Number 5 - Follow Through

Okay.  You’ve finally decided to get your financial house in order.  You’ve worked through the numbers and sorted out your bills.  You’ve filled out your budget - (My favorite? You Need A Budget) - and you and your spouse on the same page.  There’s just one more thing you need to do — Follow Through.

How many times have you said that you were going to focus on debt reduction, only to put it off for “one more month”?

How many times have you “thought” about creating a will or buying more life insurance?

How many times have you “really meant to” fund a Roth IRA?

How many times have you talked about saving for kids’ college, or a newer car, or new appliances?

Don’t just think about making a change - Make a change!

It doesn’t matter how many times you rework your spreadsheets or retool your debt reduction plan.  If you don’t implement your plan, the plan becomes useless.  So, turn of the TV, grab that stack of bills, get started - and keep going!

You rock!

This post was written twenty minutes after Interval Training Thursday - if it reads a little coach-like, that’s why! 

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10.  When you start your journey, you will be pumped!  You will read books, listen to radio programs, subscribe to debt reduction blogs (hint, hint), and fill your mind with debt reduction strategies.  After years of ignoring your debt, you will have had enough.  With enthusiasm, you will create your own debt reduction plan.  You will be ready.

9.  As you move forward, you will learn to sacrifice.  By giving up wants and focusing on needs you will be amazed by how just how much wasteful spending you had been doing.  This will bum you out, just a bit, but you’ll be thrilled to see how much extra money you have.  In these early days, you will put every single extra penny towards debt reduction.  You will be on fire.

8.  After a few months, you will really get the hang of it.  Budgeting will become second nature, and you’ll really think about how you are spending your money.  Instead of fighting with your spouse, you’ll learn to talk.  As your balances shrink (much too slowly, you will think), you will begin to dream of life after debt.

7.  Just as things are moving along nicely, you will have to deal with an unexpected emergency.  Your baby will get sick.  Your hours will get cut.  Your washing machine will die.  Something will happen.  That’s why you need your emergency fund.

6.  After the emergency has passed, you will struggle to find motivation.  The enthusiasm with which you started out will no longer be there.  Your goal date, which seemed so possible, will seem like fantasy, now that you’ve spent time (and money) dealing with the emergency.  You will think about quitting.

5.  Following some good self-talk, you will decide to press on with your debt reduction.  Instead of wallowing in self-pity, you will remember why you started this in the first place.  You wanted to be free.  You wanted to save for retirement.  You wanted to be a good example for your kids.  You will plant a flag in the ground - and you will get back on track.

4.  As you begin to rid yourself of your debts, you will find new ways to create income and save money.  You will work harder than you have ever worked before and you will focus all of your energy on one, consuming goal.  You will begin to hate your debts, in a way that you never thought possible.  You will rock.

3.  Near the end of your journey, you will see the finish line.  Six months, five months, four months, three months… No matter where you are or what you are doing, you will be counting down the months, weeks, days, and even hours until you will be debt free.

2.  After you make your final payment, you will rejoice.  You will scream.  You will shout.  You will run around your house, jumping up and down, like a child on Christmas morning.  You will be free, free, free.

1.  Upon thinking about your journey, you will be thankful.  You will be thankful for the lessons you learned.  You will be proud, of yourself and your family, for the hard work and the sacrifice.  You will have done something that very few people are willing to do.  You will feel awesome.

Need a little help getting started?  Check out my free Debt Reduction Guide (And E-Book)

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Number 6 - Work Together

A good friend of mine owns a two-person pedal boat.  The last time I got in the boat, my nine year daughter and two of her friends hopped in the boat with me.  As you can imagine, I did most of the pedaling.  By the time we circled my friend’s pond and arrived back at the dock, I was exhausted.

It can be tough trying to go it alone, feeling like you are the only one working to get out of debt and save money.  If you want to succeed, you have to develop a plan which allows you and your family members to work together.

