Do Like Bilbo Baggins: Go on an Adventure

Bilbo: “Can you promise that I will come back?”
Gandalf: “No. And if you do, you will not be the same”.

You know what? I love movies. They can provide great entertainment and when they leverage great material treated right, movies can also inspire us, challenge us.

The exchange at top of the post today comes from one such movie: “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”.

In case you are not familiar with the story, Bilbo Baggins is a Hobbit who is quite comfortable with life as it is. He loves his house, his garden, and his books.

Then an old family friend, Gandalf the wizard interrupts his life with a proposal. Gandalf wants Bilbo to join him and go on a very wild, dangerous adventure to help some of his friends.

Bilbo is not ready and does not want to go. This is not what he does. Here is Gandalf’s final challenge to him:

Are you too Comfortable with your Financial Situation?

When we get in a position of comfort with our situation, change and progress is hard even though, it could be good for us.

Maybe like Bilbo, you are just too comfortable with your financial situation.

Perhaps you have grown accustomed to the idea that you don’t know how to handle money. Your family never did so that’s just the way it is and you are ok with that.

Or maybe you have convinced yourself that doing a budget is hard and you are just not good with numbers.

It could be that you are in agreement with the view that you will always have a car payment and that no one can go to college without a student loan.

You may have also come to believe that living on credit cards and paying interest is a way of life. After all, everyone else does it. What makes you so different?

And finally, maybe you are resigned to the fact that you can’t save for retirement, that’s too late for you. You will just have to work forever and hope the government takes care of you in your golden years.

You Need to Go on an Adventure with Your Finances

Gandalf brought some truth into Bilbo’s life. He challenged his notions and gave him a chance to become someone else.

Please allow me to speak some truth in your life because someone spoke truth in my life at one point.

You see, I used to believe all of those things about money and finances myself. And I was quite comfortable with it too.

But the truth of the matter is this: you can learn to handle money. You can learn to budget. You can get out of debt. You can live without credit cards.

It won’t be easy and it will require sacrifice to win, but you can change your financial destiny.

You can be a blessing to your family and to others. Think about all of the great things you could do only if you were in a strong financial position.

You know what happened with Bilbo right? Gandalf and his friends left. Bilbo was left to live his life the way he had grown accustomed to. Was that the end? No: