These days it seems like everybody and his brother wants to tell you what you should be doing with your money. Save it? Spend it? Invest it? Put it under your mattress? Sign on with a financial advisor and just let him worry about it? (I guess you can include me in that everybody as well.) 😀 Someone asked me the question recently about which financial experts they should listen to (besides me, of course 😏), and I realized that I never did a blog on that subject so here goes: First of all, I would tell you that it is not imperative that you sign up with an advisor and let her or him handle all your money for you. He/she will be taking a fee for that service, of course, and if you do not want to pay that fee, it is very much possible, in this era of easy discount brokerage firms, for you to invest and manage your own money. I used to pay a financial advisor myself, but once I started to read up on the subject, I gained confidence to do it on my own. I would tell you to read as much as you can on the subject. There are many, many books out there on the subject of personal finance and investing. You don’t even have to buy them, you can get them from the library. There are also websites and podcasts galore on the subject. Read and listen to a variety of them. These writers have nothing to gain personally from you unless they are trying to get you to buy a particular product. If so, steer clear of that kind of advice. There are high commissions to be had for “advisors” to sell you such things as whole life policies, annuities, etc. Once you start researching the subject, you will find that although there are some differences between the advice that the “experts” give you will also notice many lessons repeated over and over. Pay attention to these pearls of common wisdom. Your best bet is to keep it as simple as possible. Choose some steady stable investments and stick to them. Buy some mutual funds such as S&P 500’s and just hold onto them. The less you can be tempted to keep moving your money around, the better you will be taking advantage of the compound interest they will afford you through the years. (Oops, I guess I just gave you some advice of my own… well that’s a “freebee”) After a while, you will begin to feel some confidence that you know what to do and you can do this! For no one has your best interest and bottom line at heart better than you do. Once you are armed with the knowledge, YOU are the person that you can trust the most Best of luck to you for a happy and prosperous bright future!
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Last month I talked about what lessons it is important to be teaching your kids about money. I mentioned that I would go into more specifics about teaching teens about money in a later blog. Well, I figured I might as well go on to it sooner rather than later, so here we go. Those lessons taught throughout childhood should be continued to be reinforced throughout their teen years of course, but now you must get even more specific about actually preparing them for living their lives as financially independent adults. By teen years they should: Be paying for as much of their own needs as possible. This includes their clothes, phones, entertainment, car expenses, etc. Even if you are giving them an allowance to cover some of it, the money should be “theirs” to budget for all these expenses. This will set them up for learning to budget their living expenses when they are out on their own. Be saving for their future needs. They should have been saving for bigger “wants” throughout their childhood. Now they have some needs to be saving for. The biggest and most obvious is that first car. Encourage them to save for it. Even if you help them out, by giving them some cash “gifts” along the way to add to the savings or offering to match their savings (to let’s say equal to the amount that have saved), it should still feel like something that they have saved up and paid their own money for. This way they will learn to save for their bigger purchases throughout their lives. When my own children bought their first cars this way, I went one step further and had them set up an online bank account and pretend that they had bought the car “on payments”. But instead of paying the car payments to the bank they set up automatic payments going into their own (online) “car account”. This way they were ready to pay cash when they needed to buy their next car and would never need a car loan (or pay interest payments). For more on this see No Loan Auto Ownership Be advised to go to college with no (or as little as possible) student loans. Make sure they know that where they went to college will not make a whit of difference years down the line, but those student loans (if they choose to take them) will still be with them for a long time to come. They can attend community college for the first two years. Unless they get a great scholarship, they should attend a state school. For more tips on how to save money on college see: Smart-financial-planning for College Be taught the dangers of credit cards and debt. When your child is nearing the age of 18 they will be starting to receive credit card “offers” in the mail. Teach them to steer clear of these. Talk to them about how easy it is to go into debt. Teach them to only spend the money that they already have. Do not be spending “future money” that has not even been earned yet. Many kids get credit cards in college with disastrous results. They end up graduating with not only student loans hanging over their heads, but also start out their independent lives with credit card debts already weighing them down. Let them use a debit card for their expenses in college. Caution them to keep track of how much is in the account at all times. )Know about credit scores. No one should be taking out a credit card until they have a very full and mature grasp on managing their money and budgeting wisely to pay their expenses and also saving for the future. Only once this is happening should they open a credit card in order to obtain a good credit score. It is possible to live without a credit card at all but unfortunately not having a (good!) credit score can make life difficult at times as it is looked at by prospective employees, landlords, car rentals, and of course, eventually, mortgage bankers. But it should be used only for the purpose of obtaining that good score. To achieve this, teach your offspring to open one credit card and use it for one thing (one bill, or only groceries, or gas, or whatever). Always pay it in full and on time every month. Never carry a balance on it. And never use it for anything else, especially something that they can’t afford. Save up for things and pay cash with money that they already have. This is one of the most important concepts you can teach them. Know about the virtues of compound interest. And why it is so important to start investing early. Teach them that if they invest early and let the money grow they will have to invest far less of their own money to achieve the same nest egg of someone who started later. The magic of compounding interest will do the growth for them. Know how important it is to always live below their means. Which if you think about it is exactly what they will be doing if you have successfully taught them all of the above lessons. Know how to feed themselves frugally. Teach them to cook. Show them how much cheaper it is to buy your own inexpensive ingredients than it is to eat at restaurants or get take-out. For a primer on frugal grocery shopping see Money Saving Tips from Your Auntie Victoria When you send your newly minted adults out into the world armed with this important knowledge, you (and they) can be assured that they will not become a part of the hapless statistics on adults living in debt and with no financial safety net beneath them. They will have a strong financial foundation from the very start. And your work is done. Wishing you and your children the brightest future you can have!
