Money Honey

It’s annual review time at work. The time when you are suppose to reflect back on the past years accomplishments and brag about yourself. This is something I’ve never been quite good at, bragging about how wonderful I am. I am in a support role for my job. I punch a time clock and I’m only allowed to work 40 hours a week. There are pros and cons to this type of job. One of the cons is the fact that bonuses were taken away from hourly employees. Since I support an entire team of salaried employees, this time of year can be rather annoying as everyone is so concerned with not only how much their raise is going to be, but how much their bonus check will be. It’s hard to just keep a smile on my face and pretend that it doesn’t really bother me, but deep inside it does.

Money is funny. The more you have, the more things you seem to find to spend it on, and you find yourself not having enough again. When it comes to annual review time and you find out that you are only getting x% increase, instead of being grateful and thankful for your job and an increase, you feel you deserve and are worth more. Greed and envy start to creep in and people’s ugly sides start to show.

In the last few years, I’ve had to learn many lessons when it comes to money. I can now honestly say that I am thankful I had to learn those lessons the hard way otherwise I would still be making those same mistakes. At the end of the day, life shouldn’t be about money. It shouldn’t be about how big your house is, what type of car you drive, clothes you wear, vacations you take, gifts you give/receive. Life is about living happily and comfortably within your means. You wake up, go to work, provide for yourself (and your family if that applies), go home and rest and do it all over again the next day. When you look at the big picture, as long as you have enough to live, that’s all you really ever need. Anything additional is just bonus, and those little bonuses in life should be earned by hard work and determination. I’ve never been afraid to work hard for something. Anything worth having in life should be earned. You appreciate it more when you realize just how hard you had to work for it.