To Risk or not to Risk
Recently, I've had to come face to face with the twin specters of risk-adversity and money woes. I have probably only told this to one person so far, but when I say Bad Economic Times and Golden Piece-of-canvas-that-is-intended-to-keep-you-from-smashing-into-the-ground, I think most of you would have a pretty good idea what I am talking about.
Thankfully, my family is not in dire straits, thanks to diligent saving and said Golden Canvas, but the stress of the situation has been getting to my parents. Other than the general stresses associated with changes in circumstances, the more prominent stress has been one of a Clash of the Parental Titans. (One clash in the car was so loud and angry that I could feel the physical vibrations in my ears.) On one side, my mum is the epitome of Risk-Adversity. For her, investment is a matter of putting the money in areas where the profit/interest is contractually assured. (Yet paradoxically, she berates my dad for being worried over finances and not Trusting God Day by Day.) On the other side, my dad is more risk-taking. He definitely isn't a gambler, but he is willing to take some degree of odds on the projected profit/interest on investment. (To be fair, his idea of how much money should be left behind for day to day expenses is a bit low in my humble and uninformed opinion.) Either way, I have little to no say about the suitable risk to take, it isn't my money after all, but all the strife (or rather more than usual strife) has been getting to me.
On one hand, I'd like to just go into my room, plug my ears into my earphones and not listen to anything. I can pretend that nothing is wrong and that everybody is happy. But on the other hand, that doesn't solve anything. What I have been doing is to insert myself into the hearing vicinity of arguments in the hopes that my presence will be a deterrence to more poisonous accusations from spewing out. I think it has been kind of working so far, but its just stressful. I feel so helpless just sitting there and listening to accusations of "so conservative that you've been wasting opportunity for years" and "you're risking everything, thats just gambling all your savings away". My recent reading of texts on negotiation skills for one of my modules has made it somewhat worse. I can see all the mistakes that they are making and how the relationship is definitely inadvertently getting harmed, but I can't do anything about it because neither side is at the stage where they would listen to reason.
The bad isn't there all the time, but I really hate it when it does. I know my parents do not expect and will not accept money from me when I start working, but I feel the pressure to make sure I have a good job so that if anything goes really bad, I have the means to help. And in my daily life, nothing much has changed, except I don't want people to start treating me differently or handling me overly with kid-gloves so I haven't said much about this. But as much as I tell myself nothing has changed, I guess it has. I recently had a run in with confronting my fear. I had packed sandwiches for lunch, partly to save money, partly because I didn't want to eat too full, but I had fled from the unpredicted need to possibly explain why I am trying to save money in front of strangers. Pride is a strange thing I guess.
Thankfully, my family is not in dire straits, thanks to diligent saving and said Golden Canvas, but the stress of the situation has been getting to my parents. Other than the general stresses associated with changes in circumstances, the more prominent stress has been one of a Clash of the Parental Titans. (One clash in the car was so loud and angry that I could feel the physical vibrations in my ears.) On one side, my mum is the epitome of Risk-Adversity. For her, investment is a matter of putting the money in areas where the profit/interest is contractually assured. (Yet paradoxically, she berates my dad for being worried over finances and not Trusting God Day by Day.) On the other side, my dad is more risk-taking. He definitely isn't a gambler, but he is willing to take some degree of odds on the projected profit/interest on investment. (To be fair, his idea of how much money should be left behind for day to day expenses is a bit low in my humble and uninformed opinion.) Either way, I have little to no say about the suitable risk to take, it isn't my money after all, but all the strife (or rather more than usual strife) has been getting to me.
On one hand, I'd like to just go into my room, plug my ears into my earphones and not listen to anything. I can pretend that nothing is wrong and that everybody is happy. But on the other hand, that doesn't solve anything. What I have been doing is to insert myself into the hearing vicinity of arguments in the hopes that my presence will be a deterrence to more poisonous accusations from spewing out. I think it has been kind of working so far, but its just stressful. I feel so helpless just sitting there and listening to accusations of "so conservative that you've been wasting opportunity for years" and "you're risking everything, thats just gambling all your savings away". My recent reading of texts on negotiation skills for one of my modules has made it somewhat worse. I can see all the mistakes that they are making and how the relationship is definitely inadvertently getting harmed, but I can't do anything about it because neither side is at the stage where they would listen to reason.
The bad isn't there all the time, but I really hate it when it does. I know my parents do not expect and will not accept money from me when I start working, but I feel the pressure to make sure I have a good job so that if anything goes really bad, I have the means to help. And in my daily life, nothing much has changed, except I don't want people to start treating me differently or handling me overly with kid-gloves so I haven't said much about this. But as much as I tell myself nothing has changed, I guess it has. I recently had a run in with confronting my fear. I had packed sandwiches for lunch, partly to save money, partly because I didn't want to eat too full, but I had fled from the unpredicted need to possibly explain why I am trying to save money in front of strangers. Pride is a strange thing I guess.