With the official start of softball season only three weeks away, we’re fighting the crazy May rains to get even one practice in every week. As usual, our team is almost brand new with only a few players returning from last season. We’ve never worked together and it shows when we take the field.
There are men of all ages and skills on our team. Some are old pros that have been at this for ages and others are “kids” home from college playing men’s slow-pitch softball for the very first time. But all of us, regardless of skill and experience, need the practice. Individually, the practice helps us learn our position better and hone our skills; as a team, practice teaches us to communicate to execute plays with greater success.
I’ve played baseball for as long as I can remember and have enjoyed playing softball for the last six years and still I continue to learn and improve through practice. Even Albert Pujols – arguably the best player in baseball today, if not ever – still practices to hone his craft. If a pro still learns and improves through daily practice, it only makes sense that we would as well.
Just like softball, personal finance takes practice, too. You’re not born knowing how to manage your money and you can’t just learn the skills you need to prepare for your financial future overnight. It takes time, effort, and the occasional failure every now and then.
I’ve been interested in money and how I spend it since I first started earning an allowance. Even with occasional lapses in fiscal and frugal judgment, I’ve always strived to make the most of every dollar that passes through my possession. But I’m still practicing; in fact, everything I do is practice.
That’s why I write: I choose to practice in public. You get to see my successes and failures and I hope you can use them as an example for your own personal finance practice. I can only hope that my experiences can benefit you in some way – that’s what is important for me in sharing my “journey”.
Money management is a learned skill. Without discipline, we would spend recklessly and with abandon and there would never be enough left for our present, let alone our future. But through practice, we learn how to temper our spend-lust and how to craft the financial future we want for ourselves.
Even if you consider yourself a “pro” in personal finance, never stop practicing. These are skills that can constantly be honed and shaped and you will never run out of places to improve yourself.
Photo by: Valerie Everett
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How true that is – when on a good pitch we are often lulled into a false sense of security!
The beauty of the internet is we can all benefit from others ideas & articles.
And the practice & research should be continually upgraded so we don’t become complacent.
3 Cheers for Frugality, Motivation & Personal Happiness (which can be achieved without spending one red cent)!