I suck at money management.  If there was something I was not good at, it is actually managing my money.  I am a sucker for instant gratification.  Here’s a quote from a friend of mine that has nothing to do with personal finance on the surface, but has everything to do with it in principle.  I asked her about what her tryouts involved for a High School Volleyball team:

“Um, 3 hours of watching girls that think they can play… girls that really can play and girls that have no skill but are there because someone said that they were good once.  And then at the end of the week: cutting them.”

I would be the player that thinks he can play.  I am not the player that knows he can play, I am not the player that anyone ever told that I could play.  I would be the self-decieved player.

But the good thing about the self-decieved player is that the player has intentions.  Good intentions.  Intentions that are tied to potential.  Not in a ‘motivational poster that is so unreal that nobody would buy it’ sort of way, but with the passion that may some day turn into an acceptable utility player that isn’t the team captain, or the super-star, but is the person who keeps the team going with drive and is one of the many.

I’m the guy who is picked last.  But I’m working on being the guy you’d pick 5th.  I’m OK with fifth because at least its a step up.  I’m OK with being picked last as long as I’m picked.  Right field is awesome, catcher is awesome.  I don’t need to be the star, I don’t need to be the slugger, I just need to get on base.  Our finances have slipped some recently and I’m the guy responsible for that.

We’re not staying here.  We’re going to kick this into high gear.  We’re going to kill our darlings.  We’re going to plug the leaks and batton down the hatches.  We’re going to mix our metaphors until the cows come home.  But we’re not going to stay last.  We’re going to stay home - instead of eating out.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Foundations, General, Lesson Learned, Money Management, Outside the Box. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Tags: goofy, illustrations, lessons learned, metaphors, quoting others, you can't make this stuff up