Hey, it’s Louis...
What we’ve learned so far
I was an idiot with money.
Long-term vision for the future is essential.
The egg salad sandwich at the Route 94 truck stop works faster than any colon prep on the market.
Feelings and moods can work against you.
👀 IN TODAY’S STASH
How a kid with two TV channels grew into a guy who could not stay home
Why you’re fighting two opponents at once, and one of them is you
The “it’s only $40” math that might make you sit down
🌳 THE SHADE
There’s no exact formula to get you from wherever you are to retirement savings.
Sure, there are certain things you can do. Things that, generally speaking, are good to help you move down the path. Investing in a 401(k), a Roth IRA or some other retirement account come to mind.
Grab some shade for a minute because these are only part of the picture and many of us need to find and get an understanding of the behaviors that are working against our retirement.
What motivates these behaviors?
🌰 THE NUT
For a good portion of my life it was not wanting to be alone.
I felt like being at my apartment was tantamount to solitary confinement at Waynesville super-max. So I went out all… the… time… and spent a lot of money.
But why did I feel this way?
Part of it was that I was young and had the hormones of a pubescent billy goat on Viagra. That will drive you to go out… a lot.
The other part, well that’s the more difficult part to ascertain.
Was it fear of being alone or not being comfortable with myself?
Was I trying to live up to some image I had of the popular kid that was always out and about?
Could it have been all the detentions Sister Lauren gave me in the “Thinking Room”? Which is a very pretentious name for a broom closet. That observation landed me an extra detention when I explained that to her.
What I came to realize many years later was that I was acting out an idea I had created when I was young.
Relax, it’s not the one where I was surrounded by a hundred women dressed up like Kitty LaGrange in The Star Siren while they were singing “Hang on Sloopy” and handing me $20 bills.
It’s the one where I was in the hustle and bustle of a big city.
When I was young, we moved out to the country, away from all my friends and the city I had lived in for the past four years. I still went to school in that city for a few years, which meant I did not have the opportunity to make friends around the town we moved close to.
I was pretty lonely back then and was convinced that there would never be anything to do out in the “boonies.”
After all, I was eight years away from being able to drive and the TV was only able to bring in two channels. One seemed to have Guiding Light on 24/7 and the other had static-infused reruns of Press Your Luck.
So I would imagine being in a city with all the noise and distractions. Hanging out with friends and having lots of things to do.
his fantasy gradually morphed into an idea of what I was supposed to be as a young man… always on the go and living the life.
Over the years, I may have added some ideas from TV commercials into this idea. But the point is…what the hell was my point??? Oh yeah… what I’m trying to get at here is that there’s some underlying fundamental stuff that we as humans do that tends to sabotage us.
You know that phrase, “I’m my own worst enemy,” well it’s around for a good damn reason.
It took a while, but I found the motivation behind my behavior.
I wish I could say that once I found it the weight had been lifted, angels sang, and the world was brighter because I was no longer a slave to this behavior. But hell no, it was a struggle.
After all, I was trying to break a habit that I had been mired in for years.
On top of that, there were many times when I kept doing it and I was fighting with myself, thinking, “Why do you keep doing this? You know why you’re doing it but you’re still spending too much money? Stop it.”
It took some time but eventually I formed new habits. Less expensive habits that were better for me and I was able to start saving money.
It’s not an easy thing to do because you’re fighting against two things. One, the trappings of society and the culture we live in today, and two, you’re fighting against yourself and human nature.
And that combination, my brother, will beat you harder than Clubber Lang.
We’ll get on with the trappings of society later but for now, we have to bring this concept home.
🐿️ THE STEP
In the last issue we started digging around to find things that were motivating us and our spending habits.
This time we want to understand the scope of it.
You ever told yourself, “Hey, it’s only $40”? Or “I’ll make it up next month”?
How many times have you said, “Hey, it’s only $40”? 10 times? 100 times? 34,762 times?
I’d say over the last 20 years, I’ve said that roughly once a month.
240 times… that’s close to $10,000.
And of all that shit that I’ve bought, how much of it do I have left?
Almost none of it.
I’m not talking about toilet paper or food. I’m talking about spur-of-the-moment “hey… that’d be neat” kind of purchases.
You add that $10,000 to the 67.2538746% of a house I wasted in money going out and let’s see, that’s a 2 carry the 1 and… yep, I wasted a shit ton of money.
I want you to do your own calculations and find what your number is.
See if you are ready to do something different. I sure as hell am.
Until the next Stash, protect your nuts brother.
