I get excited every time I go to deposit money in the bank. That may sound a little too much, and maybe it is, but it’s the truth. I like seeing the numbers go up. For a moment I forget that very soon those numbers will go dooooooowwwwnnnn. Rent, health insurance, credit card bills, medical bills, school bills, voice lessons, acting classes, they all take so much money. It can be very overwhelming sometimes. There’s a sense of pride when we see the numbers going up in our accounts, and rightfully so! We’ve worked hard! You know, this is kind of an uncomfortable thought, though…if you think about it, that money’s not really ours. It may be for just a moment (and enjoy it), but in the end, it’s not ours to own. It comes and goes. It’s frightening at the end of the day once you realize that the actual amount of that money that you’ll get to enjoy for YOU is very minimal. Money, in some part, can be compartmentalized in our lives. I’ll explain.
I have struggled with money for a long time. It seems that my bills are always higher than what I make. I decided to try an experiment recently. I dedicated every shift at my job to paying off specific bills. Rent came first, then school loans, etc. I began to think of the money that I was making as not my money, but the landlords’ money, the loan organizations’ money, and so on and so forth. It was a harsh way to think about it, but it really opened my eyes to just how much was MY money. Compartmentalizing my money helped me take care of the essentials first, and then I could see how much I had left for anything else. Someday I hope to not have to do that, but in reality I’ve come to realize that money is very much based on a mindset: how we think about it has a lot to do with how we handle it. How do you think about the money you make? Is it yours? How do you compartmentalize? I’m very curious and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section. Happy reading!
MusicTrGrlinNYC 