It’s appalling how many adults in today’s world have little if no knowledge of personal finance skills. They are just going through life flying by the seat of their pants when it comes to how to handle their money and finances, often, unfortunately with disastrous results. This is clearly evident when you hear the statistics for the amount of personal debt in our country. And so very often these people will say that they had absolutely no guidance from their own parents on the subject. That money was not discussed in their households when growing up. That it was often viewed as a source of tension as they witnessed their parents fighting about it. Money should not be a taboo subject when it comes to raising kids. And it certainly should not be a source of anxiety and despair. It is simply a tool/resource that if managed well can bring much joy and security to one’s life. The key here, of course is in managing it well. And this is (obviously) not an innate skill that we are just born with, but (especially in today’s consumeristic, ad driven, and complex society) needs to be taught. I have argued many a time that more needs to be done on this at the high school level with courses on personal finance and financial literacy skills. But the education can and should begin much earlier than that from a very young age. Money is a part of life, and lessons on what is all about and how to manage it can be incorporated into everyday life from the time a youngster can talk. It is imperative that they begin on their journey with the skills and knowledge to be financially successful adults. Here are some of the lessons that should be imparted on youngsters before they leave the nest to embark on their own exciting independent lives. #1. Money comes from work – Kids can see you going to the ATM and taking out bills. They watch you whip out your credit card to make purchases. It is all pretty magical. It is important that they realize that you actually earned all this money you are spending to get stuff. It cannot be apparent to them unless you tell them. In their own little world, you can begin to let them earn their own spending money to further understand the concept. Some parents tie their chores to their allowance. Others feel chores should be done as a member of the household without pay. But you should provide something (extra chores?) that they can be doing to earn their own spending money. As they get up into their teen years, they can begin to earn money outside the home by babysitting, dog walking, yard work, etc. And in later teen years, with an hourly wage job. #2. Money should be saved – Most kids first impulse is to want to go out and spend those shiny new quarters and crisp dollar bills they now have in their hot little hands. Heck, there are many adults who have that impulse. That is why saving needs to be taught. Help them to set up goals. If they have their eye on something that costs more than one week’s allowance, help them to set up a savings plan to pay for it. Of course, this will start very simply when they are tiny, saving up 2 or 3 weeks of allowance, and escalate to bigger spending goals as they grow #3. Money needs to be budgeted – They will not be either spending all their allowance or saving all their money. Help them to see that they can spend a portion of it on todays wants while still saving a portion of it aside for future goals. This is the beginning of budgeting. By the time they are older teens they should be responsible for as much of their own wants and needs as possible, such as clothes, phones, entertainment, car expenses, etc. This money can come from an allowance or (preferably at least some of it) from work outside the home. Help them to figure out how to organize their money to pay for these things and to also be saving for future needs (a car, college expenses, an apartment, etc.) #4. Learn the difference between wants and needs – Kids can be impulsive (again, ditto some adults). It is up to you to show them the difference between frivolous spending and real needs. They need to be taught to really think about purchases rather than just thoughtlessly throwing money away. Use examples in your own life. Let them in on your own thought processes when weighing a purchase #5. Teach them about advertising. I heard a statistic once that in today’s world we are bombarded with something like 2,000 ads a day! Children do not even know that these ads are trying to sell them something. Talk to them about that. Discuss with them how to be a savvy consumer. Teach them to be strong against the lure of very convincing and attractive advertising. Tell them that if they buy brand names vs generic they are paying for the advertising. #6. Teach them that stuff does not equal happiness. Show them by example how it is possible to lead a very comfortable and happy life without a lot of stuff accumulation. Here is an opportunity to show them just how joyous a frugal life can be. Talk to them about peer pressure and the concept of “keeping up with the Jones’s”. When your kids are much older, before they go out into the world for good (college aged), it will also be important to tackle some more adult topics with them, such as credit cards and debt, credit ratings, saving and investing, emergency funds, and even eventually mortgages and saving for retirement. I will cover all this in a later blog All the best to you and especially to your kids for learning to create a bright financial future!
