Finances

As many of you already know, I keep a very careful record of what I spend and earn. I had started doing this in Boston but wasn't so thorough, and after a heated discussion with my mother during our drive to Chicago when I moved from Boston, I decided to take matters into my own hands. She brought up the fact that I shouldn't be keeping track of expenses just because money came from parents and therefore wasn't my hard-earned salary (most of the time, although I did bring in a considerable sum through part-time work, etc.), but rather as a way of learning to manage my own life. After seeing one of my roommates and his financial woes, I now see the value in what my mother told me. She's a smart lady. Knowing that I would be in Europe for at least two years also forced me to keep careful accounts. Starting in autumn 2006, I would be braced up against a steeped euro that would continue to pulverize the American dollar. I knew I had to economize and budget wisely, so I started tracking every penny I would spend, classifying it into one of six categories: food eaten out, food bought for the house (groceries), travel, music expenses, rent & apartment costs, and miscellaneous things (cleaning products, gifts, etc.). I also kept track of the money that came in via gigs, teaching, and other jobs. After doing this for a while, I've had a clear idea of what my monthly expenses are and what the biggest taxations on my budget seem to be: traveling and food. I would just like to say, though, that money = DIFFICULT! It is spent SO easily, you have to work hard to earn it, and then even harder to manage it. Mom always told me to not curse money, but to learn to work with it. I'm getting better as each monthly expense amount is recorded, but it's still a challenge, and probably always will be for the rest of my life. Friends, if I can encourage one thing, it's to parent the way my mother did, and teach your children about managing money at an early age, and continue to help them improve their skills.