Woody Allen once said, “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” ¹ Growing up, I would have wholeheartedly disagreed with Mr. Allen’s quite true statement. I would have disagreed with him, first, because I am a rather stubborn person, and that stubborn streak started before my first breath. I was always ready to take on a challenge. If you told me I couldn’t do something, I would want nothing more than to prove you wrong. The second reason I would have disagreed with Mr. Allen was because I frankly hated money.
While growing up, school was often explained to me in terms of needing it so that you could be successful and have a job. I wanted nothing to do with reading, writing, math, science, or anything else you could classify as a subject. If you needed school to get a job, then I simply wouldn’t get one. Problem solved. I had no problem with hard work though; so, I would simply say I hated money and that I didn’t need school. I would just live out in the woods and do life the way they did back in the day- you know, like my grandfather did when he lived in the cave with a dinosaur.
Well, eventually, I lost the argument that school is pointless. My parents forced me against my will to learn. Shortly thereafter, I began to understand that money is an important part of life. I realized there were not really any dinosaurs around when my grandfather was growing up, and slowly, but surely, I began to realize that planning for life’s unpredictable events was important if I didn’t really want to live in a cave on the side of a mountain, which I didn’t.
Of course, saving and planning are an important part of the equation, but my father also taught me that sometimes preparing for what you cannot plan is just as important when it comes to money. No one plans on their spouse passing away, or on getting seriously injured or ill. Certainly no one expects their house to burn down or their home to be robbed, but unfortunately life is messy, and things often don’t happen how we hope or dream, so preparing for the unexpected is all that can keep us from poverty.
Jessi Canales
Focus Financial Group, LLC
1. “Thoughts On The Business Of Life.” Thoughts and Quotes: Money Is Better Than…Forbes.com, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.