Always Be Growing - Pain or Pleasure

What motivates you to do the things you do in your life? Most people are either seeking pleasure or seeking to avoid pain. It is generally accepted that people will do more to avoid pain than to seek pleasure.

In this current economic situation, people are experiencing home foreclosures, job losses, and sky-rocketing credit card debt. The drastic stock market decline of 2008 has had dramatic reductions in their investment accounts. Pain is an understatement. Over 80% of Americans are upside down. Don’t give up, there are financial solutions.

There is hope and there is help.

1. Do not cut up all of your credit cards and close all of your credit card accounts. Having credit is a valuable asset to be preserved.

2. Pick the card with the highest interest rate and start paying it down. The problem with most people is they keep running up the balance to the maximum and paying minimum payments until all they are paying is part of the interest, not even any of the principle balance.

3. Cal the credit card company and negotiate a lower interest rate or waive penalties. Work out a payment plan with them. They would much rather you pay it off gradually rather than file bankruptcy.

4. Even small steps will provide financial help. If it is easier for you to swallow, call it a spending plan rather than a budget. Plan out what is available and exactly where it will go. Yes, it will take discipline. How badly do you want financial solutions?

5. A friend of mine, Brian Fanale, said, “If you have to, put your couch on e-bay. Another friend sold his car. Did it take time and discipline, yes. Is it worth it to lift that thousand pound financial weight off your shoulders, yes. Think about a garage sale. There must be something you can part with to jump start your financial freedom,

6. Give up that tasty Starbucks coffee or the beverage with the boys. You can always have those later after you are financially free. Buy one less treat at the grocery store and use that money to pay even a little on the credit card debt.

7. Give up a few short term pleasures to avoid a long term pain.

8. Think of rewards for yourself which don’t cost money. Take your spouse for a moonlight walk or sit together watching a sunrise or sunset. You will be surprised how good you will both feel spending close time. Make it a project you do together for the future of your family.

What gives me the right to say this? I have been so broke in my life that I did not have enough money to feed myself and my two small sons. They ate and I pretended to be on a diet. I was so broke I had to look up to see the basement floor. I used these very measures myself. The only difference is that I took the walks with my 2 little guys while they rode in their little red wagon. We sat together at the sunrises while they sipped their morning juice.

I lived it. Now I’m fine and you will be. There are financial solutions. There is hope.