But i make $100 per hour...how the f*ck can i be broke?

As i scramble to clock the last of my 15 scheduled weekly billing hours, i reflected on how hard I work and how little $$$ i am left with at the end of the day.  I work so hard, so why the f*ck am i broke?

To be clear: i realize that i am sitting reeeeeealll pretty from where most folks are sitting.  I run my own successful business, I have flexible hours, and I am my own boss.  I have the ability to support myself and my family and that feels really good.  Not to mention - I have a firm belief in the quality of my life (thanks ma!), and not just the quantity of the hours I clock here on planet earth, or the possessions i manage to stockpile before i die.  Y'all have seen my hoop-de-ville...'nuff said. 

The focus required to steadily improve the quality of my life necessitates that i work/bill no more than 25 - 30 hours per week (contractor translation: 35 - 40 hours),  such that I have "time" to do all of the the other raising-a child-and-managing-a-household stuff that greets me at the end of my day-job, and on the weekends.

I work as an accountant.  I work with numbers.  I know money fairly well, dare i say, better than most.  I don't know what the hell a derivative is and I don't want to know.  Quite frankly, I don't believe there is a person on god's green earth who could explain what a derivative was and make it make sense to me, because it's just doesn't.  Because it wasn't ever meant to make sense.  The derivative was created as nothing more than a device by which folks with money and access could steal more money "legally" from the masses without lifting a finga!  Not a finga!

Also, I have no 401(k) plan.  Folks are super-surprised to hear this:  how could I, a CPA-person, a dabbler in the world of money, budgets and numbers NOT have a 401(k) plan?  How could uber-responsible Maureen-with-child NOT be thinking about saving for the future? How, you say?  The answer resides in the numbers - read 'em and weep:

Now, i am sure plenty of you are looking at my budget and making silent judgements about how I choose to spend my money:  $3,000 on massage and wholistic care??? $2,200 on dining out?  And she wants to go to GREECE and actually step away from this little bubble of madness for short bit?!?  How DARE she desire sanity....how.double.dare.her!  So - I invite you to rip my budget a "new one," so to speak - get rid of my clothing budget, my dining out budget, or my self-care budget - Whatever.  The fact remains:  I am 46 years old, I am highly edumakatid, I work my a$$ off, day in and day out, inside AND outside the house...and in 2014, IF I AM LUCKY, I will manage to break even.  If not, my hard work will have managed to make me $2,000 POORER than I was at the beginning of the year.  Not to mention, even if you could manage to save me $1,000, $5,000, even $10,000  per year eliminating all of my non-essentials, IF I am lucky and work until I am 70 (throwing in a rather large assumption that I am able to maintain a client base...it ain't like gettin' a regular paycheck at my rates, folks), that's a grand total of $240,000, minus college for the child of 1/2 that, leaves me with $120,000 - no extras, no replacement car, no nothing.  And don't you DARE start factoring in any sort of return on investment.  "Inflation" will suck that right up right there, and since I don't own a home, my cost of living over the years is going to go UP, not down, so the $10,000 best case scenario wont really be $10,000, will it?  And, as an independent contractor,  i have no sick or paid vacation.  WTF ppl??? W.T.F.?

What is the moral of this Ritz Report?  The moral would be this: don't believe the hype.   Most of us are broke.  Mos of us are struggling.  Most of us are working real hard and at the end of our day, we are slapped in face with the message that we worked juuuuust hard enough to (maybe) get by.  Maybe not.  Hope you have good friends.  And if an entire generation (or two) is experiencing this intensifying level of economic struggle, clearly, this is not a motivational issue; rather, this shared experience exposes a very clear systemic and fundamental flaw in this man-made bastion of oppression we call our economy.

What does that mean for you and I?  Discover what you have to offer the world (we each have something to offer), fasten your seatbelts, and get ready for a wild ride.  A new system is beginning to take root - I am the accountant - but the old system is making rather loud and obnoxious death throes...

xo
ritz