Posted by Chris at August 27th, 2007

I had an enlightening conversation today with a team member in the restaurant. He was showing off his new Apple iPhone, a truly revolutionary device, to be sure. I pulled up this website and we started talking about the philosophies behind financial management. His initial reaction, before he realized we were looking at my blog, was that this was a subject he probably wouldn’t have any interest in. As the conversation progressed, and we delved more deeply into the philosophies I am exploring, I gained some fascinating insights into the fundamentally flawed mindset that most of us operate in regarding money management. However, none of that had anything to do with why I thought the conversation was so enlightening. My focus was completely on his statement that the subject wasn’t interesting to him.

Since money is the symbolic representation of the work we do, and is the means of obtaining the stuff and services and luxuries and necessities we desire, I was astonished to think that he had no interest in it’s management. This young man is a conscientious and diligent team member who does the right thing, all-day-every-day, because it’s the right thing to do. He clearly takes great pride in the quality of the work he does. And yet he spurns consideration of how he handles the symbolic representation of all that hard work. I found that somewhat disturbing. At the same time, it’s a shining example of how most of us think about money.

The conventional wisdom, as handed down to us by “Madison Avenue”, is not to worry about money. Now as a matter of basic philosophy I agree with that statement, but not in the way the advertisers would like for me to do. Modern advertising advises us to ignore financial considerations, because there are simply so many ways to shortcut the money issue. 90 days same as cash, No payments for 6 months, Zero-percent financing. We’ve all heard the mantra. Do the kitchen and the bathrooms and use your card! Well, you can pretend you don’t have a cobra in your bed if you want to. But until you call the animal control people to come remove it, sleeping through the night is going to be an interesting experience.

I also want to be able to stop worrying about money. I want money to be the last thing I think about when I am considering any action. But I think just ignoring the money consideration is foolhardy. Far better, I believe, to plan ahead so that when you reach that point in your journey, you’ve already mapped out a course to avoid that particular shoal or rapid instead of ignoring it and perhaps getting stuck or taking a wild, unexpected ride.

…enjoy the ride…