I started working on my tax returns and realized I made more money this last year than I ever had. In fact, when I was a young kid, oh about 15 years old, I had this plan that I could live comfortably on the money I made last year. When I was younger I thought if I made that much I would be on easy street.

Amazing how little I knew then, because the amount I had in my head back then wasn’t a lot, and with me making that amount last year I have very little to show for it.

Just to give you a better perspective, I’m not talking about $100,000 or $50,000, so just by those numbers you can see I didn’t have much of a goal back then, but truth be told (and the number I had in my head was less than $40,000) back then the amount I thought about was enough to live on. Back then with less than $1 gas, eggs at about $1 a dozen, and that was an expensive price, a person could live on the amount.

I can’t claim to be poor but just getting to this amount was work, and I have to admit it wasn’t fun work. What kicks me in the teeth is a few years ago I was sure I was going to make over $200,000 and be on easy street. That all went down the gutter and I’m making way less now and I don’t have things to show for it.

I think that’s part of the deal we get stuck in. We look for things to give us worth and purpose, but if we take a look around, the money stuff never is the issue.

The past week, for whatever reason, I got this nostalgic toy kick in my head. I have been buying up Star Wars vehicles from local toy shops. I about wet my pants when I picked up, for a good price, a Darth Vader TIE fighter. I was even more excited when I got a standard issue TIE fighter (very big in size) and a sound action phaser from Star Trek, the original series. Having those little things made me not care I didn’t have a car or I didn’t own a home. Maybe it was the remembrance of childhood that made all the economic issues in my life seems less important. Probably what happened was I figured the big things can seem less important if you do things are have things that are important to you. Sure I would love to have a big house, a sports car, a bid screen TV, but I’ve had a kick taking that Star Trek phaser into work, just holding it while I take calls. I love waking up in the morning and seeing this line of Star Wars vehicles on the counter. It makes me feel like something is going right somewhere.