Personal Finance, Part Seven

Marching on!  You now have sold a bunch of stuff, started paying off your debt, and you have a budget for your house.  Next up is simply getting used to the budget.  You have been doing your financial life differently from this for a while…some of you have been doing it differently for YEARS!

It is natural to treat this like most diet plans: I’ll do this until I get everything flattened out and then I can add some stuff back.  DON’T DO THAT!  It is pretty obvious that you wouldn’t be reading and following this advice if the things you used to do financially were working for you.  So, why would you want to go back to those old patterns?

This is not an easy step.  This isn’t a walk in the park.  It’s hard to say no to that restaurant or your daughter that just has to have a new pair of jeans.  Saying yes to those things ended up creating debt and angst in your house.  Don’t go back!

Use this as an opportunity to test your resolve.  It isn’t fun to tell your friends that you can’t afford that trip or your kids they won’t be going on that expensive vacation this Summer.  But, it will be fun when you can pay for those items with cash.  It isn’t like you are going to be restricting your fun forever…just until you are completely out of debt (except for the house) and have enough money in the bank for emergencies.

Think about how much more fun vacations will be when you just pay for them with cash.  Won’t you be able to relax better?  Won’t Christmas morning be even merrier when all of the gifts are paid for as they are opened?  Just imagine how much better you will feel when your hot water heater is on the fritz and you have a cash reserve just for that very purpose.

And best of all, just imagine how much better your marriage will be because you don’t have to worry about an economic disaster around every corner.  Imagine how great you will feel knowing that your children will start learning good financial principles now.

If you ever get discouraged on this journey…just come back to this post and remind yourself why you are doing this.