Reactionary

Oh, to have known what I know now when I was 18 and got my first job. Hindsight’s 20/20, I know, but a forward thinking parent or guardian or older, wiser adult could have tuned me to the right path rather than my finding out about it now and being 12 years behind. What a Roth IRA balance I could have had if I hadn’t grown up fearing and hating finance rather than accepting it as another game in life I needed to get to know how to play.To be fair, I was brought up under the mantra to save money. But it was savings accounts I was pushed into. 

Though I saved money, over the years that money has only shrunk thanks to inflation and moving to a place with a higher cost of living. The bits of news and financial talk I heard only served to make me fear the stock market and fear losing money I was putting away. That left me only saving cash… and I’ve been over that bit about inflation, right? 

Regardless, I have enough saved up to make a decent down payment so I’m jumping into the real estate market this year. Another few thousand would do me nicely, but it seems I’m the only one in my immediate family who’s financially solvent so forget about expecting the usual way people get their first down payments– gifts from family members. I’m paying for this, every red cent. It’ll freeze my housing payment as well as get me that nice big tax break that I can turn around and use to beef up that IRA that’s 12 years behind. That financial class I took was the most helpful as well as most frightening thing ever.

The whole thing has been like a bad AA meeting and recovery but I’d rather be worried sick, irritable and freaked out now rather than 30 years from now when I realize I can’t retire. And in my line of work, it’s an especially horrible place to be. 

For every young worker out there, if you don’t know how the market works, learn it. Learn what IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities, tax shelters, CPAs, financial planners, mutual funds, equities, bonds, etc are before you hear that wolf at the door and he’s threatening to mess you up. By then, it’ll be too late.

I hate that phrase “What you don’t know can’t hurt you” because it’s precisely what you don’t know that does explode and blow you away. Don’t be ignorant. The only one who can help you is you. Don’t count on a savior to rise and get you out of it. 

Posted on April 5th, 2008 under Life •  Print •  Email • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback