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Yesterday Kayla and I made an important step toward our thriving financial future. Now that we are a combined income family, we felt like it was time to see where we are in terms of retirement. I have an IRA through one of my clients who is a CFP and he has been bugging me to have this meeting for about 3 years. We expected to leave the meeting feeling a little down about ourselves and our financial situation. My tendency is to be intimidated by those that have more money marbles than I do, and to shy away from facing my situtation, often describing it as feeling "under water". The truth is I have felt underwater in the money department most of my life. I never would have pegged myself as someone who would meet with a "financial planner" or that I would even benefit from one. To our suprise, we left feeling quite inspired and capable of making the changes needed to get where we need to be. I was impressed by the ideas that he brought to the table that we didn't have the resources to realize on our own. Lots of new exciting prospects for financial growth were brought to our attention! I am working on shedding the idea that I am not worthy of having a rich financial life. When I say "rich", I am not suggesting that my goal is to live in a million dollar home, become a member of a country club, have fancy cars and vacation homes, or whatever it is that "rich" people do. I want to get to a place within myself where I know that I deserve the wealth that I have. I want to continue to work on my relationship with money. I think that when you consider yourself a "broke" person, you have a tendency to devalue the money that is in your pocket. The attitude that I carried for a long time was "I dont know when I am going to have this much money again, so I might as well spend it on something that makes me feel good right now," as if I felt that I was incapable of ever being rich enough to be truly secure, so the moment I got a few dollars in the bank, or a new credit card, I went out to spend it in order to achieve that temporary, immediate satisfied feeling of owning something new, of being able to buy something. I have broken myself of that habit, thankfully. It has been an organic process that has been in the works for some time. My relationship with money started drastically changing when Kayla and I got serious into our relationship. Money can steer the dynamic of a romantic partnership, and I have experienced it from every direction. When we started dating I think we both had some preconceived ideas about how things should work financially in our next relationship, based on our previous experiences, and wanted to keep a dynamic of equality intact, meaning separate finances. Waves of change occurred over the years, and those needs started to reveal themselves as product of old baggage. Ulitimately, like every other component of our relationship, Kayla and I were finally able to shed those notions, and work toward a financial situation that more reflected what our unit has come to mean to us. Our ability to arrive at this point together, fully trusting one another is an accomplishment that I am proud of, and so grateful for. Here is to security, trust...and always love!