Hate being broke, want a quick fix, without pain or work? Really?
Everyone who’s had money trouble wants to find an easy way out of the predicament. But fixing your finances is like losing weight. Quick fixes don’t work.
You’ve done it again. After going on another emotion-fueled spending spree, there you sit, feeling guilty, surrounded by your newly-purchased stuff, and vowing yet again that this will be the last time. No more mindless buying. It’s budget time. Time to cut out all the extras, save for the rainy day your parents keep yammering about…
Wait a minute. Cut out the extras? No cable TV, no texting, no gym membership, no eating out, no daily Starbucks, no, no, no…I can’t do without those things, you whine. I use those things. I need them. I deserve them.
You look at your bills and your spending, and you wonder if there isn’t some source of income you’re overlooking. Maybe you should be buying lottery tickets more often. Or switching watering holes, so you can hook a rich sugar daddy/mama. Or open another credit card and transfer balances around. Or hit up the Bank of Mom and Dad, or the Branch of Brother and Sister-in-Law for a loan.
Why we reach for the quick fixes
We get to the point where we need the quick financial fix for several reasons.
It all starts with a basic lack of financial education. As of 2009, only three states required at least a semester of finance education in high school, in spite of the fact that there is an inexpensive national finance eduation program available for all schools from the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE). Parents are often too busy keeping up with everday tasks; they don’t have the time to sit down and teach financial basics. Kids are growing up with no sense of the value of money. Oh, they understand that $250 will buy them a pair of True Religion jeans. But they are missing the sense of what money can do for them in a greater sense, such as saving and investing.
As kids become adults, and they begin to earn and spend their own money, the problems begin to show. Without understanding the difference between wants and needs, everything is a need. The latest phone, the newest flat-screen, the best laptop; all their friends have them, so why not? That’s what the credit card is for, right? But what’s this? The credit card company changed the due dates and the interest rates? I have to pay the full balance or be charged HOW MUCH each month!? And that’s on top of getting dinged for the debit card “oops” at Mickey D’s the other day; the $40 Big Mac with fries and the overdraft fee?
In the old days, before electronic banking, check floating kept many of us afloat. So nowadays, the quick fixes are things like opening new credit cards and doing balance transfers, payday loan advances, selling possessions and family loans. We panic, we find cash, pay off the bills to stave off the wolves at the door, only to go right back to baiting them again.
A panic financial fix is like a too-strict diet: you take care of the short-term issues. But the long-term issues remain. You don’t learn how to keep yourself out of the hole if you don’t take the shovel out of your hands and quit digging.
Why the quick fixes don’t work
There is pain and hardship involved in re-learning your relationship with money. If you saw the movie “Confessions of a Shopaholic” (see a short clip here) where Isla Fisher’s character freezes her credit card in a block of ice, only to frantically smash, blast and chip it out, then hold it aloft triumphantly, you understand. Some people have the discipline to make an all-or-nothing, cold-turkey vow to change things, and follow through. Most people don’t, and resistance to change is normal. But when presented with ideas, you need to be open-minded. Don’t plant your feet, cross your arms defensively and say, “I can’t do that. It’s too hard for me to make that change.” Understand that long-term financial rescue is a phase-in process. Quick fixes may save this day, but won’t help you later.
How to change your habits: slow substitutions
Instead of inflicting major pain on yourself, start slowly with a few ideas:
- You don’t have to dump all your old spending habits at once. Start by cutting back. If you are eating out every workday, or hitting up Starbucks every morning, drop those stops to twice a week. Save the money you don’t spend on these stops in a separate account.
- If you need more training or education to get ahead at your job, or get a better job, it does not mean spending a fortune for schooling. Look at online classes, adult vocational training, classes at the library. Consider becoming an unpaid, part-time intern for a local business.
- If private child care is eating up your salary, find an alternative. Look to neighbors, friends, churches. Many school districts offer inexpensive after-care. Or consider getting licensed and starting your own in-home day care.
- If the rent or mortgage is an issue, consider roomates. You may hate the idea of sharing, but your bank account won’t.
- Go to a prepaid cell phone and basic cable if you must have them. It’s bare bones if you’re accustomed to the bells and whistles, but it can save a bundle.
- A second job. Yes, it will leave you with less time for friends. But it will also leave you with less time to spend.
There is no good, fast-acting relief for the pain of personal finance woes. A good financial plan is like a good weight loss plan. Steady changes over a period of time will yield results that not only look good, they maintain their good looks over time.
Copyright Nancy Munro. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
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