An important truth Amy Dacyczyn revealed was that her thriftiness and creative frugality came from her and her husband's desire to have a 2200 square foot house and six children. In other words, they designed their life a certain way and recognized and made the tradeoffs required to live that way the best they could. She and her husband weren't always thrifty, and they didn't always make perfect financial decisions.

This admission gladdened my heart and inspired me.

What do I want? Not six children. I don't need a 2200 square foot house. Certainly a house is very important to me, psychologically. My parents didn't ever own homes that they BOUGHT themselves, and I moved eight times in as many years -- yeah, that totally contributes to stability.

Some people want to live their lives so they can pay for annual trips to see their parents, or travel around the world, or become a race car driver. Some want to play Scrabble all around the world. Me, I want a paid off home and to be able to pay for things I want/need in cash. In short, I want security. I need to always remember my idea of security differs from others' ideas.

For instance, I tend to assume that because I am so insecure about my finances, that I'm doing very poorly compared to the rest of the country. After all, if I'm uncomfortable about my scooter debt -- actually it's not so much that, it's that I have been very lax about paying off the scooter debt because of unforeseen expenses along the way -- and others are comfortable about their vehicular leases and car loans, and the under $2000 credit card debt most credit cardholders w/balances have (the AVERAGE is $8600+, but over 50% of folk have balances much less than that), then they either know things I don't, or they have backup plans I don't.

Seven years ago we didn't quite make the 20% downpayment required for a house, but at the time my parent was dying, so I was VERY emotionally insecure. My security went into the house.

So people are now making zero money down, interest-only, adjustable rate mortgages twice as large as what we made seven years ago. That demonstrates either financial confidence ("our wages will always rise, even though historically there was even a FIFTEEN-year era of stagnant wages") or financial hysteria ("omg I am 25 and I do not have a house or condo of my own! if I do not buy right this minute the prices will go up forever and I will be so out of luck! omg! the panic! I can't see myself being 30 and renting! yi!").

I have a retirement fund, and some illiquid assets, including the inflated home equity all the other homeowners except those in Miami, Las Vegas and Phoenix currently have. That's not enough for my security. I have job skills, some wits, and health. That's not enough for my security. I have a spouse with a steady job. That's not enough for my security. The huge run ups in consumer and governmental spending do nothing for my emotional security.

What will be enough for my security? Why isn't it enough for me that I can pay my credit card balances in full at the end of the month and my net worth grows on average per month? Why do I feel I need the liquid cash to pay for six things that could go wrong all at once?