...to share

So I watched an Oprah that I'd DVR'd the other day. It was about money. Suze Orman informed me that my self worth was tied to my FICO score. I can tell you right now that it's not. Dave Ramsey calls the FICO score the "I love debt" score. I hate debt, according to Suze I must hate myself.

The show was about helping out the dead beats that share your DNA. Do you do it or not? One family insisted that they were sharing their wealth with their less fortunate family member. They had bought her the house she was living in, with the understanding she would pay the mortgage. She found it hard to pay the mortgage what with the huge screen tv and the treadmill payments. She knew she didn't have to pay the electricity or the water or anything else for that matter because her family would not let her children live like that. This had led the family members to have no savings, massive credit card debt and no respect for their sister.

Suze said the family WAS sharing, but it was not the have's sharing with the have not, rather the have not was sharing her poverty with her family. Instead of enjoying her $88,000 salary, her sister was worried about making her two mortgage payments. Instead of preparing to retire, her mom was preparing to work until she died, because she couldn't afford to retire.

I'm all for helping, but the most helpful thing that ever happened to me is realizing that I had to do it, and also realizing that I could. I'm trying to remember this as I push one out of the nest this week. I have taught her to fly, but if she never has to she'll never know.