2009: Bad News or Good News First?

It’s been an inauspicious start to the New Year so far for many friends and colleagues. Lots of people I talk to are starting to feel the shock waves ripple through the economy. Coupled with a death in the family for one of my friends and a scary diagnosis in the family for another, at certain moments I can almost feel the vibrations. Life is always more precarious than we like to think.

We’ve had some setbacks in our own household. One of my clients is having cash flow problems, meaning I don’t know when I’ll be paid. This is a first for me, although not an uncommon situation in my profession. So I’ve been a little shell-shocked this week. Also, for the first time ever at his company my husband didn’t get an annual bonus, which typically puts us ahead in the new year.

One of the downsides of Mint.com is it can only offer a snapshot of past spending, or spending trends. I keep a file of projected income for myself, but where that meets up with my husband’s salary and our projected non-fixed expenses resides largely in my husband’s brain.

So I found myself having this conversation with him last night:

Him: “Did you read the email I sent you?”

Me: “Yes.”

Him: “So?”

Me: “I, ah….”

Him: “Obviously you didn’t read it. Don’t tell me you read it if you didn’t read it!” His face is all eyeballs as he gives me his most exasperated look. “We’re in the same scenario I outlined for you a few weeks ago.”

Me: “I didn’t go back and re-read that.”

Him: “Well what don’t you get?”

Me: “I don’t know. Anything. I mean, how are we doing in February if none of my income comes through?”

February is “Christmas Part Deux,” as my sister dubbed it, due to the rash of birthdays in this short month on both sides of the family.

So my husband proceeded to outline for me, with gestures that mimic graphs (words always fail me when it comes to math; I need visuals), how much we would be up or down given this or that scenario.

The bad news is, if it’s worst case scenario for the rest of this month and into next, we’re still stuck in 2008, pinched, possibly scraping by, with stuff “that can wait” still waiting.

The good news is, this is not even close to what really constitutes bad news.