Our Financial Retreat

Margie Faye York's homemade blackberry pie, made from her home-grown blackberries--the perfect dish to serve for a Financial Retreat!

Steve and I just got back from four days at Pismo Beach where we hosted our Second Annual Ocheltree Family Financial Retreat. Those in attendance included Steve and myself. Since it is blackberry season and our friend, Margie Faye York, understands our passion for homemade blackberry pie, she sent one with us. It helped us think better. So did getting away to Pismo Beach for four days. We took time to analyze our spending, giving and saving over the past year, to set realistic budget expectations for the coming year and to set goals for charitable giving and for savings. We discussed college contributions. We made plans for investments and took time to discuss and analyze our energy consumption. We now have an appointment for a home energy consumption audit with Allbritten.  Sun Run Solar should be calling this week to take measurements of our roof for solar panels. We looked at cell phone plans and the possibility of switching to a hybrid or electric car down the road. These are all things that may come up on an individual basis. But it was really important for us to take the time to look at those items as part of an entire personal family budget plan.

I firmly believe that, when life starts pummeling you with demands for time, money, energy, creativity, wisdom, expertise, and more, the answer is not to let the busy-ness take over, but to stop, take a deep breath, and set aside some time for quiet reflection and planning. With thoughtful goals in mind, you can then re-enter the busy world with a framework on which to hang your decisions to get involved, contribute financially, make an investment, and so on. Your decisions will become part of a unified picture, not just seemingly disorganized snapshots shoved into a bureau drawer.

And, it helps your thought process to eat homemade blackberry pie and fish and chips from Fin's and Spencer steak from Jocko's.

"To lose focus means to lose energy.
The absolutely wrong thing to attempt when we've 
lost focus is to rush struggling to pack it all back together again.
Rushing is not the thing to do. Sitting and rocking is the
thing to do. Patience, peace, and rocking renew ideas."
--Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves

--Posted by Mama O.