Freelance Finance

This morning was a first.

It marked the first time that Muck and I took the big plunge and immediately knocked a full 40% off the top of our latest check (which posted this morning, thank you thank you thank you) and stuck it into various savings accounts. We have been talking about doing this for a while now but, frankly, it scared the pants off us. However, for some reason, this morning all the financial stars seemed to be aligned. For now, anyway. And with one mouse click it was all set into motion.

You might look at this and think, “Forty percent?!? These people have money to burn…”

Oh, but how horribly wrong you would be. How very, very wrong, mon frere.

First, not all of that goes to retirement. Some goes to our “Sunny Day” (read: Emergency! Emergency!) fund, some to retirement, sure, and some gets set aside for the big, bad, gotta-pay-him-but-don’t-gotta-love-him,TAX MAN. (I’ll let you know how we first decided who got how much at a later date.)

Second—and this is probably the most important part—it’s all a game. It’s a little mind-over-wallet game Muck and I have to play with ourselves to keep from spending money. I don’t mean spending it on things that are “naughty” or “wasteful” or any of the rest of that self-abusing, judgmental crap. We earned this money and we’ll spend it on whatever the hell we please, thank you very much. The thing is, there are plenty of times when we look at what we’ve spent our money on and we aren’t very pleased. The receipts don’t match up with our values and our values don’t translate to the kind of savings we’d like to have.

So, rather than wish we had more in savings—and knowing full well we could if we spent differently—we have gradually, over the last few years, been taking more and more out of our checks AS SOON AS THEY POST so that it is much harder for us to blow through it. It’s not impossible for us to get our hands on it again, it’s just a magic mouse click away. But it’s enough of a hurdle that we think twice, maybe three times, before touching it. We get so jazzed by watching the numbers rise in those savings accounts, that when the checking account hits the danger zone, we’ll begin scraping together parking change and whatever else we need to cover the bare minimums until the next check comes in, rather than pillage the MMA. We get a kick out of channeling that oft forgotten, destitute college student in both of us that can live on next to nothing, relishing every bag of ramen, every box of mac-and-cheese. And before we know it, there’s enough money again for the perfectly cooked fusili and succulent slices of gruyere, and we won’t feel like we missed a thing.

I hope. I’m still suffering from a savings account transfer high right now.