Thirty-five seems a very 'grown-up' age to me. I'm surprised more people don't mark it as a proper milestone...for me, thirty-five always represented the age of genuine adulthood. And as such, I've decided I'll be making a few changes in 2012.
Top of the bulging list is to manage my finances. I currently have an extreme "head in the sand" approach to money-management, most likely borne of the fact that my Dad is exactly the same and so are my sisters...many of my fun childhood memories at the supermarket involve us flinging all manner of stuff into the trolley without any one of us giving a second look to whether or not cheaper versions were available (no Peter Kay-style "roller cola" for us!) This definitely wasn't because we had money to burn, it was all just a sort of fun, childishly random devil-may-care attitude to the purchasing of stuff that I've retained to this day.
Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people who checks comparison websites or different shops to see if I'm getting good value for money. I never ask companies to "give me your best deal". I'm far too clumsy and embarrassed and 'but-people-will-think-I'm-being-rude' for that kind of caper. My gym had been getting away with charging me double the monthly fee it should have done for years...and I knew about this, and I didn't do anything about it! Not until last week anyway, when I finally plucked up the courage to ask the manager why I was being charged so much. It was a simple admin mistake which was instantly and easily corrected, and as I left the gym I got the feeling that I should be taking more care of where my money's going. Because that's what sensible adults do.
So - next on my list is my mobile phone network. They keep on calling me to offer me a new plan since my latest contract expired...they know I'm paying too much, they want to offer me something better, and yet I keep avoiding actually speaking to them! I know - no logic whatsoever. You might even call it a bit stupid.
But...the reason I don't want to talk to them is because I'm worried they'll bamboozle me with 'science' and I'll end up being talked into signing a new contract that'll see me paying even more than before, and I won't have the guts to say "no" and the salesperson will put the phone down, rubbing their hands and cackling very evilly at my gullibility. It's like that Jerry Seinfeld joke about the reason why a lot of straight men are wary of being around gay men is because they know, deep down, how easily persuaded they actually are and it wouldn't take much for them to end up talked into becoming gay themselves.
I will call the mobile phone company, though. I really will (cough). Maybe once I've turned thirty-five and turned into a proper grown-up.
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