Laura Friman’s Column | I was ashamed to realize that my relaxed attitude towards life was a sign of good fortune

Welfare|Laura Friman’s column

Start do you believe some delusional optimists: August is not a summer month, but pure autumn and the terrible withering of bloom. Summer 2023 is officially over. Goodbye.

It is okay. You won’t miss it. This summer, just about everything went wrong.

My teenagers finally found out an ancient secret: the summer house is not fun.

Then my friend died. Throughout July, I felt my chest: I felt like I couldn’t breathe either.

During the last holiday week, it rained continuously from morning to night.

The crowning moment was the envelope on the last day of your vacation, the tax decision from the taxman: 12,778 euros in residual tax to be paid. Payment period a few months.

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There was 708 euros in the bank. “No more” 12,070 euros!

I did with my jaws tight “I’m a happy taxpayer”, I rolled up my sleeves and got down to business.

I was thinking about how to bargain and tear up the required amount. I came up with two tricks: I canceled the monthly subscription to the podcast service (saving 8 euros per month) and changed my honeymoon accommodation from a luxury castle to a moldy forest cabin (saving 700 euros).

There was 708 euros in the bank. “No more” 12,070 euros!

The solution was at the end of a WhatsApp message. Without the interest-free loan taken from a scoundrel relative, I would have been in dire straits.

Economic the safety net is a privilege that is rarely recognized. Still, it forms a cornerstone for the individual’s entire life attitude.

Even the worst financial adversity doesn’t send me into a panic. I have sometimes arrogantly chalked this up to some kind of innate relaxation. Be ashamed.

It’s just that I have a good background.

For the same reason, my financial relationship is a mess anyway: another debt collection letter with arrears, to be paid as we go.

And as you can see, the amount of the entrepreneur’s advance tax sometimes has to be estimated a bit too far.

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The fear of losing everything lingers all the time.

I knowthat not everyone has grown up with the same carelessness.

Sometimes I secretly roll my head or my eyes when even a small financial concern makes one of my loved ones collapse into the fetal position and paint horror pictures of bankruptcies and selling movable property.

He is a classic child of the Depression, to whom the shadow of his parents’ financial challenges has passed over time. The fear of losing everything lingers all the time.

I don’t borrow from my close friends very rarely, but very rarely.

It’s not about how often you have to rely on your financial safety net, but that there is one at all. I don’t know where I’d be without it.