When is the Visa bill due?

I didn’t write last night.  I meant to, but I was so tired.  I spent the day working at one client’s office, cleaning up his books for the year, and then I went home and did bookkeeping for another client who’s based in another state.  Some of my clients live out of state and I do all the work remotely.  It was 8:30 when I finished that work.  I fell into bed and said I would get up later, but, of course, that didn’t happen.

My first thought was, “Whoa, here we go.  I’m supposed to get a blog out every day.  I messed up.  I’m not doing this perfectly.”  I need to let that go.  Writing about that yesterday was actually really therapeutic.  I don’t have to do everything perfectly.  The giant eye of the internet does not care.  Writing that just made me laugh.

Okay, fears. What am I going to write about related to fears?  

One of my clients is a very educated professional (I’m trying not to be specific here to protect his identity.)  He runs a three person operation, been in business over 20 years, is very good at what he does.  His business isn’t making a huge profit, but the lights stay on and he takes home about $96,000 a year.  Twice a month I go in and balance his checking account, update Quickbooks, review his bills to determine what’s due, and generate checks for him to sign later.  It takes me about 5-6 hours a month.

Every visit, this is an example of our conversation:

Client  So how are we doing?  Are we doing okay?

Me       Well, I made this cash flow so you see when you’ll be running out of money. Do you want to look at it?

Client  Well, I can only do what I can do. Will I have to go without a paycheck this month?

Me       No, I can move things around.  Please look at your bank statement so you know where your money is going.

Client  Ugh, you ask me that every time. The writing’s too small.  Just let me know if you see something weird.  Okay, gotta run.  See you next time and thank you!

He’s pretty typical.  The fear around just looking at his bank statement is huge.

I see this every day.  I used to think it had to do with having money problems.  If your bank account is low and you don’t make a lot of money, it would make sense to me that you wouldn’t want to look at your finances.  But I meet so many people that are doing fine financially and they don’t want to know anything about it.

 

And then something happens – they get sick, or a family member gets sick, they lose their job, or their spouse loses their job – and they look up and say, “How much do I spend a week on groceries? When is the Visa bill due?  Where do I keep the gas bill?

People tell themselves that if they’re educated and make plenty of money they don’t need to know that much about their day-to-day finances.  They believe that nothing will happen to them that will be that serious. And if something does happen, they’ll be able to deal with it then. Famous last words. 

Money problems are rarely about lack of money.  Most of the time they’re about a lack of awareness.  

Oh, and lack of organization, but that’s an entry for another day.