financial assessment) in contrast to where you want to wind up (your desired financial state for retirement). Younger adults also need to identify road stops—things like a home purchase, having children, and saving for their college education. But here’s the kicker: you can’t drive around for days, months, or years without knowing where you are. Otherwise, you could be headed in the wrong direction—further from your financial destination.

Steve and I finally stopped “driving around in circles” financially. Why did we wait so long? No one told us that this is a critical step toward securing our final financial goal. I asked our financial advisor, Carol Meyer, why people (like us) procrastinate in having a financial assessment done. She said, “Many people are afraid of what they’re going to find out. So they just put it off.” What? That’s just plain crazy! It’s like skipping your mammogram because you could get bad results.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

If you really want to live intentionally, assess where you are today to determine how to best reach your final destination. Choose knowledge and discipline over timidity.

^a Liz Perle, Money, A Memoir: Women, Emotions, and Cash (New York: Henry Holt, 2006), 40.