Uncertainty is Reality
“Things that have never happened before happen all the time,” - Scott Sagan, Stanford Professor
Last month my wife and I bought a new washer and dryer for our house. Like any purchase, we did some due diligence to try and find the happy medium between the price that we pay and quality of the product.
Ultimately we ended up with something that we are both happy with, but the interesting point for me is the expense itself. The dollars leaving the bank account. I was not planning on making this purchase (at least, not months in advance) and had not saved up the money over time to do it. A "one off" expense as we like to call them.
While this expense may have been isolated, life is filled with plenty of “one off” expenses. One month we are doing maintenance on the house, the next there's a vehicle issue, then my son needs new shoes (again), and then there's a health care expense....the list goes on. There is no category for all of these things on a line item budget and it begins to feel like every month has an unexpected expense.
It happens so often you might wonder why I am surprised by it. Surely anger and annoyance root from some form of unmet expectations.
"C'mon! Another surprise expense?"
"What are all these cars doing here on the highway at the same time as me at the end of a work day? I expected to drive home without interruption or delay and I am upset by the abundance of fellow commuters!"
"My one year old son won't stop throwing food on the ground even after I asked him nicely to stop. Gah!"
It seems like we have two options when we keep getting surprised. We can go on living with some certainty about life and open the door to unmet expectations. Or we can move towards the idea that uncertainty is reality and adopt it as the way we interact with life.
Who knows? Maybe we'll be surprised with how good things turn out.
P.S. Creating a "Miscellaneous" category in your budget combined with a good emergency fund can help you manage living in the reality of uncertainty (from your friendly neighborhood financial planner).
This post inspired by the many musings of Carl Richards.
