Hello ladies,

Yes, I'm alive. LOL. Unfortunately, due to the bad weather here, I am in much more pain than usual. This pain mainly manifests itself in my hands and forearms. And that makes it difficult to type on my laptop. I don't have a really ergonomic workplace 😢. But as you read, I'm not giving up! And then I also had the bad luck that I sprained my ankle, and therefore sat with my leg up, in between the mandatory household chores, because sitting still, I'm not made for that. Anyway, back to this week's questions! As usual, these are very interesting again!

Growing up, growing up, turning 60... Share a memory of you from one of those times.

Becoming a Big Girl in a Big World

When I became a teenager I remember that I was especially excited, because I got a “big” bicycle for my 11th birthday, because I would have to go to school in Grave in the future. And that meant cycling 11 kilometers to school, and back of course, ;-) Yes, leaving primary school was already exciting, but I really had a huge knot in my stomach that first day at “higher school”, the L.H.N.O. In Grave, so exciting!! Fortunately, a friend from primary school went to the same school and we also came together in class, so we could cycle to school and back together, so we got used to the new school very quickly and during the 4 years we had a lot of fun with our classmates.

Closing this school was also exciting, because did you pass or not!! And if so, what were you going to do? I decided to go to the M.D.G.O. To go, towards agogic work, a school in Nijmegen, so that became bus trips to school and back. Also cozy! And now a few girls went to the same school, so we could travel together. And here things turned around pretty quickly, I soon found out that this didn't suit me and I finally pulled the plug after half a year. My father didn't let me stay at home for half a year, no loafing about, then you go to work! Okay, so I went to work, at a market gardener, picking tomatoes, as I had done for many years during the holidays. And with that, I had already saved half the amount needed for a moped together, my parents paid half and I paid the other half. When the next school year started I continued my education at the INTAS in Oss, where I went on my moped, together with a friend from the same street. This was a 2-year course for when you didn't know exactly what you wanted to become or what was possible! Here we had a lot of fun and, for a change, we were the pacesetters of the class for once. Sometimes cheeky, yes absolutely. 😇

And when my sister got her moped we could go out more often, we went everywhere on our mopeds and had a lot of fun with this. I can remember those times very vividly and always get a smile on my face when I think of those times. We were young and kind of wild ...

Going out and start dating!

During this period we also went out a lot, together with my sister, first to Reek, the Noordhoek, this was actually a large converted barn, with a number of barns next to it, you went there with a boyfriend, 😊 we called it rolling in the hay, although some things will be richly exaggerated, things must have happened, but as far as I'm concerned it remained with kissing. And the farmer had fun because he found just about every Sunday while cleaning up: a lost wallet from the barn, 😆 Later it became Vlijmen, then Geffen and Zeeland, and later Loosbroek. To these last two we advanced. We didn't have to go on our mopeds anymore, nor did our parents have to drive us, (which they did every weekend in the years before). By that time we had our driver's license and our parents just gave us their car, so they could stay at home and get some sleep instead of having to drive us. And when we could buy our own car ourselves it became even easier. And yes, by that time we were really teen off!

Because we were already in our twenties then. And on my twentieth birthday I said, oops, now I've entered the "tieth", and I won't get out of here unless I turn 100.

I'm still in the "tieth" years. LOL

Share your thoughts on women and their finances in a relationship or marriage, is it - or not - right to share the details of your finances with your partner?

Honesty is very important to me

Is it right to share the financial picture? Well, that will often depend on the relationship, but as far as I'm concerned, I couldn't keep it "secret", I'm too honest. I also believe that when it is discussed too secretly, there is a kind of “shame” about someone's financial picture. And I believe that it is precisely by being open about things that you can hear and see the differences, and from there you can change things. Such as the inequality in the salary of men and women in the same positions. You can't change this unless you open up.

Sometimes I say too much

As for openness, well, I'm a blabbermouth and sometimes say things that I shouldn't have said in some situations, but well, I've said it anyway, 😇 And then I can say sorry, but I can't undo it. And I am also very open and transparent about my finances, which does not mean that I will tell everyone exactly what I have, but I'm not going to lie about it either! Then I usually stick to something like; if you receive an IVA benefit, it is always 75% of your last earned wage, and in the Sheltered Employment Act it is not a fat salary, as everyone knows. Then I will not give concrete figures, but I will still be honest and open. 😊

Because only my partner has to deal with concrete figures, outside of myself of course. My partner is also very open about this to me, he will have to because I can see his account, hahaha. Now that's a joke. That's not the reason. We trust each other and he trusts me often enough to have to transfer something from his account when he can't do it himself because of the trembling from his Parkinson's disease. 😢

We trust and support each other

So we are open and honest with each other, both with regard to our financial situation and with regard to the rest. For example, when I have bought new clothes, I ask him for his opinion, because I am very unsure about this. I have gained a lot of weight over the years. And I find it very hard to cope with that, making me unsure about myself and if the clothes look good on me. Where one is in menopause and hardly notices it, I have to deal with increased weight, also because I am an emotional eater, and because I could no longer work I have had a snack, I am on cutting down on snacking, although I still sometimes relapse. But that's a whole other story.

Thank you for making me reminding these good times

And I hope you have been able to make sense of my story a bit. And still had a little fun digging through my story. Looking forward to seeing next time, ;-)