Debt-Free Forever Gail Vaz-Oxlade (best ereader for epub TXT) 📖

think of more than one thing at a time. And if you need some help doing this, you should find yourself a financial guide to help you through the process. Whether you have a bank manager with whom you have a great relationship or a good friend who has his stuff together and is willing to be your coach, if you don’t have the perspicacity to see the holes in your own plan, you need someone who isn’t afraid to tell you where they are.

It doesn’t matter how small you start, you must start to save. And if anyone tells you it’s a waste of your time to save when you have so much debt to pay off, it’s simply because they don’t know better. Don’t listen to fools. You know you have to save; it’s the only way you’re going to have some cash at the ready when you need it.

Cash in the bank gives you the means to deal with life’s lumps. Your son breaks his arm playing in the yard, and you have the means—the money—you need to take a day off work, get him to the hospital, and cope in whatever other ways you must. Your partner is downsized and you have the means to pay the mortgage and keep food on the table until he finds new ways of bringing home the bacon. You bang up your car, watch your shingles blow off in a windstorm, or find yourself in the throes of a divorce, and you have the means to keep the financial boat afloat while you find ways to cope with all the other stress in your life.

Whether you’re building a big, fat emergency fund, creating a retirement savings pool, or putting aside some money for your children’s future education, set some goals. While you may not be able to predict how much you’ll need for retirement because it’s still a long way away, you can still set a goal to save 3%, 7%, or 10% of your net income. If you don’t have much to save, it doesn’t matter—the important thing is just to start … to convert your intent into action by setting goals, creating milestones, and putting momentum on your side. As long as you haven’t started, you’re not creating the means for dealing with what life will inevitably throw at you. Once you’ve begun, you’re on your way, and then it only becomes a matter of how to boost the amount you’re setting aside to grow your stash of cash.

BUDGET YOUR WAY TO A NEW FINANCIAL REALITY

When it comes to getting your money management cleaned up, the rules are simple. What you have to do is straightforward. But let me tell you, boys and girls, there’s nothing easy about it.

While some people want you to believe that you can clean up your money mess in Seven Simple and Easy Steps, executing those seven steps is the Big Test. When push comes to shove, it isn’t about knowing the steps, it’s about taking the steps. And that’s where the whole ball of wax can melt into an unmitigated mess.

“Living within our means” is not a difficult concept to understand. So why are there so many people who aren’t doing it? Why are there people who buy whatever they want whenever they want, without a thought for how they’ll pay for it?

It’s simple. (Drumroll, please.) It is too easy to spend money we don’t have when we have access to credit, and it is so hard to control our spending when we have no limits. We know we shouldn’t, but we do. And that makes “living below our means” seem like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with a yak on our backs.

We have become so used to satisfying our every whim that we have regressed in our development (or not grown up at all), acting like little kids in a candy store every time we see something we desire. New TV? Yeah, I’ll take it. Never mind that I already have two perfectly good TVs at home. New car? Yeah, I’ll take it. Never mind that I’m being asked to pay a whopping amount of interest. New shoes? Sure, I’ll take ‘em. After all, they’re just $30 and who can pass up a deal like that?

The idea of spending less than you make isn’t complicated, but it’s also not easy. It requires a commitment to living within your means. It demands that you prioritize saving. And it involves living on a budget and having the discipline to stay the course long-term. Living within your means most of the time isn’t good enough. It’s an all or nothing affair. And that can be a hard thing to do.

People say they wish things were different in their lives. People want to make a change. But wishin’ and wantin’ won’t cut the mustard. If you are truly committed to making your money work for you, then you’ll find the strength to do the simple but hard stuff that’ll make you successful.

ATTITUDE COUNTS

A big part of your success in taking control of your money and your life involves your attitude. Having the right attitude is the difference between seeing the doughnut and seeing the hole.

If you’re like a lot of other folks, you may have far more wants than money, leaving you feeling deprived. Then you end up hating the budget, your income, and your life, so you grab a credit card and head to the mall.

Look at a budget as a constraint and you’ll always feel squeezed. Think of it as a stop sign for spending and you’ll always be bucking and railing against it.

Start thinking of a budget as something that tells you what you can do with your money and you’re seeing the positive side of things. Look at a budget as your plan for how you will spend your money on the things that matter to you the most and now you’re fulfilling your dreams.

While you probably don’t love paying