Personal Finances

I've been reading a few blogs related to personal finances. I enjoy reading frugal dad and the digerati life, to name a few, but at the same time, I don't find their advise truly useful to me.

And the reason I don't really need their advise actually makes me proud: my finances are healthy enough.
Please don't get me wrong: I'm not rich or wealthy.
What I do have is a stable job and a monthly salary. And the discipline to save a part of it every time. But I never really thought that saving was a strategy... I just thought "not spending more money than you make every month" was just plain common sense, rather than being "financially aware".
I'm learning now that maybe this is something else that I need to be grateful to my parents for. Maybe it is because, being Argentinians, and having lived almost all of their lives in that country, my parents have gone through A LOT of economic cycles, and they never took stability for granted.
On the contrary, they have had savings taken away by the goverment on two different ocassions, they have experienced inflation in all its possible grades (from null to moderate to hyper), they have lived to see 5 different currencies being used at the same country... I know this sounds crazy to anyone from a developed country. Believe me, it is.

So I guess that they have unconsciously passed to me a set of rules that they follow and I adopted naturally when I sarted managing my own money... save a part of what you make, avoid debt as much as possible, don't buy too much stuff that you don't need. As long as I follow these very basic rules, I feel confident, and I still allow myself to spend a little extra in things that I enjoy. I don't want to take frugality to the extreme that all I care is to find the lowest price for everything... that consumes too much time and effort... I prefer to use those for activities that I actually enjoy.

My Second Quarter

A couple of years ago, I entered my second quarter of a century. (I turned 25, that is).

Many people my age prefer to think of themselves as twenty-something-ers and it certainly has a more youthful sound to it.

So why am I choosing to view life from a quarters-of-a-century perspective instead, which pairs me up not only with all the thirty something year olds, but also all of the 40-xs? - there isn't a single explanation for that, but I will try to give a few reasons:

• My SO is 30+. My cousins are 30+. It doesn't really make much sense to focus on being 20 and pretending I am of a different generation, or that there is a distance from them in terms of interests, maturity, or anything else.
• I enjoy my work, and I have fun with the people at the office. I have met some great people that I feel close to and enjoy being around. Several are 30+, a couple are 40+. I feel just as close to them as I am to my closest colleagues in ther twenties.
• 25 years is a long time span. I don't have to worry about turning 30, if I'm going to stay in the same Quarter. I will probably feel awful when I turn 50, but... there's no point really in worrying about that right now.
• There is a lot to accomplish in terms of professional growth, family forming, and getting stuff done. I like that I have so many things to plan and do!! and it helps to think that I have another 23 years to get all done.

Welcome

If you are reading this entry you are probably one of the 3 people that will ever find out about this blog. I thank you dearly!

In my first attempt at keeping a blog, I wanted to write in English, despite the fact that I may not be as fluent or eloquent as I would like to be. The main reason for that is that given that my real - physical life runs mainly Spanish, switching language helps me detach what I write here from the rest of my actual world existence. And English is the only other language that I am good enough at to even consider as an option.

I sometimes find it hard to aknowledge adulthood. Yes, I'm financially independent from my parents and moved in with my SO, I pay my bills and I have a job that I like and it is pretty much related to what I studied at University, and most importantly, I am already 27. So, by all means, I should be called an adult.

And yet, even though I can logically conclude that I am an adult, I somehow don't feel like one!! or... well, maybe this is it. Maybe adulthood does not come with any particular feeling , and just as I don't really feel I am a brunette - I still know that's what I am.