You shouldn’t live your life with regrets, nor should you dwell on things that are the woulda’ shoulda’ coulda’s. But I find rehashing some regrets is the best way to manage future decisions by learning from our mistakes. 2008: it was a year certainly filled with more rewards than regrets; however, there were a few.
For probably the first time in our marriage, my wife and I sat down in Janu
ary and created a financial flow chart with cash allocations to certain activities and projects we wanted to complete for the year. Regret #1: along with this, since neither of us has a 401(k) or IRA’s or college funds for the kids….we planted a stack of cash into Roths for each of us, planning on their eventual use for college. As values plummeted, realizing we had lost nearly a third of the actual value we put in, I think back now and realize paying off the home equity would have been more prudent than following more widely accepted practice of putting money away. I had developed an issue with stocks about eight years ago. I’m not making an ethics call on anyone else, believe me, but something in my gut never was settled on putting my money into building someone else’s company….regardless of “ethically based companies” I told the girl who set up our IRA’s, you’d be surprised at what I find unethical: ie, Sprawlmart.
Regret #2: a visit to the chiropractor. After slacking off with my workouts, mostly due to bouts of the flu, I had finally gotten myself back to regular lifting when I figured I could switch back from my 20 to 30 lb dumbbells. The first session or two went fine. Then as I was doing a military press, I felt something pull in my neck that within 2 hours had restricted head movement. I’ve had this happen before and it would go away within a day or two. This time it didn’t, so I went to a recommended chiropractor. The sessions were fine and resulted in healing….but added up to more than I bargained for even with insurance. And here’s the kicker: when getting our own insurance policy in August, I was rejected because of chiropractic care. Finally, when accepted, I’m considered high-risk because of it, regardless of being in the best shape of my life. I'm trying to decide what ultimately is the bigger pain in the neck.
Regret #3: volunteering to help a non-profit with a construction project. At the close of 2007 I offered design services for a small remodel job. Working through this at the onset of 2008 I would have never guessed that in the end my wife and I would be villainized, leadership of the organization would have lost all credibility with me and good friendships marred. While there’s forgiveness, today I am probably even more of a cynic.
Regret #4: not seeing the Medicine Wheel. While at the top of the Bighorn Mountains in eastern Wyoming and experiencing what we thought was car trouble, we passed on visiting an ancient native American creation called the Medicine Wheel another 1 ½ miles to the summit. I had always wanted to see this as a kid and had planned it into our Westward Ho trip, but alas, passed the opportunity when I was uncertain of our car’s health.
For probably the first time in our marriage, my wife and I sat down in Janu
ary and created a financial flow chart with cash allocations to certain activities and projects we wanted to complete for the year. Regret #1: along with this, since neither of us has a 401(k) or IRA’s or college funds for the kids….we planted a stack of cash into Roths for each of us, planning on their eventual use for college. As values plummeted, realizing we had lost nearly a third of the actual value we put in, I think back now and realize paying off the home equity would have been more prudent than following more widely accepted practice of putting money away. I had developed an issue with stocks about eight years ago. I’m not making an ethics call on anyone else, believe me, but something in my gut never was settled on putting my money into building someone else’s company….regardless of “ethically based companies” I told the girl who set up our IRA’s, you’d be surprised at what I find unethical: ie, Sprawlmart.
Regret #2: a visit to the chiropractor. After slacking off with my workouts, mostly due to bouts of the flu, I had finally gotten myself back to regular lifting when I figured I could switch back from my 20 to 30 lb dumbbells. The first session or two went fine. Then as I was doing a military press, I felt something pull in my neck that within 2 hours had restricted head movement. I’ve had this happen before and it would go away within a day or two. This time it didn’t, so I went to a recommended chiropractor. The sessions were fine and resulted in healing….but added up to more than I bargained for even with insurance. And here’s the kicker: when getting our own insurance policy in August, I was rejected because of chiropractic care. Finally, when accepted, I’m considered high-risk because of it, regardless of being in the best shape of my life. I'm trying to decide what ultimately is the bigger pain in the neck.Regret #3: volunteering to help a non-profit with a construction project. At the close of 2007 I offered design services for a small remodel job. Working through this at the onset of 2008 I would have never guessed that in the end my wife and I would be villainized, leadership of the organization would have lost all credibility with me and good friendships marred. While there’s forgiveness, today I am probably even more of a cynic.
Regret #4: not seeing the Medicine Wheel. While at the top of the Bighorn Mountains in eastern Wyoming and experiencing what we thought was car trouble, we passed on visiting an ancient native American creation called the Medicine Wheel another 1 ½ miles to the summit. I had always wanted to see this as a kid and had planned it into our Westward Ho trip, but alas, passed the opportunity when I was uncertain of our car’s health.
I’ve learned from all these………as we should. While I mention them from time to time with friends, I don’t dwell on them. Like I said, 2008 was filled more with rewards than regrets.
No comments:
Post a Comment