Racquetball is not one of my favorite sports and I’m really not good at it. However, because I enjoy athletic activity and I am a bit competitive I do enjoy playing with friends. In fact, Shawna and I have enjoyed playing racquetball some through the years, but she gets mad at me because I can’t let her win every time, or much of the time, or ever… Ok, so I can beat her playing left-handed (I’m right-handed). Is there something else I should do to give her an advantage? One legged, blind folded?? 🙂 I love you baby.
Anyway…I got to thinking randomly about how some fundamentals of playing racquetball can parallel with some fundamentals of managing money.
Rules in racquetball are just like money management principles and discipline.
- Just like standing between the lines, you have to stay within a budget of income-outgo=exactly zero. That’s just how it is.
- Just like keeping the ball from hitting the back wall before it hits the floor on a serve, you have to keep spending within the budget. If we’re constantly hitting it off the back wall we’ll never score/win.
Serving in racquetball is like having a plan with money.
- Hopefully when you serve the ball you know where you’re aiming it to go. The same is true with money – without a plan for where it goes there is little chance of winning.
- The only way to score points and win in racquetball is to be the one serving the ball. The only way to win with money is to be the one telling the money what to do. We never know what might happen tomorrow to change our situation, just like we don’t know how our racquetball opponent is going to return the ball. All we can do is put a plan in place, or a serve in play, and hope that our plan works out.
- Sometimes the plan works and we score. Sometimes the plan doesn’t work and we have to shake it off and try again.
Returning the ball is like coming from behind with money.
- You can’t score from the returners position – you have to get in the serving position. To me that’s like being in debt. You have to get out of debt and get in the serving position, and if you’re losing by a lot you have to stay in the serving position long enough to get ahead.
- When you’re in the returners position you don’t want to be there long because that would mean the opponent is winning. When you’re coming from behind with money you’ve gotta get back in control of the game and try to run up some points in your favor.
The game is even more interesting when playing couples – both racquetball and money. Hopefully both partners know each others strengths and weaknesses and play them accordingly for their advantage. Hopefully both partners are communicating and paying attention to where they’re at so they aren’t bumping into each other. And for goodness sake hopefully neither of you hits the ball into your partners back – intentionally or not. 🙂
Please wear eye protection when playing racquetball and please have fun managing money together.
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