An Easy Way Out Of Financial Hardships

What I am writing about today is not easy for people to hear in these troubled times. But it is very important that you listen to what I feel needs to be said and more importantly understood. I'm sure that most of you will have a million excuses as to why you cannot or will not take the action necessary to get out of financial trouble. So remember that what ever happens to you, if you are not willing to change you behavior, there is no one to blame for your inaction's but yourself. Don't blame the government, your employer, your family, or anyone or anything else on your financial situation if you chose not to take action, OK. Now with that said, we can move on to the problem at hand. We live in a culture that relies on technology and convenience so much that we believe we need it to exist. We spend much of our hard earned money on these things that are in fact luxuries.
These luxuries are things like cell phones, cable TV, new vehicles, eating out, credit cards, Internet service, video game systems, entertainment, vacations, coffee from a coffee shop, the list goes on but I'm going to stop here because I think you get my point. When I look at many peoples expenses the overwhelming majority of their money is spent on things other than what they need to live. People will over spend on these luxuries rather then make a house payment. I find that to be very disturbing. Everyday I see people who live well above their means and give no second thought to the reality that life could change in an instant and not always for the good. They could leave their families with nothing but debt to them by. Why have we become a society of get it now and pay later? Because large companies spend millions of dollars in advertising to convince us that we cannot live without their products. People need to get a grip on life when they think their ten year old child needs a cell phone to call home to let their parents know where they are. If you have a ten year old child and you don't know where they are, then you don't need to have children, technology will not make you a better parent it just makes you lazy.
If we worked as hard to save our money as we did to spend it, would we be facing the financial challenges that we face today? I don't think so. Now is the time to cut out those things that keep us from reaching our financial goals. Did you know that you should have one years worth of wages in the bank to fall back on if times get tough. Today most people couldn't even write a check for $2000.00 if they had to. So how can we overcome this major challenge in our lives? We reprogram our belief system. We need to change our belief of what we need to be happy and our definition of success.
Understand that we all have this ideology and vision of what we believe our lives should be like. Far to often this idea or concept we have of the way our lives should be is unrealistic. So what can happen I believe, is one of two things.

One is that we try to buy the life we believe we should have (house, cars, vacations, and so on). So we spends ourselves into debt to find the happiness we are believe we missing in our lives. This leads to huge financial problems that many people never overcome. You need to focus on becoming a positive contributor to your families needs. This never involves buying and having stuff that you cannot afford or that you don't even need. Your family will be far better served by having money saved to fall back on when unforeseen circumstances arise. Your value as a parent or spouse will never be judged by things in your garage.
The second thing that can happen to us is that we become depressed. When our vision or concept of life does not fit the life we have depression sets in and we spend all of our time wondering what went wrong. We start to medicate our bodies and try to use these drugs to change how we feel. When in reality all we need to do is change our belief about what we need in order to be happy. You must understand that real happiness doesn't require certain conditions. We don't have to have everything we want in order to give ourselves permission to be happy. You can decide to be happy with the life you have, but only if you agree that not everything must be picture perfect and in a certain order.
If you are one of the thousands of people who are going to lose your home and you haven't been making your payments because you are short a few hundred dollars every month. I strongly encourage you to explore your spending and eliminate the luxuries that I know you can live without. For example I know that you want to stay connected but if you get rid of your cell phone, how much money would that save you every month? 50 to 100 dollars, maybe more? Now how much is that a year? I have said it before and I will say it again, if you are waiting for someone or something to bail you out of your problems then you will be waiting a very long time. Folks it's not going to happen (unless you have very rich relatives or family) and here's why. The only person responsible for your life is you. If you got into debt it is your job to get out of debt. But if your not willing to cut down your expenses to eliminate your debt then take a look in the mirror because the person stopping you from achievement is right there looking back.

Now is the time to develop a powerful system for change. The information that is provided to you in this blog is a stepping stone toward changing your financial state. Review your finances and trim what you can in order to achieve your financial goals. If you can eliminate bad spending you'll be on your way to creating a solid foundation in your life. So here are a few financial Goals that I want you to work on.

1. Pay off debt and eliminate some luxuries.
2. Put 10% to 20% of your monthly income into a savings account.
3. Stop needless spending.
4. Don't withdraw, transfer, or spend the money you are putting into your savings account.
5. Develope a positive belief system about saving money and building a secure financial future for yourself and your family.

I believe that you can accomplish anything you believe possible.................