Who's Life Is This Anyway?

When I was younger, every time I heard stories about women who had no clue how to manage their finances or knew anything about their assets, I was always amazed. "What idiots," I used to think to myself. "How can any woman today not know where her money is, how much she has and who is managing it? "

Back then, one thing I knew for sure was I was not turning out like that. After all, I had too much going for me. I was a strong-willed, self-sufficient young woman, with a Master's Degree and a good career. I might have plenty of other concerns, but this wasn't one of them. No sir, if I had to bet my life on it, I was certain I would never deal with this issue. In fact, until I married Dick, I never worried about money at all. As a newlywed, I believed that we could always find work to pay the bills. Dick and I were young, healthy, intelligent and well educated. It stood to reason, that over time, we'd only get more and more financially secure. I always imagined that we would look back on our early years together and think, "We might not have had a lot of money, but we always managed and look at how far we've come."

So the question is, how did I morph into someone I swore I would never become? When did the me I used to be disappear and this woman who was clueless about not only her finances, but about almost everything concerning her life take over my existence? And when did fear of not having money start consuming my daily life?