Exiting

I watched Hillary Clinton's exit speech on CNN yesterday. The words "grace," "dignity," and "strength" are just a few generic terms that came to mind when I heard her speak. Imagine how much she put into her campaign: a brave face in the wake of total public humiliation, stoicism in order to be taken seriously, time, money, patience, grit. Now imagine how it must feel to have all of it be totally over, due to factors that weren't her fault (bad campaign manager, general public sentiment, sexism...you pick).

It's a stretch to compare all of that to my breakup, but I was incredibly inspired by this portion of her speech:

"So I want to say to my supporters, when you hear people saying – or think to yourself – "if only" or "what if," I say, "please don't go there." Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward. Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. We have to work together for what still can be."

I loved this. "The stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been" is my new mantra for getting over being so completely burned and hurt by someone selfish and deceitful, and moving on to feeling secure with myself: an honest, loving person who only wanted good things for everyone involved.

Money Ain't A Thang

Four political and financial thoughts:

1. Does it bother anyone else that we have a president who, after serving six years in office, still cannot properly pronounce the word "nuclear"?

2. I'm linked on Google Finance! (At least for now.) This is kind of a dream come true for me, being a personal finance geek and whatnot.

3. I love that more and more experts (financial and otherwise) are beginning to speak out about income inequality. It's one of the most important issues facing American society today, in my opinion. Here's a recent article I liked from Yahoo Finance. (Sorry, Google; Yahoo has better original content.)

4. But don't get too cocky, Yahoo Finance. Now I'm going to take you down a peg. As much as people fawn over Robert Kiyosaki, I just don't get the draw. I've read a good number of articles by him, and after I finish each one, I think to myself, "Now, what am I supposed to do?" Sure, the guy tells some nice parables, but the moral of the story is completely lost on me. Read his most recent Yahoo Finance column here. Now tell me if you can figure out what the hell he's telling us to do. Am I better off for reading this article? No. Am I feeling confused and oddly chastised for being "middle class"? Absolutely.

Take this passage:

Financially, there are three classes of people. The rich are those who play to win. The middle class plays not to lose. For the middle class, financial security is more important than financial opportunity. Ironically, today there's far more financial opportunity than financial security, yet the middle class still seeks security.

You'd expect some sort of logic to come after that to explain the mumbo-jumbo he just handed to us, but no. There's no explanation. There is smoke and there are mirrors.

That's why I love Yahoo's other columnists: Suze Orman. Ben Stein. The Automatic Millionaire. Because every time I read their columns, there's some sort of financial call to action or at least a nice tip that I can bear in mind or ponder and discard if I so choose. Lose Kiyosaki, Yahoo. That's my two cents. (As it were.)