Wednesday, October 15, 2008

My First Financial Nightmare - Having Bad Dreams About Money

The other night I had my first nightmare about my finances. I had this bad dream that I wasn't able to make my house payment. Ultimately, I ended up scraping together the money but sending it in late. In my dream, I called up the bank to explain. They said they received the payment, but since I now had a late payment on my record, I would not be able to use my checking account again for six weeks! I suddenly saw late payments piling up from all my bills because I wouldn't be allowed to use my checking account! I went into a panic.

The dream went on from there but I won't torture you with it since there are few things more boring than hearing about other people's dreams.

The odd thing about this dream was that it came at a strange time. I actually had a very good weekend - both financially and emotionally. I went up to the cottage where fall colors were in their prime. It was just beautiful. I spent my weekend alternating between kicking back and relaxing and working on landscaping projects - getting many of those free plants in the ground. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Then when I came back, I had over $100 waiting for me!

As I mentioned I rented out my house to a friend of mine for a party she was throwing Friday night, so part of the money came from that. When I came home, the house was spotless and there was a nice note on the counter, some delicious leftovers in the refrigerator, and the rental fee. My house made me money while I was off relaxing in the woods!

Then, sitting in the mailbox was check from my GYN. It was a refund check for the doctor's visit fee. My copay on my old insurance was $30 for a doctor's visit, $45 for a specialist. They considered GYN appointments a specialist, though frankly I find that a bit silly. Nonetheless I got in the habit of giving them $45. Well, on my last visit they asked for $45 and I handed it over without thinking about it, but it turns out that my new insurance considers GYN appointments regular doctor visits (which is how it should be) so my doctor sent me back $15. It was completely unexpected! I love when that happens.

Finally, I checked my email when I got back and I had sold 2 books, 1 dvd and 1 cd! So, all in all it was great weekend. It makes me wonder about why then I am having bad dreams.

My best guess is that my brain is a bit overloaded with all the bad financial news out there. In fact, just recently I was talking to another financial blogger about how I have to cut down on my NPR listening. When we have these big crises I can only listen to so much - it happened during 9/11 and Katrina too. My brain just gets a bit fried listening to all the horrible things out there. I still want to be informed, but I am reminding myself to switch it over to the classical music station on a regular basis too.


Are You Having Bad Dreams Too?

The Simple Dollar - Ten steps for remaining calm in a financially turbulent time.

eHow - How to get rid of bad dreams.

wikihow - How to get rid of bad dreams.

EvenHappier - How to get rid of your bad dreams



Creepy alien nightmare photo by: Hsin Ho

3 comments:

Lucy said...

Yay! I'm so glad you came home to such a nice little bundle of money!

Dawn said...

Thanks Frugalchick! Me too!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on making some extra money from renting your home for a night. Nice that they left it in good shape!

The media is doing a great job of trying to make sure everyone is having financial nightmares. I find a great solution to be to ignore the news altogether, heh. Tim Ferris (Four Hour Work Week) calls it going on an "information diet." It's amazing how well we can get on without knowing how much the Dow rose or dropped on any given day. ;)