Am I NUTS!?!?

You'll never believe where I went last week. I told my mom, "This day has to go down in History!!" I went to Barnes and Nobles (w/a Starbucks inside) Not with the intent to get a Mocha Drink (as in the past), but to actually look for and purchase a book.

*Crowd gasps in awe and shock as they never thought they would see this day!*

...and now the rest of the story (that leads up to why I went to a bookstore):

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the future. You see, my dad has his and my mom's future planned out (well, for the most part), my sister has her husband to plan their future together, my brothers, well, the one doesn't appear to dwell on future issues too much, and the other seems to have a pretty good handle on things, that leaves me. Hmmmmmmmmm What about my future?!?! No one else can plan for it but me. S C A R Y ! ! !

Investing my money wisely is something I've always "planned" on doing. Good intentions once again, but lacking the actual action. These good plans have been in my head for years, and I just keep putting it off. For no reason in particular .... well, I take that back -- fear might be a reason ... oh and actually having to "gain knowledge" which equals studying and trying to retain information which takes a lot of time.

My mom suggested that I call my uncle who is very knowledgeable in this area and ask his advice. So I did. The conversation I was expecting to have with him would include him telling me what to do, when to do it, how to do it, possibly a website to look at, and then closing with an informative packet being sent to me, (Which we all know would end up next to my car information packet, my tv, dvd player, and all my other purchase information manuals I've compiled) and it would never be read -- b/c hey! he knows what he's doing and I didn't have to worry about a thing.

(I'm realizing that I'm a person who lives by sound effects! Right now I'm hearing a big buzzer in my head like on a game show when you answer a question incorrectly!)

My conversation did not go like that at all. It literally began with him saying, "Jessica, I am not going to tell you what to do with your money." Hmm, ok, He threw me from the start. I thought, wait a second, that's not what you're suppose to say!! ;) ha ha Talk about having your bubble popped right out of the starting gate.

He talked and I listened, and it ended up being a very good conversation. I was even taking notes, b/c when people talk, I listen but I don't retain. (Another reason it's hard for me to "learn" b/c retaining information is a part of that.) It was funny b/c then he started asking me questions, and I was going back to my notes (which I was scribbling frantically on any scrap of paper I could find on the table -- like I said, I wasn't expecting to take notes...I was expecting a brochure to be mailed to me! I got the first few correct, but the more he talked I started to get confused, and he didn't want to confuse me, but when he would ask questions then, I was WAY off base!

I had to laugh about that though b/c the answer was literally right in front of my face! The thing is though, he would ask the question differently than how I had it written (if that makes sense) so I was messing myself up. I told my mom I do the SAME thing to the kids in our church youth group; they'll have the answer they need right in front of them, but I'll word the question backwards just to see if they're paying attention. Most of the time, they're not. How funny that now "I" was the one who was being tested to see if I was following the conversation. Yikes! Kind of makes me want to take it easy on the kids at church. It's not a lot of fun being in that seat!

During our conversation, my uncle told me about a book he wanted me to read. He said he wasn't trying to get rid of me by saying, "Just read this book." He wants me to have the knowledge that will help me down the road so I will make wise decisions. It kind of reminded me of the saying, "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime." (Of course, I don't want to learn to fish b/c it's gross -- but you know what I mean!) I went on Amazon.com to see if I could get the book cheap, but on the ordering page there was an error, so that is why I ventured out to Barnes and Noble.

While walking through the bookstore I told my mom, "Even if you lived to be 200 years old, you'd never be able to read all of these books!"

So I am reading my ONE book. It's easy reading, thankfully it's not full of stock market jargin that would blow my mind (what little is left), the author is humorous (I've actually laughed out loud while reading -- how many books on finances can do that to you?), at the end of each chapter is a review of what was covered in that chapter (Funny thing, sometimes while reading the review I think "What? I learned about that? I don't remember!"), and of course, one of the biggest pros for me -- He Is Repetitive!! :D :D :D That is one of the keys to learning anything, "Repetition is the Key to Learning."

Not to make this entry longer than it needs to be, but lets face it, I past that point about 10 minutes ago, I have to add a Funny Story:

I'm starting to feel more confident as I've gained just a smidgen (sp?) of knowledge in the past few days, and I'm starting to think, "I can do this! I can invest my money, and plan for my future. This is feasible. I can attain this goal!!" And what happens? On my break at work, the pharmacist sat across from me and asked, are you good at math? I played my "dumb" card and shook my head "no" while lowering my financial planning book into my lap so he wouldn't see what I was reading. Another lady said she was pretty good w/numbers so he starts: "Three men spend a night at a hotel. The total bill is $30. Each man pays $10. " Oh....I thought.....this is a joke, I can handle this. I don't have to REALLY pay attention, I just have to laugh at the end. He continues, "After the men went upstairs, the owner told the clerk, 'that room isn't finished, give them a $5 refund.' So the clerk took out 5 singles and went up to the room. She handed each man one single and put the other 2 on the table." Then he says, "Where's the missing dollar?" As I start to laugh, I realize, wait....it's not a joke...it's a RIDDLE!!! I HATE RIDDLES!! They make me feel dumber than a box of rocks! Then he says, "Yeah, if they got a dollar back a piece, that means they paid $9 for the room. 9 x 3 = 27 plus the 2 singles left on the table = 29 so where's the missing dollar. After wracking my brain, I just couldn't take it any more, and he would NOT tell me the answer.

I left the break room saying:

"AM I NUTS!!! I Can't find a missing dollar, how in the WORLD am I suppose to invest money for my future by myself!!!"

I still haven't figured out the riddle, but I've determined not to let it prevent me from learning as much as I can about financial planning. I am going to continue reading my book, and then go from there. If in years to come, you hear of me residing in the poor house, you'll know it's b/c I didn't finish reading this book!