Never give someone an empty wallet

I'm not a superstitious kind of person and I generally don't get scared by the Bogey man (bobby in the lobby as my dad used to call him).   I do, however, pay attention to certain customs and rituals such as the not giving someone an empty wallet as a present.

I cringed inwardly when my other half presented me a new leather on my birthday last year. She wasn't aware of the old wives tale that it's bad luck to give someone an empty wallet.  As far as she was concerned I needed a new one because the old one was falling apart.  It was that simple.  I was grateful to have a vessel to store my cash in without it falling out so I thought about the old superstition and decided to dismiss it as a silly notion.

Now I can probably blame my recent poor financial situation on a number of things including the recession, but for a while now I've had this nagging thought that the empty wallet was part of the problem.  Hanging on by the skin of your teeth financially isn't much fun so in the end, I decided to go back to using my old wallet a couple of months ago.  I don't think she was impressed, but my girlfriend understands my reasoning and isn't to offended (I hope).

So much for that then. Since switching back to the old wallet I've had a couple of lucky blips as far as money is concerned but  no real improvement.  Time to try something different I think.

It occurred to me that it might not be possible to break the curse until I give the offending wallet to someone else (with money in it of course).  Perhaps that is what I need to do to make things right again and as it happens, my son's fifteenth birthday is coming up next month.  As he has built a new PC but still needs some parts, I'm sure a bit of cash would come in handy so he can buy what he wants for it.  This could be the perfect way to pass on the wallet as I'm pretty sure he doesn't have one yet.  A new (ish) wallet with money in it for PC upgrades and dad hopefully heading towards better financial weather himself.  A happy result for all we hope.

As I said, I'm not actually superstitious but I believe a person's thoughts and experiences can shape what happens to them.  Some people are just naturally lucky and good things just come at them from all directions (my sister is one of these people).  I believe it is their outlook that causes this.  Similarly with the wallet, knowing that it's supposed to be bad luck has I believe, in some way affected the decisions I make and therefore my finances.

OK, this is all just a theory of mine.  We'll see if things improve from next month.