Wednesday, September 8, 2010

I have money paranoia

It's true. I hate money and love budgeting. I blame it on my dad. I always knew I was abnormal, from the first time I was given a credit card by my parents, in high school, and was told to use it wisely.

That's not true. Actually it was when my dad gave me $900 as a freshman in high school and told me to figure out how to make it last the entire year. I had to write out a budget for EVERY EXPENSE I planned to make in the year, from new sneakers, to buying Christmas presents, to clothes and movie money. It was hard.

The credit card came when my dad thought it would be easier to track my spending if it were on a card, instead of cash. And apparently I was a good test case for his experiment, because I was a wise spender, but boy did I become paranoid about money. It caused me to get a job in high school for supplemental income. It caused me to get good grades so I could apply for every college scholarship imaginable. It caused me to work up to 4 jobs at a time when I was in college, so that I could pay off my student loans. It made me choose a PhD over other graduate programs where you pay tuition. It made me choose to buy a condo rather than pay crazy amounts of money in rent. And it made me choose to become an RA in an undergrad dorm for free rent, and rent out my condo.

But I realized today how lucky I am to be this paranoid. I have been helping a friend set up a plan to get out of credit card debt. She comes from a family who is used to living paycheck-to-paycheck, and she thought she was supposed to do the same. And when she got a new job that paid her more than she ever earned, she went out and bought a new car, and got eye surgery, and a credit card, and didn't look back. That is until she realized that she had practically maxed out her credit card, and could only afford the minimum payments. And we worked really hard together to make a realistic budget and a set of goals to get her debts paid off. And she is excited about the prospect of a better situation, and I am excited to see the end of it. Because I have money paranoia. Even about other people's money. Maybe I should be a financial planner?