Personal Finance Confessional #1
My friend and fellow blogger, Bobby Marchessault, is the worship pastor at my church. Each week after our Sunday worship gathering, Bobby records a video Worship Confessional in which he recounts the worship portion of the service from his own perspective, including the high and the low points from the music portion of the gathering. While I do not have Bobby's prowess with the video camera or with video editing software, I am fascinated by his worship confessionals and their ability to reveal the inner workings and thoughts that contributed to the gathering. It occurs to me that SeeMeGetRich is itself a type of confessional about my struggles and triumphs with personal finance. So if Bobby will forgive me for adopting his confessional paradigm, I am beginning my own weekly personal finance confessional on this site, in which I will bare my soul about the money matters that have affected my finances throughout the previous week. Perhaps someday when I am feeling adventurous I can even give the video format a try! So without further ado, here is my first weekly personal finance confessional:
This week was a challenging one for me financially, filled with indulgences and decadences of every sort. To begin with I have eaten out more this past week than I have at any time in the past six months since becoming an investor. My explanation for this (although not an excuse) is the fact that I am again working at the local mall, at which a trip to Carl's Jr. for a fast food meal is just a stone's throw away. Within the past week I have eaten out seven times, totaling just under $100. The thought of wasting my hard earned money on fast food to this extent is painful when that money would be far more productive (and healthier on my waistline) if it were instead placed in my Roth IRA for safekeeping.
My wife and I also adopted a new pet rat from the pet store a few days ago, which consumed another $100 of my money for the week when counting the new rat cage and supplies. I have always considered pets to be a justified expense due to the general happiness and well-being they bring to my life, but the $100 is still painful. At least the majority of the money was spent on the new cage, which is just a one-time purchase. Bedding, nesting material, and food are all rather inexpensive, so I consider this to be a one-time purchase.
The largest expense of the week will be the deep-sea fishing trip I am taking early tomorrow morning on the Monterey Bay. I will probably end up spending $80 or so for the boat and equipment rental, which is not outrageous; but when combined with the other indulgences above, the $80 is a little hard to swallow. But I have always wanted to try deep-sea fishing, and I would hate to say at the end of my life that I never gave it a try when I had the opportunity, so I am plopping my money down and am looking forward to the experience. And hopefully I will have a generous portion of fresh Rock Cod to savor for dinner tomorrow night!
Other assorted expenses have included airfare to visit my wife's family in Florida in October, and twenty dollars for a much-needed haircut after church this afternoon. So all in all I had a mind-bogglingly terrible week for saving money. The good news, though, is that I am continuing to contribute regularly to my Roth IRA, which is exciting right now due to the recent market downturn. I am trying to pump as much money as I can into the account to take advantage of the lowest stock prices in the past six months. Then when the market goes back up (and it will), I will have purchased significantly more investment shares for the same amount of money! But after my fishing trip tomorrow I am resolving to get my personal finances back on track this upcoming week, and I promise to have better personal finance news for my next personal finance confessional next week.
