How your mindset and behavior can prevent you from making progress.
Could you be standing in the way of your own financial security?
It may feel like financial success is out of your grasp. The thought of accomplishing your goals, paying off your debt, buying a house, saving for retirement are very foreign to so many people. Times are tough, but you have more power and control than you may think.
What, you may ask, can I possibly control? If you haven't already read the sub-heading up top, it's your mindset and behavior. By shifting these two factors, you can significantly improve your financial situation.
What's on your mind?
The way you think about money and view your financial situation will translate to your real-life finances. Whether you’re in denial or have resigned yourself to your fate, you’re actively preventing yourself from improving your situation.
Unless you make the effort to see your money problems for what they are and acknowledge you have the power to change them, you’ll be stuck. Maybe you feel like ignoring the problems and pretending you're not digging your own grave. Maybe you realize the sh*thole that your finances are in and staring deep into the void has made you give up.
Where does turning your back or saying you’re already in too deep to change get you? Even farther in the hole. Saying it’s too difficult or would take too long to improve are excuses. Being broke is difficult and even if it takes you years to get your situation fixed, those years are going to pass by anyway, so why not use them to your advantage?
Think about what you deserve. You work hard and deserve to get dinner and drinks with friends, pick up your morning coffee each day before work, go on vacation for your anniversary, right? Yes and no.
Of course everyone should be able to enjoy these pleasures of life, but prioritizing these wants while actively digging or ignoring your financial grave in the background is irresponsible and immature.
You deserve the security of not living paycheck to paycheck, having savings and investments, and not drowning in debt before anything else. Sure, not many people get as starry-eyed at the mention of a Roth IRA as they do at the idea of going on a trip, but sacrificing until we can afford the fun, extra things is the adult way to go about it.
Behave Yourself
Capitalism this, capitalism that, but what are you doing to f*ck yourself over? In most cases, your behavior is going to play a bigger role in determining your finances than external circ*mstances will.
Taking responsibility for your actions and making strides to act differently will set you apart. It’s impossible to control every variable, and sometimes things happen that are outside of our control, but being prepared will help prevent a total financial disaster.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Having an emergency fund to pull from if you need to make repairs on your car or need to pay an unexpected visit to the hospital will help keep you from falling too far behind and taking on even more debt that you can’t pay off.
Keeping track of certain upcoming expenses can prevent you from spending too much on eating out and end up not having enough to afford an oil change. Don’t fall into an even deeper hole because you couldn’t not have that new shiny thing instead of putting some money to the side.
Where does your money go every month? If you’re not budgeting, it may be hard to answer that question accurately. Failing to adhere to a budget likely means you don’t have control over your finances and are overspending where you could be saving.
If you don’t know where your money goes, you may well be living beyond your means and have no idea. Spending more than what you make leads to living paycheck to paycheck and oftentimes leads to financial anxiety. You deserve so much more than this kind of stress.
You may think you just need to earn more money and your financial problems will go away. While your income is one of the strongest tools to building wealth, it doesn’t help if your expenses go up with your salary. Inflating your lifestyle as you make more money will only keep you broke if you don’t solve your money problems first.
What now?
Now is the time to reflect and be honest with yourself about your financial situation. Are you where you want to be financially at this point in your life? What can you do differently to improve your situation?
Ask yourself questions to figure out what areas of your finances you need to work on. Saving? Investing? Cutting out bullsh*t? Use the journal prompts below to help guide you.
If you’re struggling to meet your financial goals, it doesn’t make you a bad person. So many of us are struggling right now, but it’s important to take responsibility for our lives and finances and do everything within our power to make improvements. Remember you are the one in control.
Reflect on your finances with honesty to find clarity in your situation.
