I’ve been thinking about money again this week. Part of it is because of the shattering of the worldwide economy, which has made it harder for this freelancer to raise rates. Part of it is because I haven’t been able to make any dent in my debt in the last two months. And part of it is because quite frankly, I am not good with money and I want to be.

I signed up for the Mint.com financial reports, so that I’d be able to track what’s going where. I still have a bank account and a credit card from India, so it’s not a perfect system, but it’s a start.

The fact that I’m not good with money distresses me, because my parents were practically geniuses at handling theirs. When they got married, neither had a penny to their names, and yet here they are, my father retired, my mother retiring, and as the world collapses around them, they’ve just bought their dream home. It wasn’t luck. There were a lot of sacrifices involved. Even when they could afford to, my parents limited going out, traveling, and buying stuff, so that they could put my brother and me through school, send him to college in London, and help me get set up even when they were struggling with a financial crisis.

Then again, those were different times. You actually believed that your retirement savings would come to you, you had job security, and you didn’t have to spend thousands of dollars on computers, printers, cameras and other assorted gadgets that have become necessities in today’s world.

I, like many others in my generation, don’t even know where to start. The state of the economy has been a rude awakening. It’s been a glimpse into what life could become if I don’t make changes in the way I handle money.

It’s also finally time to pick a country after May and make it my home for the next two or three years.