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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, when I was a kid I could eat a whole jar of my great-grandmother’s homemade pickled okra, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I’ll share a story about my decision to skip San Diego Comic-Con this year.
Friday Forum
Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can participate in Friday Forum by calling and leaving a message at 304-837-2278, emailing an audio file to feedback@goldenspiralmedia.com, or clicking on the Send Voicemail tab on my website, GoldenSpiralMedia.com.
What I Learned Yesterday:
I hope that you’ve noticed by now that Stuff I Learned Yesterday is not just a show about all my happy moments and successes. It’s not intended to only give you a look at the stuff I’ve learned the easy way, it’s intended to also show stuff I’ve learned the hard way and from failure. I share my life in this way for two primary reasons. First, I want you know that I struggle with stuff and fail a lot. I don’t want you to think that my life is perfect or that I succeed at everything I do. I’m not living in Mayberry here. My life is filled with ups and downs, mistakes and failures, just like yours is.
The second reason I share these things is closely related. I want this podcast to be authentic. If I can be transparent and be real with you, then I think you’ll appreciate the show more. It does put me in a more vulnerable position, but knew that and prepared for that when I started the show.
Today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday is coming from that place of being transparent and an area that people, including myself, are really uncomfortable talking about. It’s a lesson about finances.
One of the things that my dad always taught me is to live within your means. He told me to never use a credit card unless I could pay off the full balance when the bill came in. He told me to save for the things that I wanted and buy them after I had saved the money. He told me to be content with what I had and not be jealous of things other people had. These are are all very sound financial principles.
I’m pretty conservative with my purchases, but money does burn a hole in my pocket faster than it will my wife. She is very frugal. She hates to shop, will wear clothes that are terribly out of style if they still fit and aren’t worn out, and she will talk herself out of buying just about anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. When we first got married I would buy her gift cards to clothing stores for Christmas or her birthday so she could go buy something she liked. She never spent them. On the rare occasion she did spend them, it was when MY birthday had rolled around and she’d use it to buy me something. I then switched to picking out and buying clothes for her instead of gift cards.
I can’t express how important it has been in our marriage to be in such agreement about money. Most couples fight most about money, and since we both have the same money principles, we almost never argue.
I mentioned on Friday’s show and Monday’s show that one of my clients had cut back the work that I’d been doing for them. While this is certainly a situation that I wish had not occurred, it is the way of life for us now that I am self employed. I no longer have a steady paycheck, but depend on work from clients. If something happens to their situation, it will trickle down and affect my situation.
How has it affected me? Well, as I mentioned on Monday, the trip that Kari and I had planned in May is now postponed indefinitely. But it also means that my trip to San Diego Comic Con in July has been cancelled. The comic con trip has been cancelled for a couple of reasons. I travel to the event each year with my good friend and podcast co-host Clint. Clint has traveled a lot this year for his job. I’ve known Clint for quite a while and I can’t remember a time where he’s had to be away from his family so much. When we spoke about comic-con earlier in the year, the thought of spending his vacation time away from his family, was hard to justify. Neither he nor his wife was thrilled with the idea.
Tickets to the event are very hard to get, so we decided to go ahead and try to get tickets just in case. We were fortunate to get tickets to the whole event so we decided to keep it on our agenda and look at it again just before hotels went on sale on April 8th. After meeting last night and considering our current situation, we both decided that it was in our best interest to skip the trip this year.
Now here’s the thing. Kari and I have more than enough in our savings account to cover the cost of going to comic-con. We could look at the trip as an investment and decide to take money from our savings account to cover the trip. It’s a business expense, so it would be a tax deduction for us. The event has given us a lot of special opportunities in previous years. Last year we got to interview the cast and producers of Almost Human, Revolution, and Falling Skies. We got to see several television pilots before they aired to the general public, and we got to experience special events like the 50th anniversary Doctor Who panel, the final Breaking Bad panel, and the 20 year X-Files anniversary panel.
Kari and I also believe that it will only be a couple of months before I’ve picked up enough work to cover the income lost from the other client. By the time comic-con actually gets here, we probably won’t be in this situation.
But we don’t live our lives or spend our money based on that framework. Besides, money isn’t the only resource being considered. For Clint money is part of this equation as well, but for him it’s more of a consideration of his time. We can always make more money, but we can’t make more time. He doesn’t want to spend yet another week away from his kids, and I don’t blame him one bit.
So here’s what I learned. After Clint and I made the decision to skip San Diego Comic Con, we felt good about it. Yes, of course, we were bummed at the thought of missing the event, but we knew we’d each made the right decisions for the right reasons. Dave Ramsey has an expression that you need to live like no one else so that you can live like no one else. That is, if you sacrifice like no one else now, and don’t let money control you, then you’ll have things that no one else has, and the freedom to enjoy them.
While there are a lot of things that Dave Ramsey teaches that we don’t to a very good job of following, the principle of not purchasing things on credit is thoroughly sound. If it turns out that July rolls around and I my workload hasn’t picked up, spending that money to attend comic con would be irresponsible.
After all, this September Kari and I are planning a trip to Hawaii with our kids as our first ever family vacation. We have all the money we need for that trip in our savings account. That trip will provide us with incredible family time, some moments to geek out and rub elbows with some actors, and create some amazing memories. If I can only choose one trip to take this year, the Hawaii trip wins and it ain’t even close. I want to live like no one else so I can live like no one else.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I would be grateful if you’d leave a review in iTunes or Stitcher.
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