$50,000 Fingernails

These don’t look like $50,000 fingernails, but they are. I’m having them removed today.

I’ve been having my nails done for 25 solid years–since before my third child was born. It has cost me about $100-$150 per month for each of those years. When I looked at what it would have been, had I invested this money in a fund that would earn a modest 5% return, it comes to OVER $50,000.

I’ve enjoyed them. But Geez! Now that things are what they are with the economy, I’m actually enjoying lightening our spending habits more than actually spending the money. What a new concept.

All day today I was looking at women’s nails. Most women don’t have them. Why did I think I needed them? Who knows. Just one of those things you start doing (like advertising, seems like you can’t stop) and then quit thinking about and just do forever. My computer doesn’t care how nice my nails look. I don’t think my Real Estate clients ever bought or sold a house because I had pretty nails either. I don’t think my books will sell any faster if my nails are pretty. My chickens don’t care, in fact, they might be less attracted to my toes if they were nail-colored, not bright red.

Last Saturday I was hit by a nice young man in the Coast Guard, in a Coast Guard van. My brand new Toyota Hybrid is totaled. Now I’m thinking about not buying another new one. It would be nice not to have a car payment. I’ve had one or two car payments for almost 30 years. I haven’t figured out what I actually spent on this, and the last 5 cars weren’t worth the loans against them when I wanted to sell them. The number would probably be enough to retire a mortgage. I’d rather have the house than the cars–all of them combined!

An early blog of mine chronicled my “End Of A Love Affair” with my beautiful Mercedes convertible I couldn’t live without. Now, just a few months later, I not only don’t have to have a new Mercedes, I don’t have to have a new anything.

One could almost say God intervened to correct the mistake we made in getting the new car this year. I think (hope) my insurance will pay off the car loan. Then I’ll save the amount I would have had in payments, and buy a nicer car when I can afford to pay cash.

Funny how this economy I complain about so much has brought me such much-needed reality. Why have I been breaking my neck for so many years to pay for things I didn’t need? I’ve even begun shopping in used clothing stores like my girls like to do. Totally cool. And fun. And a bag of clothes, gently worn, rarely costs me more than $50. And not a soul knows the difference.


I guess I like making lemonade out of lemons. I’m grateful I get to make these good decisions and be an example for my kids to do the same. By the time they are my age, they’ll not have the same worries I have.

They’ll probably have a set of their own.