A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 23 – Money Sense

Day 23 is “Be Financially Chic ” in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days.  In this chapter, Fiona explores how money, life and freedom intersect. She has a very thoughtful discussion on how she is working to achieve a life full of daily beauty and ease, with a future of prosperity and freedom. The underpinning of it all, of course, is our perspective of ourselves. At first, I was about to write “..the underpinning of our present and future life is our perspective on money…” But before we get to money, we need to know ourselves and what we want in our life. Fiona goes on to discuss the things that she values most in her life – things like living a low-stress life, a harmonious home, being creative.  With this understanding of herself, she can effectively work at creating her dream life.

Fiona also mentions how important it has been for her happiness and financial effectiveness that she spends her time and her money in ways that have meaning to her. She looks inward to her own dreams and tastes when thinking about making a purchase. It’s very easy to follow the crowd when making purchases. We can spend enormous amounts of money and time doing things that everyone around us seems to be doing but, in fact, don’t bring us any particular value. 

When I was in my 30s, I moved from an urban area to a small town.  People there had very different perspectives and hobbies.  It was a bit of a wake-up call for me as what I had enjoyed was a bit out-of-step with the people now around me. I had to think through my habits and preferences. It was a good discovery because I learned to be wiser about how I spent and saved my time and money. 

Here are the four books that I would recommend to anyone who wanted to get a handle on their life and their money in order of priority. (Note: The middle three I read based on Fiona’s recommendation and loved them!)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephan Covey. Covey will help you figure out what you truly value and what you really want your life to be.

The Millionaire Next Door & Stop Acting Rich by Thomas J. Stanley. Once we know where we want to go, Stanley tells us about other people who have made the journey to financial independence and how they thought and acted to get there. He lists the nuts and bolts of what financially secure people actually do to achieve that level of security.  Stanley will ask us to take a good, hard look at spending money on so-called status symbols and living on credit-card debt.

The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. Bach gives us specific actions and tips for thinking and achieving a life of financial security. He will have us looking at our morning fancy cappuccino differently. (Note: after reading this book, I quit buying fancy coffees and bought stock in Starbucks, instead.)

Financially Chic by Fiona Ferris. Trust Fiona to take the topic of finances and make it both light-hearted and full of interesting and effective ideas. 

The bottom line with all four writers is that we can work to create the life of our dreams when we understand what’s important to us and why. Then, we can craft a plan to move us in the right direction. (Big takeaway: spend less than you earn. Every day.  Every. Single. Day. That idea came from Ben Franklin, too, by the way.)

Here in Paris, I just hung out my apartment window and cheered and clapped with all my neighbors to honor medical workers who are keeping our communities going.  Financial concerns are suddenly much more than just vague technobabble.  The entire world is in financial and physical lockdown. Whole economies are at a virtual standstill.  The brutal truth is that the financial effects will be felt differently based on how much of a financial cushion (savings) that people have. Across all socio-economic levels, some will do okay financially – maybe not great but there will be stability, at least. Some will struggle but manage to pull through. And many will suffer a great deal. Maybe a thin (very thin) silver lining to all this calamity is that we are forced to sit still and take a good, long look at how we are spending our money and living our lives.