24 April 2008

Apparently your wallet says something about you

Very interesting article on how the way you handle the cash, if any, on your person may be indicative of how you handle money generally. That, in turn, has implications for your economic status, which is therefore probably something that no federal program is going to be able to fix for you.

Incidentally, I belong to the “File Folder Funds” category. My bills are not only organized from higher to lower denominations and all facing the same way, they are grouped in two: discretionary and non-discretionary. And I know exactly how much is in my wallet at this moment, as well as how much is discretionary and how much is non-discretionary.

Of course, I'm informed that "having all the dead presidents right-side up and facing the same way...might mean [I] 'have a problem allocating enough money toward fun'." What it really means -- in my case -- is that as a man of simple (i.e., "Spartan") tastes, the things I do for fun are relatively inexpensive and rather healthy -- physically, mentally, and psychologically. Also, I spent most of my childhood in the ranks of the poor so there wasn't a whole lot of money to spend in the first place. As a consequence I never really learned to spend it.

I have a lot of discretionary money in that wallet. Not because I get a lot of discretionary money, but because I spend very little of what I do get as discretionary money. What I put into my wallet as non-discretionary is usually spent within two weeks, and goes, presently, mostly towards fueling my cars.

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James Frank Solís
Former soldier (USA). Graduate-level educated. Married 26 years. Texas ex-patriate. Ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
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