You Can Do It!

Lately it seems like too many of my conversations begin and sometimes end with the problem of convincing people they can do something to improve their financial situation. All too often we have been persuaded that we are nothing more than bits of straw caught in a hurricane of forces beyond our control. Leaders of both parties seem to spend a lot of time telling us that we are victims, instead of celebrating our victories. Guess it gets them votes. Way too much time is spent by the psycho babble, self help movement exploring the sources of our neuroses in an attempt to avoid taking individual responsibility for our current situation.

Draw a circle on a piece of paper. Inside the circle write down everything you are currently doing with your money. Outside the circle write down everything you would like to do with your money. No, don’t write down, “Win the lottery. Move to Hawaii.” It isn’t that kind of exercise. However, “Save $6,000 for a two week vacation in Hawaii,” would be something totally cool to write down outside your circle.

Here are a list of suggestions from an article found at moneyland.time.com entitled, 10 Ways To Improve Your Financial Health Even If You Only Do One Thing.

1. Grow Your Emergency Fund
2. Pay Off Credit Card Debt
3. Put 10% of Your Income Toward Retirement
4. Pay Off Your Mortgage Before Retiring
5. Track Your Spending
6. Envision Your Future
7. Improve Your Credit Score
8. Live Below Your Means
9. Act Like You Can’t Just ‘Throw It Away’ (this one is a little weird. The author means pretend you have to keep everything you buy forever. You can’t throw it out or sell it. Obviously he hates American consumerism.)
10. Move Your Money Around (Move it from poor investments to better investments)

I am liking the “Even if you only do one thing,” suggestion. The circle exercise in the second paragraph actually comes from Neuro-Linguistics Programming (NLP). Like the author of the article, NLP suggests doing just one thing to improve your situation that is outside your current comfort zone. Pick something, anything, from your list of things you believe will improve your life. Then Just Do It! Understand you will have good days and bad days. On the days when you fail, renew your resolve, and just try again. This isn’t rocket science. You can do it! Really, you can!