An emergency fund is like an immune system for your financial health. We have germs circulating all around our environment, but if they try to attack us our immune system springs into action to protect us and keep us healthy. If we do not have a healthy, robust immune system those same viruses and bacteria can wreak havoc, make us very sick and possibly even kill us. And that is what your emergency fund does for your financial health. There are financial “disasters” lurking everywhere around us, just waiting to happen (an appliance goes on the fritz, the roof springs a leak, your car breaks down, your computer dies, you lose your job, etc.) If you do not have that healthy emergency fund to cover the expense, it will derail your finances, can force you to reach for the credit card (or take out a loan), and put you in debt. Now you are scrambling to not only cover your regular monthly expenses but also to pay back that debt and paying interest on top of that. You can see how, without an emergency fund, one setback can lead you down into a negative financial spiral that can take a very long time to climb out from. If you do have an emergency fund, you simply use that money to cover your expense and continue on. No panic, no interest payments to deal with. And if your budget already included a small amount going into your emergency fund each month, not even any difference to your monthly expenditures. So, hopefully, this illustrates to you just how important an emergency fund is to your financial health! Best of luck to you for creating your own healthy financial situation that can lead you to a very bright future For how to save up an emergency fund and more on emergency funds see What are Your Emergency Fund Questions?
I have always lived a frugal, and yes, I feel a very rich and full life. Here is the key to that. Don’t spend your money on everything… needlessly. In other words, save your money by spending less on the things that you can (save on) in order to have money for things that you prioritize. Here are some examples of things I save money on because (to me) there is no point in spending a lot of my money on them; · Clothes - I buy them mostly at thrift shops. This saves a ton of money. And I probably dress better than most people who don’t. You can find many high-quality items of clothing in thrift shops for a fraction of the new cost. · Food - I buy basic ingredients and cook at home. I don’t buy convenience or ready-made foods or processed food. I also grow many of our own vegetables. This also enriches my life with the joy of gardening and eating fresh food right from my backyard! · Eating out and Take-out - I do not find the cost of restaurant food (generally 10x what I would have spent making it at home) to be worth the “experience” of eating out. I save this for special occasions when I can truly savor the (rare for me) experience with my loved ones. The same goes for take-out food and snacks. I’d rather bring my own from home. All those little purchases can add up to real money if you let them. · TV - I see no reason to have a zillion channels to watch so I never got cable (or satellite) TV. I had (and still have) an old fashioned antenna and get all the major networks (and some quirky in-between channels) for free. Now my kids have also included me on some of their streaming subscriptions as well (but I actually would be fine without them). · Entertainment - There are so many things to do for fun, I don’t see the need to spend a lot to entertain myself. I love to read, garden, knit, take walks and hikes. I would rather have friends over for “happy hour” or dinner, or a game night, or fire in the backyard, and spend a fraction of what we would have spent going out. In the summer there are plenty of free concerts and other activities. The town and library offer free classes and events as well. · Health and Beauty - I never got into “doing myself up” with make-up and jewelry. I get my hair cut about 3 or 4 times a year. I keep up my health by eating really good fresh food (vegan) and getting exercise and thus rarely go to doctors. · Exercise - No need for a gym membership. Walking, hiking, biking, and (sometimes) swimming, are all free. You can also get hand weights and other exercise equipment for home use. And because I save money on all of these aspects of my life, when I do want to spend money, on something for my home or something fun, like a concert or other event, or a vacation, I have plenty of money at my disposal to do so. I can even splurge and treat my kids or friends if I want to. And I have a comfortable nest egg to fall back on if I ever need it I am a big proponent of living better on less! It has been a great life for me! It is the richest life indeed!
