As I am writing this entry, immersed in what I excel (words) my BFF Barb who came into my life when we were 14 and sitting on a bench at a swim meet in our hometown of Willingboro, NJ, is immersed in one of the things she does best that I cringe when I look them….numbers. A CPA, she is sitting at my dining room table, a cup of tea that is getting cold,  with bank statements, my check book, tax info spread around her, she is creating a spread sheet of the facts and figures of my life. I would much prefer to focus on the word pictures, while she and her husband Glenn who is my accountant and financial advisor encourage me to look at the bigger financial picture.

Growing up in a blue collar middle class family, money was never overflowing the coffers, but we always had what we needed. There were never role models for financially well off women in my family and anyone who was, was married to a man with money AND they were all business men, not creative types like me.  I had to invent my own relationship with money and it wasn’t always friendly. One thing I have learned is that I have always been able to cover my bills. Widowed more than 13 years ago, I have been able to support my son and keep us in the same house in which have lived since 1992 through sheer ingenuity, hard work and the ability to spin at least 10-12 plates at the same time. For those of  a certain age, you will remember the guy on the Ed Sullivan Show who would do just that.  Barb is shaking her head at my sometimes lax accounting system and is doing her best to find ways to set up something that will work for this sometimes ‘cosmic foo foo social worker, right brain creative type’ .

I can feel my stomach clenching a bit as we look at the numbers dancing across the page of a manual spread sheet she is creating. I breathe a sigh of relief that she has the patience and skill to assist me in managing a sometimes unmanageable aspect of my life. The truth is, if I welcome financial prosperity, I darn sure better be able to care for it, like I would a relationship with a human being. So, as my relationship with money is evolving, I become more accountable in all ways.

http://youtu.be/1RYc6k803oo Prosperity Chant by Karen Drucker