Lesson 4: Get Sunglasses: Your Financial Future Can be Bright
Set the dial on your internal alarm clock. If you have taken this class, it's time to wake up and take a long look at your life, particularly how you are handling your finances. If things have been dull, they can get brighter. If they have been quickly deteriorating, we can work to slow the deterioration.
When I did this, I realized I was following the same pattern in my 30s that I did in my 20s. I was always short of money, struggling to make it through a vacation without being completely broke at the end, and I always had grand plans that involved a money commitment but never panned out because I gave up on them.
I have learned from my mistakes and my goal with this class has been to share my personal life, my funny stories and my experiences to show you financial disasters can happen to the best of us. I have several college degrees, and went to all my classes in high school. I did everything I thought I should to be "a good citizen". Now I have a B on my forehead and in many respects my bankruptcy will be how I used to be, but to some creditors and organizations, it may label me for life. I filed bankruptcy but that is not who I am. I am a person learning from her mistakes. Take these 5 parting lessons and know that you can stop where you are and turn towards something better.
Restoring my credit has been a long hard road, but I have learned 5 key lessons that have helped me to recover my financial self esteem. These were difficult lessons that helped me recognize and correct my habits. I did it and you can do it too. Learn from these tips and navigate your way back to financial success.
There are five keys that helped me to recognize how I contributed to my own financial demise. These lessons were less about money and more about my life.
1.Your habits show the world who you really are.
2 Your fear will prevent you from protecting yourself from a storm.
3 Your relationship with money is a reflection of your relationship with yourself.
4. You practice what you learn.
5. Your failure to plan can bring about the worst possible circumstances.
My bankruptcy was possibly one of the most embarrassing and potentially demoralizing events in my life, but I am still here. Learn from what I did so you either avoid repeating my mistakes or you overcome your mistakes using lessons from my life.
Excuses are endless. They can stop you from doing anything you don’t want to do. I have used them all and they have failed me. Learn from my failure and separate yourself from the limiting habits that hinder your financial self esteem.
Seeking Change and Making Changes
If you don't like what you have created, remember you are the artist and you can change the picture. Let me use my own life as an example to show you we can change the color and the texture of our financial lives.
For at least 3 months before I filed bankruptcy, I had a pile of bills sitting on my dining room table. I didn’t open or file them. I touched them only when I brought them into the house. I didn’t want to face the fact that my income did not meet my financial obligations. I am referring to a fear of knowing your life is going in a direction that you don’t want to go in but not having a clue of how you can turn it around.
I remember with regret the weddings I couldn’t attend because I wouldn’t have spending money once I got into the city where the wedding was held. I even remember planning a surprise party for a friend; however, on the day of the party I couldn’t attend because I didn’t have enough money for dinner. I am not making up these stories, sometimes I wish I were. But these anecdotes demonstrate the silly situations we can get ourselves into when we do the same thing over and over again and expect something different to show up.
One of the most outrageous memories I have had to date is being stuck in a hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was on a business trip and had checked in for a week and used my debit card. The morning of my departure, I called the automated line for my checking account and realized I didn’t have enough to cover the hotel expense. My hotel expenses were hundreds of dollars and I completely miscalculated the balance in my checking account. In order to leave I had to call my mother, who lived in a different time zone, and get her to put the expenses on their card. It was absolutely horrifying.
I remember the time that I took money from my 401K plan. It was absolutely necessary at the time but, because I was so focused on dealing with my financial crisis, I didn’t think about the train wreck I was creating for my future. I ended up thinking about the tax penalty, but I didn’t plan for it. I was too fearful to set money aside or look for ways to make extra income so I could pay my tax bill.
I hoped that giving away my car to a charity would help to ease the tax penalty, but that was an uneducated assumption. I should have researched the issue so I could determine the amount of my penalty. I knew I had one but I didn’t think it would be 4 figures. When the tax year came and I went to my CPA, he gave me news that made my stomach sink. I owed thousands of dollars in taxes and had no idea how I would pay it. Yes, I was able to get on a payment plan, but if I been willing to confront my fear of the truth I would have been able to develop a better financial plan.