Happy New Year! If you, like so many other people, are looking to save money this coming year, I have come up with a list of money saving resolutions that you might want to adopt starting this January. This list is for you to pick and choose from. They may not all apply to where you are in your financial journey right now, and even if many of them did, I wouldn’t suggest that you try take on too many changes all at once. In fact, if you want to tackle quite a few of them this year, I recommend that you take on a few now and get used to the change, and then maybe adopt a few more changes one at a time as the year goes by, depending on how motivated and ambitious you are feeling. So here they are (in no particular order). I hope you find a few that may be helpful to your own situation. 1. Max out your retirement contributions (401K, Roth IRA). 3. Write down what your short term, medium term, and long term savings goals are, and devise a plan to start saving for them. 5. Go through all your monthly bills (especially those online subscriptions for TV/music/gaming, etc.) and cancel what you really don’t need. Call others to ask for reduced rates. 6. Slash your grocery bills as much as possible. Make it a challenge! See Auntie Victoria's Money saving Grocery Shopping Tips 7. Pay off your debt and stop charging things! 8. Stop buying new clothes. You probably already have more than enough to live on for the year. (live with what you have and/or shop thrift shops or resale sites). 9.Resolve to use free entertainment as much as possible this year. 10. Get a library card and start using it (this will help with #9 as well (free books/movies/events, etc) 11. If you have a mortgage, make a plan to prepay it off as quickly as possible. Start making extra payments towards the principle every month. (this will save you a ton in interest payments!). 12. Start keeping track of all your spending (get a little notebook to track it daily). Add it all up (into categories) at the end of each month. 13. Start thinking of your upcoming expenses ahead of time (i.e start saving for next December’s holiday season now). 14. Along the lines of the above: Start a “car account” to always be saving up for your next car (automatically, of course), see tip #2). See No Loan Auto Ownership 15.Stop buying drinks. Make coffee at home, drink tap water (get reusable travel containers). Just stop drinking other (sugary) drinks. See One Thing to Stop Wasting Money On 16. Do a no-spend month challenge. 17. Cut the cable. There are plenty of ways these days to watch TV at little or no cost. 18. Break a (costly) habit. Even a small spending habit that you give up can add up over time (a $1.50 candy bar bought each day would add up to $45.00/month… or $547.50/year! 19. Cook and eat more of your meals at home (can you do a “no restaurant” year?) Or at least a month? 20. If you have kids, start saving for their education now. Don’t be overwhelmed. I don’t mean for you do this all at once. Just pick one, (or a few) and go for it! Any step in the right direction is a good one to get you started on your journey to financial success! Wishing you all a very happy, healthy prosperous New Year and, of course a very bright future! This time of year is a time of overabundance. We tend to go a little overboard with everything from shopping, to eating, to celebrating. It can be fun, but it can also lead to feelings of guilt and stress. I would like to invite you to tone it down a little. If you can reign it in a little during the season you have a better chance of starting the new year feeling good about your situation, especially your finances, (and maybe your waistline too). This is not to say that it cannot be a joyous season for you. In fact, it means just the opposite. If you can learn to enjoy the season without the overindulging, you will be able to enjoy it guilt-free. And that is a much more satisfying feeling. Let’s take a look at what I mean, specifically: Reuse: No need to go buying new holiday décor each year. I’m sure you have plenty put away from last year. The same goes for wrapping. Just reuse those gift bags. And, yes folks, being as frugal as I am, I even carefully unwrap my gifts, and reuse the paper the next year. I also reuse the tags (I collect them all after the unwrapping). Ditto for ribbons, boxes, etc. Reduce: The number of gifts you buy. It can still be a very pleasurable time for all with a few less gifts. In fact, when it comes to children, often “less is more”. They may get overwhelmed with too much of an abundance of gifts. And quantity isn’t everything. A few well-chosen gifts can be much more meaningful than a pile of plastic destined for the landfill before too long. Recycle: It can be fun to make ornaments out of what you have laying around at home (rice filled snowmen out of old socks, snow globes out of jars, stars out of old book pages, repurpose an old sweater into mittens, or a hat, or turn it into an “ugly Christmas sweater”, etc. Through the magic of google you can find a project for whatever you happen to have in your own cupboards and drawers. I guess this might be better called “upcycling” Also remember to actually recycle any by-products of the holiday that you can (cardboard boxes, bottles, etc.). And I will add one more to this list: Regift: I know it has a bad rap (or wrap, LOL!) but it has its place in your frugal holiday if done correctly. Sometimes a gift can be perfectly nice, but you already have something similar, or it’s just not right for you. There is nothing wrong with saving that gift to give to someone else who might appreciate it more than you. (Just always remember who gave it to you, so as not to lead to a very embarrassing regifting situation!) And now, best of all: Relax! If you thoughtfully go through your holidays, without all the crazy overindulging and overspending you may just find that it is a more peaceful time for you and all those involved in your life. You may just come to like this new calmer pace. And a new quieter family tradition is born. Better for your finances, for your waistline, and for the environment. And when the calendar turns to the new year, you will be refreshed and ready for it, feeling in control and confident to move forward with your dreams for the future. Wishing you all a peaceful and contented holiday season, and of course,
