No Avoiding It
No matter how hard I tried, I could not avoid bankruptcy. I thought I was doing it all right. Anyone who knows me well knows that I pride myself on being good with money. No matter how good we are at managing money, when life shows up with a ripple, even the best of us can get derailed.
Double Edged Sword
Bankruptcy was tough – it took a toll on my self-esteem when the arse fell out of her. I thought I was down for the count. Bankruptcy was also the best gift I was ever given. Yes it was a tool that helped me to start over. But for me it was more than that. There was no way I was ending up back in this place again. I needed to take a long hard look at what it was that I could do to ensure that this didn’t happen. I had lessons to learn and I was like a sponge when it came to finding out what would work.
Track Spending
You don’t know where you need to trim if you don’t know where you’re spending. The first step for me was to track my spending. It took some time to get into the swing of things but I did it. Tracking alone wasn’t enough. Now that I knew were every penny was going, I sat there and asked “Where do I want it to go?”
Time for Reflection
You don’t lose it all and remain the same person. You only get lost in keeping up with the Jones one time and you learn a lesson. Now that you know where the money is going, you have to ask, where do you want it to go. What do you want the future to bring? I know that my values and needs had changed in the process.
I took the time to do my homework. The only thing that I ever knew about money was that if you get it you spend it. That’s what got me into this mess in the first place. Taking time to reflect helped me to make some good decisions. There is so much you can do when you have sound financial advice and you take a bit of time to make good decisions.
I think that life gives us the lessons we need to learn and when it comes to money, you have a choice. Learn it now or learn it next time around. For me, I decided to get off the Merry Go Round and take charge of my spending. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about making better decisions one day at a time.
