Member-only story
I began working on this post earlier in the week when the market was “only” down a thousand-and-a-half points. I was still feeling fairly mensch-like, sticking to the plan and feeling some, but not a lot, of stress about several major bills and expenses coming due at once on the first of this month.
I was feeling several things at once — a small measure of anxiety about paying out over ten thousand dollars’ worth of bills within a matter of days; some measure of surprise at my ability to do so when I can easily recall when that amount was well more than ten times what I had in the bank; and third, an opportunity to write about how, despite shelling out this significant amount of our funds, I was going to continue doing what I always do and what I preach — to Pay Ourselves First. Ourselves rather than Myself because I am also contributing to my wife’s retirement fund this week.
I was ready to scrap the idea of this post after watching all the investments that I have carefully built up a few hundred dollars at a time over the past twenty-plus years drop in value by twenty-plus thousand dollars within one week, but then it dawned on me that perhaps that makes it the best time of all to share how I am continuing to stick with the plan.