A very bright future! I am counting my blessings as I sit in my warm and comfortable home, looking out the window at my lovely and productive gardens and feeling strong and healthy. And I am feeling good that the choices I have made in my life have led me to this moment. I’m not getting on my high horse here. I know many people have things that happen to them that are totally beyond their control. None of us totally controls everything that happens in our lives. We are all creatures of destiny and fate to a certain extent. But what I am saying is that I feel a certain satisfaction that making the right choices in my life (and a bit of luck) have brought me to this place of contentment that I enjoy today. And (you knew this was coming, right?) frugality played a large part in where I sit today. Leading a life of simplicity and thriftiness and saving my money throughout my entire life has brought me to a place of security and comfort. Not only do I have a nice nest egg to see me through the rest of my life, but I know how to appreciate all the little pleasures that life has to offer. I have never felt that I needed to spend money to enjoy life. Shiny new, bigger and better possessions never appealed to me. I never felt the urge to keep up with the latest technology. I never felt that I had to “keep up with the Jones’s” or the dreaded FOMO. I did not lead the life of a miser, counting my money alone in the attic. I did travel, I do have a lovely furnished and decorated home. I do like to wear nice looking outfits. But I was always very careful and deliberate on where and how I spent my money. I bought clothes at thrift shops at a fraction of the price. The same with home décor. I traveled on a budget, seeing the sights but not needing extravagantly lavish accommodations. )I kept myself healthy by eating good whole foods. I cooked for my family and stayed away from unhealthy and expensive ready-made and foods. I did not feel the need to go out for high priced restaurant meals on a regular basis. I grew as much of my own food as I could. I did not overeat (saving money on excess food and keeping myself slim at the same time). I never wasted food. Waste not, want not, right? I also kept healthy and fit by walking, hiking, working out at home and gardening. No costly gym memberships needed. I saved money every step of the way. By not spending it, of course, but also by quite literally saving it (putting in away and investing it) no matter what our financial situation was at the time. I did not wait until the “time was right”. At least something was always skimmed right off the top for savings before spending money on living expenses. We lived below our means whatever they were at the time (and believe me, they were never very much). So yes, there is such a thing as good fortune and luck, but I do feel that some “luck” is self-made. And I do think there are consequences, both good and bad for the lifestyle you choose to live. And I live in continuous appreciation and contentment for this frugal lifestyle that I have chosen. And that is why I continue to try to spread the word and the joy of it. Hoping you too have many blessings to count this holiday season and always Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
You can’t escape it. It’s all over the news. And even if it weren’t, your pocketbook is telling you. The cost of many things is going up, most notably food and gas. And of course, these are the things we need to buy on a regular basis. What’s a consumer to do? Well, if there were ever a time to adopt a frugal lifestyle, it might as well be now. Let’s go over some things that you can be doing to counteract this purchasing inflation. Food is the number one culprit, and luckily there are many things you can be doing to lower your food bill. You can start with how you approach food buying in the first place. What you should not be doing is planning your meals and then shopping for the ingredients. To save money on your food bill, you should be doing exactly the opposite. The most frugal approach to food shopping is to buy what’s on sale. Every supermarket advertises a few “loss leaders” in their circular to get you in the door. Buy these sale items. Stock up on them if they are perishable. Also keep your pantry well stocked with cheap meal ingredients. Pasta, rice (and other grains), oatmeal, beans, lentils, split peas, barley, canned tomatoes, etc.) Keep your freezer stocked with frozen veggies and fruits (bought when on sale). I buy them or grow my own and freeze them during the summer months when they are in season. But you can still buy them cheaply throughout the year, especially when there is a sale or in bulk size. If you eat meat, buy it when it is on sale, and then either freeze it or make your meal out of it and freeze (the whole meal, or a portion of it) to eat another time. Also stick to more reasonable products, like chicken, or ground beef. The less meat you