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Feeling Prosperity

Over the holidays, we got together with extended family after a while. A few of the adult kids in the group (including J) had recently joined the workforce. No one is making big bucks yet and everyone is experiencing the struggles of starting out alone. 

But the way each of these kids perceives their financial status and therefore what they imagine in or out of their reach is vastly different. Some feel richer than they actually are and conversely other feel poorer than the really are. And that perception leads to actions and therefore outcomes. There is a fine balance of feeling just solvent enough but fretting about money, being realistic about their earning and spending abilities without being reckless. It seems like a hard problem to solve. 

Everyone carries baggage from their parents' relationship with money - things that they observed and decide to emulate or reject. Building on that foundation leads to less than optimal outcomes. Talking to these young people took me back to the time I was in their stage of life and how the habits formed then set the tone for the rest of my life. As a parent I found myself itching to course correct J so she would break free from the cycle that was created over two generations by a new immigrant mother born to refugee parents.

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