Financial Success
"With money you are a dragon; with no money, a worm." Chinese Proverb
Once, a while back, I went through one of my "poor me" phases. As a general rule, I try not to have them. But with the kids driving me crazy, dog hair everywhere in the house, not enough time with my wife, some big scares with my youngest daughter's health, and no money to do anything fun, I unintentionally woke up one morning smack dab in the middle of one. It wasn't on my planner, it just happened.
Then I remembered a quote from Dave Ramsey: "If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you have to do is stop digging." In my pity party, I had a choice: continue to be seduced by my "woe is me" attitude, or stop digging my hole and start to climb out. And I knew that every decision I made from that moment on would determine whether I would play the role of worm, or dragon tamer.
I liked the idea of being a dragon tamer. The title sounded intriguing and there wouldn't be real dragons to tame, would there? I was right about the great title, but boy was I wrong about the dragons.
Most of my dragons seem to have to do with money; generally, with there not being enough of it. Not enough to pay bills, not enough to have fun, and not enough to take care of the family the way I want to ... Now, I'm not a frivolous spender, or at least I don't consider myself to be, but there often just is more life to live than resources to live it.
What I have found is that if I'm in a financial hole and a dragon is up above staring me straight in the face, and I feel the stench of his hot breath on my cheek, the first thing I have to do is stop digging my hole--stop my sloppy habits. And then I raise my gaze and I look the dragon square in the eye and start climbing towards him.
If you live paycheck to paycheck, or your debt load is high, you are living in a financial hole, and you will not be able to live your dream career. Mathematically, it looks like this:
And like so many things in life, the healthier we are, the more we can do.
You will be trapped in this hole, unless and until you climb out of it. It is only when you climb out that you will be able to pursue your dream career and live by choice.
To climb out of the hole, you need a ladder:
As American's, here's the hole we are in:
| "The typical American family's income, after taxes and inflation, still falls below the level reached in 1989 as the economy continues to grow slowly." | Tax Foundation, Special Report 24 |
| "The median family income (adjusted for inflation) declined by 2.3 percent between 2001 and 2004." | Federal Reserve |
| "From 2001 to 2004, inflation-adjusted aggregate household debt ... increased 26.3%." | Federal Reserve |
| "The mean credit card balance rose to $5,100, a 15.9% increase between 2001 and 2004." | Federal Reserve |
| "The number of children without health insurance increased by over 600,000 between 2005 and 2006." | U.S. Joint Economic Committee |
| "15.8% of Americans have no health insurance." | U.S. Joint Economic Committee |
| "The number of people living in poverty has risen by 4.9 million since 2000." | U.S. Joint Economic Committee |
| "More than one in 6 American children live in poverty." | U.S. Joint Economic Committee |
"The typical American family has about $3,800 in the bank. No one has a retirement account, and the neighbors who do only have about $35,000 in theirs. Mutual funds? Stocks? Bonds? Nope. The house is worth $160,000, but the family owes $95,000 on it to the bank. The breadwinners make more than $43,000 a year but can’t manage to pay off a $2,200 credit card balance." |
The Washington Post |
| "By October 2007, 16% of subprime loans with adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) were 90-days into default or in foreclosure proceedings, roughly triple the rate of 2005." | Wikipedia |
If you can relate to any of these, it's time to get your finances in order. You can't live your dream with creditors breathing down your back. Here's how:
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