can get by with, the better off you will be when it comes to food costs (not to mention your health!). This same concept goes for dairy products as well (another costly part of your food budget). The more you can stay away from pre-made, prepackaged, and processed food the better off you will be. The more you can plan your meals and snacks based on simple whole ingredients the less you will spend. Better for your wallet and your waistline! Try to stay away from these kind of boxed, highly processed foods as much as you can Your shopping cart should look more like this! As for drinks, the less you can buy of these the better too. Drink water! (From the tap). Sugary drinks are expensive and not good for your teeth anyway. This would be the perfect time to try and wean your family off them if you can. And least try to reduce the amount that you buy and drink. (This includes “100% fruit juice drinks”, just as unhealthy, unfortunately, and even more expensive!) When you approach food shopping this way, you will always have the “fixin’s” for an affordable and healthy meal at home, and you will notice an immediate drop in your weekly grocery bill. And hopefully, this will keep you out of restaurants and from picking up a quick (but expensive) take out meal on the way home. For more tips on grocery savings see: money-saving-grocery-tips-from-your-auntie-victoria.html The other quicky rising cost is gas (and this includes heating gas and oil). To combat this, try to eliminate unnecessary driving. Consolidate your errands as much as possible. Carpool if you can. Stay home when you can. When you do stay home, do not overheat your house. Stop drafts as much as you can. Wear sweaters. Use blankets. Use your wood burning stove if you have one. Don’t heat rooms you are not using. Maybe (safely!) use a space heater if you are only going to be in one room for a while. I always turn my heat completely off at night when we are sleeping. We just wear warm PJ’s and socks and cuddle under lots of blankets. It’s cozy. And I think probably better for your health. None of this is rocket science, of course. It’s just frugal. It’s the way people lived back in “the day”. It worked back then, and it can work for you through these expensive times too. Give it a try. You might like it! You may even decide to adopt this way of life permanently. Why live more expensively than you have to, right? I love this frugal life and I can’t help but spouting its virtues to anyone and everyone who will listen. I hope you will come to like it as much as I do! Wishing you all a bright and frugal future! ☀️
There is a law of physics that you’ve all heard of that states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Well, I’ve observed that it is the same with most people’s finances. Once people get going in a certain direction with their money, they tend to remain on it until something happens to change it. This motion can be in either direction. Once people begin to live beyond their means and start to accumulate debt, that downward spiral into debt begins to snowball, making it very difficult to get off the ride. But the good news is that, conversely, if people can start to move the needle in the opposite direction and start to save money instead of accumulating debt, this too can have a snowball effect and the more you save, well, the more you save! Being in debt becomes a perpetuating cycle for the very reason that you are in debt. When all your money is going towards your credit card and other debt payments, there is never any money to use whenever something comes up. And this too goes on the card. You can see (or maybe know firsthand) how this could go on and on. On the other hand, if you have money saved, you not only easily pay for any financial emergency or need that comes your way, and avoid paying interest payments, but you can also take advantage of strategies that can grow your money even further. The most obvious of these opportunities would be the ability to invest your money. Now instead of paying out interest you have the ability to turn it around and have that interest work for you. And thus the snowball grows (in a good direction!) When you have a cushion of money beneath you, you no longer have to approach life from a position of desperation. Desperate people need to resort to desperate measures to keep themselves afloat. Think of those insidious payday loans, with their ungodly interest rates. Desperate people do not have the money to maintain their possessions (I.e., cars, appliances, roof, etc.) or even their health, and often end up paying much more in the long run for car repairs, home repairs, or even worse, a health crisis because they were unable to keep up with the maintenance required. Of course, the key is to turn this trajectory around to be moving in a positive direction. The hard part is the turning. It does take a lot of work and sacrifice to get a debt situation under control. But once you push through and make it to the other side the rewards are immense. Now you can relax and let that money work for you. The very interest you were fighting now becomes your friend. It’s a great feeling. I hope I can inspire you to begin to move your needle in the right direction. I will be here cheering you on the whole way! If you need any specific strategies to help get you going, take a look through some of my other blogs for some tips and tricks that might work for you. If you need more personal help, feel free to contact me for a one-on-one appointment. Wishing you all the best in snowballing your way to a better and brighter future!
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