Oh how great it will be to be worth nothing

"Oh how great it will be to be worth nothing"

Sunday 7/31/2016
Self-Reflection

I am a 29 year old, recent graduate with nearly $200,000 of debt. I have a good job and I am happy at my job but I know I must constantly work to improve myself and hence this blog was created. I wanted a medium to express myself and document my progress that Facebook may not be adequate for. Looking down my list of examples I must say that I am in most need of Safety, specifically Financial Safety. As is with many new graduates, my debt greatly outweighs my assets, meaning my net worth is far less than zero. That homeless person asking for change has a cup worth more than I am at the moment. I can only hope to chip away at my debt and increase my assets, allowing me to eventually be worth nothing. I can only chuckle when I think about "Oh how great it would be to be worth nothing".  Yet truly I believe that having my assets equal to my debt is going to be a milestone. The hope of course is that eventually I will be worth much more than nothing.

Though I have a good job right now, no one can predict the future, and we never know when a truck will come careening through and introduce us to Saint Peter. Perhaps, even worse may be that the truck just leaves us terribly injured, unable to work, unable to provide, and sucks away at the savings and no one is able to care for the family. The road in life is highly unpredictable and I refuse to let lack of planning be a reason for turning unfortunate events into catastrophic events. I believe good financial planning can insulate us from life's speed bumps.

It is because of the uneasiness of my financial future that my next few posts will be geared towards increasing my Financial Safety.

Hello World

July 31, 2016
Hello World,

Maslow's Challenge is all about accomplishing the little things in life to reach the ultimate goal of self actualization. But what do I mean by this? Let me provide you a little background on Maslow and Maslow's hierarchy.

Background
Abraham Maslow was an American Psychologist who developed a theory on fulling human needs. He postulated that certain requirements would need to be satisfied before a person could reach the next level of fulfillment. At the very top of the fulfillment hierarchy was Self-Actualization meaning the person has accomplished all that he could. He categorized these needs starting with Physiological, followed by Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem, and Self actualization. Often times these needs are presented in a hierarchy or a pyramid with Physiological need at the bottom.

Examples of Physiological Needs:
Air
Food
Water
Shelter
Clothing

Examples of Safety
Personal safety
Financial safety
Health and Well-being
Safety against accidents

Examples Love and Belonging
Friendships
Family
Social Groups

Examples of Esteem
Self respect
Respect from Others
Self growth

Examples of Self-Actualization
Accomplishing all that he can
Self-reflection 

The Challenge
Maslow's challenge is based on the concept that accomplishing each of the items on the list will help you achieve Self-Actualization and ultimately, happiness. Each day I will strive to fulfill at least one of these needs, document, and explain it to the world. For example, to achieve Food necessity, I may try out a new restaurant or learn to make a new dish. For Friendship, I may contact a friend that I may not have seen in a while. As you can see, as you move further up the hierarchy, what constitutes each stage becomes incrementally more vague but also potentially more meaningful. Some tasks may fit into more than one category. Each Sunday, I will complete a Self-Reflection to look at what I did and did not accomplish for the week. Then at the end of each month, I will tally up my Maslow points, to assess my progress.