In looking for something to lend a bit of cheer this time of year — and perhaps some new money perspectives — I’ve come up with a new slant on your money beliefs. What happens when you treat your money like a blimp?
A couple of weeks ago I was watching a truly silly 1930, Cecil B. DeMille film called ‘Madam Satan’. I love these pre-code movies with the risque dialog and wild clothes, not to mention wacky plots. This one is about the wife trying to get her cheating, playboy husband back from the ‘party girl’, Trixie. Of course most of the action centers around a costume ball which includes auctioning off the ladies to rich guys! The party is being held on a Zeppelin because that is what every wildly rich person does, right? It’s quite a ride.
You won’t be surprised to find out that in the midst of the musical numbers and witty repartee there is a thunder storm which causes the Dirigible to go down. It is a DeMille movie after all. Naturally, there are some clever ways our ‘heroes’ end up surviving.
All this reminded me of the actual definition of Dirigible: “capable of being directed, steerable” — thus a blimp, air ship, or Zeppelin is a ‘steerable balloon.’
Okay, now this is not just a bit of whimsy.
It got me to thinking about the challenge that many folks have ‘directing and steering’ their personal money.
Your money can certainly feel like this big bag of air that seems to get untethered and wander off on its own, leaving you holding the string. Perhaps it even feels like it has a mind of its own. For many folks, things like student loans and credit card debt feel like big unwieldy things looming over you.
The crucial thing to do is to become more “dirigible”. How might you make your money easier for you to manage, control and “steer”?
Like most complex things, it’s about smaller chunks, and processes.
How do you manage other projects? What techniques work for you? I’ll bet that there is a way you can use those same ideas around money? Going back to the blimp analogy, it feels like you have to steer your money the way ‘experts’ do. To that I say “not so much”, especially when it comes to your day-to-day money “dirigibility”!
The important thing is to find an simple way to pay attention to what you are up to with your money — a way that allows you to ‘direct and steer’ it and also to enjoy and engage in the process. Something more manageable than a giant zeppelin above you that you try and steer from a tiny basket underneath!
Play with this a bit and see where it takes you. And of course, if you need a bit of support in figuring out how to be more dirigible with your money, let me know!
Ka’ching
Shell Tain, The Untangler