It's Time To Be A Grown Up About Money

Seeking: A grown-up relationship with money

- Flannery Dean

I’VE ONLY EVER KNOWN two states of financial being: just paid and flat broke. I’ve long lived beyond my means – primarily because I’ve never been entirely sure what my means are. I confess to acting like a drama-chasing teenager when it comes to money – the first flush of having it, anyway. I could do without the inevitable heartbreak of an overdraft. But as I’ve watched my friends make rite-of-passage purchases (homes, cars, Max Mara coats), at the age of 40 I’ve had to face the fact that my adolescent relationship with money has had grown-up consequences.

After nearly two decades of hustling, I’ve got nothing to show for my work. No savings, no house, no apartment, no assets that will accrue in value. Nothing but $4,000 of credit card debt and a statement bag I bought years ago that I’m still paying off. In tough times, I imagine a stern economist shaking a Mason jar of coins at me and shouting, “You did this all yourself!”