What is financial success?
I started working at a pretty young age. I also liked to excel at whichever job I was doing. I remember the local newspaper had a contest to see which news carrier could increase their subscriptions the most. This meant going door to door to all the non-customers and asking them to receive the daily newspaper. Unfortunately, I won. Yes, I got the $100 savings bond, but it also meant that my one hour long paper route now took three hours to complete. Oops!!!
Success often has unintended consequences.
While I was in college, I worked full time, about 30 hours per week as a university tour guide, and worked my evenings as a Resident Assistant. I was also a double major and finished in four years. This led to many exciting job offers as I was graduating. I took a nice job with a fantastic salary and I was the envy of a lot of my peers.
My idea of success certainly had unintended consequences.
My bright and shiny salary meant that I now had money to spend. I can still remember the book store at Boston’s Prudential tower that I first used my Citibank Visa. I remember going into the store with the idea of making my first credit card purchase. I didn’t really care what I bought, as long as I left after signing the first, of many, slips of paper. I ended up with a book by the humorist, Dave Barry, and had a few laughs.
The last laugh was on me.
Flash forward many years and you found someone, with a fantastic salary, living well above his means. It hadn’t taken long for things to get out of control. I had accumulated almost $30,000 in credit card debt. I had a car I couldn’t really afford and I had student loans that seemed impossibly high. Every check I earned was allocated well before I received it. What was I to do?
Then I remembered what my dad had always reminded me. It was the answer to the question, ‘œHow do you eat an elephant?’ Answer ‘“ One bite at a time.
I remember this crossroad in my life. I started learning as much as I could about personal finance. The books that I now bought were not funny but helped me realize what I needed to do.
After changing the way that I looked at finances, I put some money together as a safety net and started eating my elephant. Today, I do not let credit card balances stick around. I pay them off at each statement. I also have no car payment and I live in a house that I can afford.
Success often had intended consequences.
When you learn to take control over your credit cards and your debt, you learn how to make these tools work for you. My partner and I have been pretty successful in using debt to help grow our investments. But now these moves are calculated, and are not just because we have the money to spend. Financial success is a learning process. More money today does not mean greater success tomorrow.
How do you perceive success? Have you ever had a success lead to something unexpected?
Phil,
Success to me, including financial success, simply means knowing that I have enough – today.
I have had similar experiences to yours. Space limits prohibit me from sharing my stories here. Perhaps you’d be interested in reading about my adventures…
My lesson has been “Be careful what you wish for.”
Success is selling off your shares of businesses…sitting at home for 4 months going Stir Crazy…then getting an easy job driving a Motorcoach toting around a bunch of Great Early Twenties College Students…a good number of whom are GLBT and Out.
It also means getting to tell your Bosses exactly what you think and them Listening (to a point anyway but more so than to the other employees) because they Know they don’t have the Financial Hold over you of “Your Fired” and you do your Job because you WANT too.
~ Roland
Phil: Great post! For me, success (and the money that comes with it) represents security. Perhaps, it goes back to some childhood deficiency of feeling like my parents were just one paycheck away from living on the streets. In reality, it was never quite that bad, but I was acutely aware of their financial challenges particularly during my grade school years.
Success means different things to different people. For some it provides the means to consume or escape. For others, it might be more about comfort or peace.
A few years ago, Michael S. Malone at Fast Company interviewed Jacob Needleman, the philosopher and author about the meaning of money.
He said, “Having lots of money can be like a drug. It can make you feel powerful and giddy. It can convince you that everything’s going to be okay. Money makes us unjustifiably feel that we’re better and more important than we really are. When money can make you feel humble, then I think it’s really useful. But if it fattens your ego, which it often does, then look out.â€
The key is to learn how to strike a balance with the consequences of success.
Wonderful post. As a twenty-one year old student, financial success for me is measured in independence. I’ve lived on my own for the past year and a half without ever having to ask my parents for money. Furthermore, in that time, I saved up for a downpayment on a pretty car.
Financial success is knowing that I’ll never have to ask my parents, relatives or friends for a twenty to make rent.