海角大神

Easter weekend is one of my favorite times of the year with my children. The weather is finally getting nice after a long winter, so we鈥檙e starting to go outside regularly. We usually conduct some kind of Easter egg hunt for them as well, giving them a great chance to explore outdoors and work on their observation skills. They usually get a fair amount of candy during the weekend, too.

It鈥檚 a lot of fun and it鈥檚 a perfect example of the joys of childhood. Joe and Katie鈥檚 primary concern right now is hunting those Easter eggs 鈥� and coloring some, too. They don鈥檛 worry about bills or getting their book edits finished or anything like that 鈥� their biggest financial concern is saving their allowance so they can get a cooler toy.

What I realized is that this is basically the same way I operated until several years into my professional life.

I worked hard at my job, but I essentially just focused on the parts that were fun for me and avoided the parts that weren鈥檛 fun for me.

I didn鈥檛 sweat bills too much, either 鈥� I didn鈥檛 plan in advance at all for them and just paid them as best as I could whenever they came in.

Whenever I wanted something, I pretty much bought it. I didn鈥檛 really worry about the consequences of it, either.

All of these phenomena have something big in common: I just assumed that my mythical 鈥渇uture self鈥� would take care of it, much in the same way I always assumed my parents would take care of it when I was a child.

In other words, my 鈥渇uture self鈥� became my protector, allowing me to continue living life essentially as a child.

The only problem with relying on a protector like that is that when the protection fails, you鈥檙e usually in a very deep hole.

When I went away to college, my parents receded as my protectors. If I had been more self-aware, I would have realized that it was now up to me to protect myself. Instead, I invented a new 鈥減arent,鈥� my 鈥渇uture self.鈥� You know, the guy that would be earning a truckload of money in a few years and would solve all of my problems.

In April 2006, my protection failed. My 鈥渇uture self鈥� didn鈥檛 save me. I found myself in a very, very deep financial hole and my 鈥渇uture self鈥� wasn鈥檛 going to dig me out.

It was up to me and me alone.

If I had realized that whole thing a few years earler before I got into deep debt, I would have been a lot better off. I wouldn鈥檛 have missed out on anything of real value, while at the same time I wouldn鈥檛 have been in nearly as much debt or financial trouble. I wouldn鈥檛 have tossed thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars away in needless interest payments. I wouldn鈥檛 have to repeatedly robbed Peter to pay Paul. I wouldn鈥檛 have had a house full of stuff that just gathered dust. I would have had the home of my dreams right now.

If you convince yourself to buy stuff and do things under the belief that your 鈥渇uture self鈥� will take care of it, it鈥檚 time to grow up. Your future self is completely unreliable and serves only as a crutch, an excuse to allow you to continue to behave as a child would.

My children love hunting Easter eggs, but my time for hunting Easter eggs is over. My future self isn鈥檛 a magical Easter bunny that will take care of everything. It鈥檚 up to me 鈥� right now 鈥� to make the future that I want.

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