Historically, I have not had a great relationship with
money. In younger years, I would say things like “I hate money” or “money is
the root of all evil”. At that time, I would do the minimum necessary to keep
the logistics of my financial life going, always with a certain grimace of
distaste. As an artist and a healer, I’ve always wished that I could not have
to deal with money, and get paid in things like chickens, vegetables or crafts.
Or hugs! Somehow, money seemed dirty and not suited to the purity of my
pursuits.
These days, I have realized that money is just energy in a
neutral form. It’s neither positive or negative in its own right.
I also had to face the fact that my career, while
altruistic, is just as worthy of earning me a decent living as anyone else’s. More
than that, people benefit from and value things more when they pay for the
service provided to them! Most importantly, I have valuable skills and deserve
to be compensated for them.
So earning money is a good thing[i].
Having my financial affairs in order is a good thing. I’ve been working on it
for some time now, but now is the time to build a cushion of savings[ii].
Earlier this year, I saw an image on facebook of the 52 Week Savings Challenge.
Either I didn’t feel like I had enough money to save at the time, or I just
lost it in the shuffle.
Then I came across a blog post on witchesandpagans.com – Pagan
Savings Challenge. [insert tire squealing sound]
Now this is interesting. This author took the 52 Week
Savings Challenge and added in a spiritual component: save money as a way to raise
energy to work your spell or as an offering.
Sound familiar? The Winter
Pagan Fitness Challenge sucked me in the same way.
Really, both of these challenges are about the same thing: understanding
that every act, no matter how seemingly mundane, is magical and part of your
spiritual practice. There is no separation between the spiritual and the
everyday.
In fact, the everyday, mundane details of living are perhaps
even more important than our perceived spiritual or religious acts. For what
does it matter if we have fancy altars if we don’t have food? How is it helpful
to throw an elaborate ritual if you haven’t paid the bills? Everything has to
be in balance for an organism to function properly.
I have studied Buddhism for a long time, but only now am I
starting to understand this concept. The mundane details of life represent
thousands of choices a day. What will the sum of your choices look like? Will
it reflect an attitude of love and beauty? Or will it look slapdash, scattered
and cluttered? More and more, I make choices that reflect love, order and beauty.
But I digress - back to saving money. The 52 Week Savings
Challenge plan is that you save an increasing amount each week. If you follow
that plan, you’ll end up with $1378 at the end of the year.
Since I’m self-employed, my income fluctuates. My plan is to
save whatever amount I can each week. So if one week I can’t save at all, it
will be balanced out by another week when I saved more than the plan. Also, I’d
like to contribute more to the plan than it calls for overall so that I can
reach a goal of $2000. I am putting the money in my general savings account,
but to be sure that I don’t touch this particular money, I am also keeping an
Excel spreadsheet of my contributions and the running total.
I also came into the challenge on Week 7, so I contributed
$30 – enough to cover the previous weeks ($28) rounded up to an even
number. As of Sunday, I am current with
9 weeks of contributions.
The Pagan Savings Challenge suggests setting an intention
for this money. What will it be used for, or will it be used at all? My
intention is to have a safety cushion, so this money will not be used. This is
an experiment for me. Can I, as an entrepreneur still in the startup phase of
her business, save this much money without using it? What will this do to my
cash flow during the year? Is this workable? Do I need a separate fund for
emergencies? Where will this exercise take me?
In an ideal world, I would have all my bills paid on time, a
cushion of savings for use in only dire emergencies, a savings fund for large
unplanned expenses[iii],
money allocated for large planned expenses and a comfortable margin of excess
funds in my checking account. I would also have some type of IRA or investments
for my elderhood[iv].
Looks like I answered my own questions. The 52 Week/Pagan
Savings Challenge 2014 will be my Step 1 to the above picture of financial
stability[v].
Goddess and God, aid me in this financial endeavor. Help me
to build self-discipline to lay the foundation for a secure and stable future. Bless
me with a thriving business and financial abundance. I am grateful for all of
the abundance and blessings that you have already granted and for those already
on their way to me. So mote it be!
[i]
In moderation. I do believe that the desire for money in excess of what you actually
need is a serious illness that is creating a huge problem in the world today.
[ii]
Again, as it happens, but that’s another story.
[iii]
Vehicle breakdowns, emergency room visit, etc.
[iv]
I have no plans to retire and do nothing at some arbitrary age – that way lies
early decrepitude! But most likely, I will slow down somewhat…or so I’m told.
At some point, I’d also like to save money to pay for my funerary expenses. I
know it’s a long way away, but I want my affairs in order warrior style. I
could go tomorrow, and I want to be ready for that. Stay tuned for another post
about estate planning, yet another project on my list.
[v]
It all goes well. Plan may have to be adjusted as I go.
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