this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

This past weekend, my five year old played his first game of Monopoly. His first instinct was to buy up everything he landed on and that's exactly what he did. Though sometime this tactic can work, he ended up with lots of property and a handful of houses but not much money. On the flip side, once everything was claimed, I only ended up with four properties. This wasn't due to my stinginess, but rather my inability to land on something that was actually available for purchase. I didn't do very well either.

Real life kind of works that way too. Though there are always exceptions, for the most part neither of these strategies is very wise. It's important to find some restraint and not buy everything that's placed in front of you, but you do need to find some balance and spend some money here and there.

photo by rysac1