I’ve had the goal of growing a garden on my “someday” list for over a decade. I’ve signed up for community gardens, bought potted plants, and even considered investing in a raised garden bed when I thought I might stay in my apartment for over a year. Unfortunately, my lifestyle since I was 11 years old is moving to a different city (and even different country) every 2-5 years.

So instead of having a garden I spend time admiring gardens and planning to have one some day. In my mind, the only reason to plant a garden and care for plants is because you are setting roots. I won’t be ready to set roots until I have a partner to set them with or I decide that I’ve lived in enough places for this lifetime – I honestly don’t know which will happen first.

As someone who learns by doing, reading about gardens feels as exciting as reading about swimming – who does that?? I have some vague garden information like the fact that some plants need to be planted every year and others are one and done.

However, I do know a lot about planting money and caring for personal finances. I also know that most people have getting their finances in order on their “someday” list for years and that there’s always a reason why it gets postponed. Unlike vague plans for gardens, when you don’t proactively care for your money it will demand attention – sometimes when it’s already too late.

Plant Longevity and their Money Counterparts

Annuals – these plants need to be planted every year

Annuals will grow, bear fruit, and die in one season and then you need to plant a new seed. Annuals include most herbs and grasses, like lettuce, and another random assortment of things such as rice, watermelons, and cauliflower.

Annual money activities include taxes. The recommendation is that you file and pay taxes every year, otherwise you’ll have penalties and confusing letters from the IRS.

While term life insurance lives much longer than a year, it does act like an annual plant. You get approved for it, purchase it, and are covered until it dies (aka when the term ends). When you have dependents (think kids under 18 or 25 depending on the babe, as well as beloved pets) you can set them up to have a financial cushion if you die before they can care for themselves.

Budget aka bougette aka cash flow aka circulation plan aka spending plan – phew! How many things do I call this? As many as it takes to help the people I work with feel comfortable addressing it.

What comes in and what goes out is a key ingredient of your money life. You can learn more about cash flow planning in True North with Cash Flow and Using Money to Live Into Your Values.

This money tool is often treated as a perennial (a constant money habit) when in fact it’s more of an annual. At least once a year and every time you are in a new season you need to plant a new cash flow plan. What made sense money wise when you were single and employed is not going to fly now that you’re caring for your aging father and are a working artist.

As your life changes, prioritize checking in with your cash flow. Is it still the most supportive it can be for you to take care of yourself today, and ensure you are headed where you want to go? Think retirement plan, vacation funds, paying off the loan from your brother-in-law, etc.

Similar to cash flow, debt management and investment plans also need to be replanted whenever you enter a new season of your life and should be checked on at least annually. To learn more about debt repayment plans check out Debt – A Labyrinth.

Biennials – they’re planted one year and bear fruit for two years

Biennial plants will grow, bear fruit, go dormant ONCE, repeat the cycle and then die. These types of plants include hollyhocks, carrots, and Swiss chard.

I would consider most insurance products biennials – as in you plant them once, and then have to come back to them to make sure they are still full of life for your financial situation. You can also include estate planning here, because unless there’s a major change in your life, estate plans can go dormant for a few seasons before they need to be replaced.

For example, you buy renters insurance after checking prices and considering what kind of coverage you need. But then it’s been a couple of years, and you’ve upgraded your furniture from your grandma’s hand me downs to much nicer pieces that you need to protect from your cat.

At that point, your previous personal property coverage needs to be upgraded to “replacement value” – meaning that if there’s a fire or some other type of event the insurance company will pay you what it will cost to replace said furniture with a new item. This compares to “actual cash value” where the insurance company would pay you what someone might pay for said item at a garage sale. This is fine when your furniture was purchased at a garage sale, but at some point this may not be the right coverage for you.

Similar biennial insurance products include disability coverage, auto insurance, homeowner’s insurance, etc. It’s helpful to have a practice of checking in with your insurance products to both make sure they’re still appropriate and that you have the best price.

While term life insurance is set it and forget it while the term is active, do keep in mind that you can add/end term life insurance as you gain/loose dependents. In other words, once you know your due date for your new baby it’s time to add more term life insurance.

Estate plans include the beneficiaries on your retirement plans, having taxable accounts as “transferable on death”, setting guardians for children under 18, and outlining how you’d like your assets to be distributed after you pass if you do not want your estate to go through probate.

Perennials – you plant them once, and they keep going on in perpetuity

Perennials keep coming back! As long as you take them indoors when it’s too cold and give them proper care. Perennials include tomatoes, fennel, and mint.

Common money perennials including reviewing your credit score at least annually, although you can review it for free every four months using one of the credit report bureaus.

Your money skills are a perennial – and one of the most beautiful ones I might add. Once you know how to advocate for the right salary with an employer no one is taking away that skill. Understanding how to refinance your debt, be it a mortgage or student loans, will also live on with you forever. You may even be so skilled with money you will teach (or bore to tears) your children and grandchildren on the beauty and dangers of compound interest.

As immigrants my parents developed cut-throat money skills and both my brother and I know how to live on next to nothing. We will literally sell you the shirt off our back as I saw my mom do with purses many times. And we are not frightened by earning large amounts of money and jet-setting across the world for a weekend in Japan.

I bet that if you look, you have also learned incredible money skills from your own family and community – even if the lessons were along the lines of “I will NEVER in a hundred years do THAT!” Those are also valuable money lessons to care for and have flourish.

While you do not need to know how to read a complicated prospectus to have a superb harvest of money skills, you do need to be confident that you can keep coming back to your money skills and care for them proactively.

An important perennials is feeling comfortable with open money conversations. In a society where we often confuse self-worth with net-worth we may be shy to talk about money in case we “don’t measure up” or make others uncomfortable with our good fortune. While I do not recommend you tell everyone what you have planned with money, I find we’d all be better off if we had a trusted advisor to discuss issues like extractive capitalism, how to best structure your retirement plan, and Why care about personal finance when the world is coming to an end?

This trusted advisor could be someone you hire like a financial planner or it could be your uncle who’s money management and values you respect. Money is inherently relational – if I were the only one who used it, it would be meaningless. But we all use it and thus have relationships with each other through it.

Make sure to practice having respectful, kind, and compassionate money conversations with your loved ones especially partners, family and friends.

Don’t let Money Wither on the Vine on your “Someday” List

To be honest, money will not let you ignore it for long anyway. From the day we first experience the joy of purchasing or the pain of being told that “no, we can’t purchase that”, till the day we pass money is a part of our life. Instead, Imagine Money is as Easy as Riding a Bike… and take steps to proactively care for it. You’ll be surprised and might find out that you enjoy more of it than you imagined.

Depending on what aspect of money you’re looking at, have a regular check-in schedule where you go weed out what you no longer need (old unused monthly subscriptions anyone?) and right size what you do have (think back to the example on renter’s insurance). While it can feel like there’s a lot to learn, one skill at a time you’ll have a flourishing money garden.

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