I took a corporate class last year about being an effective manager.  During it, we had an exercise where we had to choose our top five values.  As I whittled down my list to get my top value, I let loyalty and honesty drop by the wayside.  What I ended up with was financial security.  It’s not be something that everyone might even label a value, but it was on our list, and quite honestly it is the most important thing to me.

The recession and credit/housing crisis hasn’t affected us too much.  We think we managed to get our house at a relatively good price, but that’ll depend on how much further housing prices fall.  We manage to save a bit of money each month, even with our mortgage payments.  We’re doing OK.

And that really matters to me.  More so than having good friends (sorry good frineds of mine!), more so than making great games, and more so than teaching my cats to pee in the toilet – I need to know that we can go to a restaurant or a movie or the grocery store without having to check our balances first.

It’s odd, because when I was young, I was an idealist who thought that money was an unnecessary part of life.  I might even go as far as to say that I considered it an evil.  Who needed money in this world when there are such powerful forces as love and truth?

Somewhere after adolescence, I realized that maybe my parents weren’t wrong about everything.  I became a bit more practical and lowered my head from the clouds just a bit.  I’m still a bit like Christian in Moulin Rouge: above all things, I believe in love.  But, money’s pretty important, too.

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I don’t sit at home counting all my pennies every night before bed, but I do use Quicken (Deluxe, specifically) regularly and Mint.com as well to be able to track an overview of our funds on my phone.  It irks me a bit that Quicken online doesn’t hook up to my software copy of Quicken.

I would encourage everyone to at least keep broad track of their finances.  Spending 10-15 minutes every few days makes it easier to save money and see where the money you do spend is going.

I just got an email telling me to celebrate Mardi Gras with a sale at PetCo.  That is often the location that I first think of when contemplating where to celebrate Mardi Gras.