Meaningful Returns

There are two twin maple trees near my office in Raleigh, beautiful old trees that greet me as I make the turn on to our street. And each year at just about this time, they start changing colors from top to bottom: dark green to greenish-yellow at first, and then by late October or early November, a breathtaking yellow or orange all the way through. They are incredible in their own right, but they remind me of an old maple tree in the side yard of the circa-1890 house I grew up in, and those sorts of associations are things I cherish dearly.

Why do the leaves do this? Perhaps more correctly, why do the trees do this? Why do they shed their leaves every single year? The answer is fairly straightforward: leaves aren’t terribly prescient, apparently, and they will automatically start photosynthesizing whenever a relatively warm, sunny day comes around in winter, even if it’s going to frost the next day. And if it frosts the next day, the leaves will die, and a dead leaf still on the branch come spring means a dead tree before too long. So the tree just circumvents that whole scenario and cuts the leaves off before they get the chance to accidentally kill it.

There are many fascinating little quirks like this with each passing of a season, and it’s one reason why I love living in a place where seasons are so clearly delineated. Because rhythms are good for us. They keep us fresh and in tune with what’s going on within ourselves and among those around us. And we have much to learn from the trees. Much to learn.

I think about seasons a lot when it comes to our money. And as much as budgeting and general awareness about your spending is a good thing, as much as consistent spending and giving and saving habits matter, I wonder if sometimes we sacrifice rhythms at the alter of financial consistency?

Carl Richards, a writer and financial planner who is a sort of internet mentor for me, suggested something not too long ago that really startled me. He said, “How long can you go without spending money?” And not in a miserly sort of way, not in competitive sort of way, but in a fasting sort of way. As a financial rhythm.

Fasting is found in a number of religious traditions, but in its Christian context (the one I’m most familiar with), the purpose of fasting is to provide a rhythm, to remind us of our dependence on God and one another, to remind us of those less fortunate than ourselves (and indeed to do something about poverty), and to set aside time to give thanks.

So, what if we practiced periods of financial fasting? Not as an ongoing mentality of scarcity and hording, but as a rhythm that would remind us of our health and ability to to work, of the opportunities that we’ve been given that others haven’t, of our families and friends and the simple joys of spending time together, for free. To remind us to be thankful for the innumerable good things that we find while in the midst of a broken world.

I suspect the benefits of financial rhythms, of periods of fasting and feasting, would do wonders for our lives (and our finances), even if it makes our Excel spreadsheets and budgets a little messier. Why? Because a financial fast gives us perspective, it reboots our thinking about the things that we ought to be spending our money on: The things that do the most good, and that cause the most happiness. And then when we come out of the financial fast, through periods of ordinary time, and into financial feast, we are able to celebrate properly, by using our money as an artistic tool rather than robotically making it do the same things over and over again.

Will you think with me about financial rhythms? Will you consider how you might establish healthy financial rhythms in your life? I’m not sure how it would look for you, but I am sure that the very act of trying it would be a worthwhile practice.