When the alarm went beep-beep-beep a few minutes ago, I was shocked. First of all, I thought I'd turned THAT alarm off, since it was set to go off at 5 am, my yoga and exercise time. Second of all, my GOD, it was already FIVE A.M.? I had felt a bit sleepy a while ago, but by then I only had another chapter and I'd be done with this book.

What book could possibly keep me up all night oblivious to the time? Some fantastic science fiction novel? Some wonderful spiritual book? Ha! A book about money for someone who basically doesn't have any problem with money!

How to Get What You Want in Life with the Money You Already Have: Simple Yet Revolutionary Ideas for Reaching Your Dreams While Still Paying Your Bills, by Carol Keeffe

Don't bother writing that down. I'm about to tell you everything she basically had to say, which amounts to about four really good points in 227 pages of repetitive prose. That said, I want to add as well that I plan to put several of her ideas into action because I think they are ideally suited to the way my beloved husband looks at the world and deals with money.

Here's her idea, in a nutshell: The whole point about money is to start by thinking what it is you WANT out of life, what are your dreams, your goals, your wishes? Where is the hidden you, that would come out if you had money? Where would you go, what would you do, what would you really buy?

That part, JF and I basically do. I would say that I managed our lean years with a tougher hand than either JF or my daughter would have liked, but since JF and I agreed that we wanted to keep ourselves as debt-free as possible, NEVER getting into credit card debt of any kind, and that we wanted to live on one salary and that we wanted to travel the world...you'd have to say that we basically had the fundamentals of what ol' Carol had to say pretty much down.

This was the thesis, lo these many years ago, of How to Live Rich When You're Not, the book that got me started on the right monetary track when I was still a single girl. Pick your luxuries, the author of that book urges, and then pinch those other pennies until they squeak. You discover what it is in life that represents true luxury to YOU, and then indulge entirely in that, finding the money for your champagne in rice and beans or second hand clothes or whatever else it doesn't FEEL BAD depriving yourself of.

Still, I've had long long talks with friends of mine who are just simply SNOWED UNDER with credit card debt, constantly struggling to get their bills paid off, never somehow managing to stay out of debt, never having any fun, never getting to Europe. And resenting me for the time and money I have to travel.

So here's Carol's plan for getting out of debt and staying out and having your own money to do with as you have planned:
1. Save your change. LABEL the jar with your specific savings goal.
2. Make minimum payments on your credit card and other installment debt.
3. Open different savings accounts for your different savings goals and put a little every month in there.
4. Every time you choose not to buy something, go home and immediately put that money into savings (jar, sock, write one of your savings accounts a check...)
5. Play games with yourself to stash more of your money into your savings accounts. There are about fifteen of these, but mainly the idea is to give yourself permission to save and then to spend the money on stuff that makes you happy, fulfilled, satisfied and joyful-- whatever that may end up being.
6. Pay yourself first. This is one I've heard before and it makes a lot of sense, though I tend to think "put it into savings first" not "give yourself fun money first." But all of this is directed at easing the downward spiral of feeling terrible about money, spending money to ease your bad feelings, then feeling bad that you've spent the money, then spending money to comfort yourself for having to deprive yourself...
7. Pay bills once a month at the same time you allocate money to savings goals and don't THINK about them the rest of the month. (Since all but one of my bills comes out of the paycheck automatically, this is relatively painless...)

By paying yourself first, and paying your credit cards and other installment bills the minimum, you end up with more money in the month to cover your basic expenses, so you don't run into the need to use the card to get through to the end of the month. The bills eventually get paid off, and as they do, you have even more money.

The whole rest of the 200+ pages was cheerleading, saying YOU, TOO, CAN DO THIS! YES, YOU!

Though it was phrased differently, this was the same basic advice in the last money book I read. Give yourself pleasure, joy, satisfaction with your money FIRST. Then stop using your credit cards as you pay them slowly and methodically off.

Why does this keep me up until 5 am? I don't know, but the last time I read, I think it was titled something like, Get Out of Debt and Stay Out for the Rest of Your Life!, I spent the whole day in my chair on the porch reading the book nonstop. The minimum payment thing is interesting, I admit, though we have totally escaped credit card debt entirely, so I'll never have to do that one.

We don't have the emergency funds (or, we do, but it isn't labeled as such) and six months or a year of salary socked away, or the tax-sheltered annuity that gives Carol enough money in interest every month that she doesn't HAVE to work. She's really financially free. And many people have that as a goal: Enough invested that they can live on the interest. I doubt if that would ever be a goal I could foist onto JF...every time the stock market goes down, he's more convinced than ever that he'll never see his retirement money that's been WRESTED from him against his will by his employer.

I do like the idea of the different savings accounts, and sitting down together once a month to "diversify" our savings into the different accounts. Carol thinks we should be in a credit union, not a bank, and that bears looking into. She thinks we need to immediately start stuffing an IRA. She's not convinced we need to pay off our mortgage or even own a home at all. (I still think we get more house for our money than if we were renting.)

Well, in an hour, I'll go out hiking in the woods with my friend Pam, and then maybe I'll come home and take a nap. This is not something to make a habit of, but it is quite the joy to have the luxury to do read a book all night long.