Accountability

One of the hallmarks of good goal-setting is a system of accountability. I hate that.

As a single woman, I do what I want with my money. This is one of the big upsides to being single, IMHO, but it also means I can run fiscally amok. I could, for instance, buy over $500 in out-of-print Signet Regency novels in PDF form. (Not that I would do that, or anything. Oh, damn.) I suspect that a financial partner-for-life would look at me and say, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, WOMAN?"

How did I get sidetracked onto that embarrassing confession?

Back to accountability. It seems to me that one of the purposes of personal finance blogging, from the blogger's perspective, is to encourage accountability. You see, I don't need accountability in the flesh, nagging at me in the grocery store. I already nag at me in the grocery store. What I need (what many of us need) is a place to post the goals and then post the small steps to completion, or the setbacks. By publicly declaring that we will beat the debt, save the money, buy the house or ditch the shoe habit, we have started writing our own stories for an audience. And we, as authors, love happy endings.

(And I, as someone who has spent too many years telling stories and studying literature, am very hung up on the significance of narrative creation. So I think everyone frames life experiences into comprehensible plotlines. So sue me.)

Here's the deal, dear reader. I write down how I'm doing. You read. You occasionally add a comment, such as, "$500? You're smoking crack." Validated, I write down how I'm doing. Et cetera. Thank you for joining my therapy group.