Talk With Your Spouse

Let’s face it.  If you are reading this blog post, then you are, more than likely, the person in the household who handles most of the financial paperwork - paying bills, filing taxes, balancing checkbooks.  As such, you probably feel overwhelmed, from time to time, with all of the responsibility you have.  If so, take a few minutes, maybe over a quiet dinner, to talk with your spouse.  Don’t argue, don’t condemn, don’t blame, just talk.

I’ve actually written a couple of posts about this subject -

How I Avoid Arguing With My Spouse About Money and

Is It Really Possible To Talk To Yur Spouse About Finances Without Getting Into An Argument

Talk With Your Kids

I have three kids, ages 9, 4, and 6 months.  Obviously, I have a different conversation with the 9 year old than I do with the 4 year old, but they both know that we “honor every dollar” that comes into our house.  If you are heavily in debt, and worried, some of that worry is bound to rub off on your kids.  Be reasonable.  Don’t put more on you child than he or she can bare.  At the same time, be as honest as you can and let them know that you - and the whole family - are working hard to save money.  As kids get older, let them in on, little by little, to the realities of family finances.

Here’s a post I wrote a few months ago -

5 Ways To Teach Young Children About Money

Become A Team

As corny as it sounds, when my two older kids get in an argument, I take both of them by the hand, and walk them to a quite place in the house.  Kneeling down, to their eye level, I remind them that we are a team, and that we have to work together.  The same holds true when it comes to managing family finances.  The entire family has to be moving, together, in the same direction, like minded and determined.  As an adult, you can cultivate a good attitude if you celebrate victories, those big and small.  If your daughter receives a twenty dollar bill at Christmas, teach her how to save a portion, give a portion, and spend a portion.  Let her have some freedom, but also teach her some responsibility.

Find Your Role

Do what you do best and let your spouse do what he / she does best.  Support one another.  I like graphs, charts, spread sheets, and calculations.  So, in our family, I do most of the paperwork.  My wife, she’s more of a people person, so she handles a lot of the human interactions - calling doctors, insurance companies, etc.  This works for us.

Here’s a more in depth look at the subject of family roles

How Free Spirits And Money Nerds Can Help Each Other Out

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From my other sites -

Over at No. Calories Needed, I’ve posted my weekly work out schedule.  (No. Calories Needed is my weight loss / fitness blog, for those who are new to the world of NCN.)

Over at 99 Changes, my personal development site, I’ve posted a progress report.  Check it out - and give me a grade!

Over at the No Credit Needed Podcast, I’ve (finally!) recorded and released a new episode.

Over at the No Credit Needed Network, I’ve made a few changes, including adding the list of members and their sites to the front page.  Click here to see the most recent updates.

From around the web -

In my last post, I wrote about how getting fit can have a positive impact on your finances.  Well, I put the word out, via Twitter (click here to follow me, if you’d like), and asked my fellow bloggers for posts about the relationship between finances and fitness.  Here are a few of the replies I received.  Enjoy.

Money Watch writes Why Saving Money Is Like Losing Weight

Discipline - once you know what works and you’ve got yourself into a routine, discipline will keep you on the right track into the future, rather than just doing it for a few months here and there, and letting old problems resurface.

Watch My Money Maker writes Dieting & Finances - Peas In A Healthy Pod

Self control is not something that marketers want you to have. They’d love for you to impulsively buy things, impulsively drink things, and then make a long term habit of those impulses.

Five Cent Nickel writes The Parallels Between Fitness And Finance

Nothing will work if you’re not ready for change. First and foremost, you have to have the right mindset. Change takes discipline, and that sort of discipline requires that your actually ready for (and committed to) change. It won’t work if you’re content with the status quo.

Squawfox has published a free eBook - Frugal Food & Fitness.  It’s free, but you’ll need to subscribe to the Squawfox newsletter to download it.

Bible Money Matters writes Why I Workout At Home Instead Of The Gym

I’ve found that when I work out at home I’m much more likely to do it because I’m already at the “gym”. I just change into workout clothes and walk into the next room to workout. Easy.

About the Midnight Meanderings -

The Midnight Meanderings are published two or three times a month and highlight articles I like from across the web as well as the most recent articles from my other sites.

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Number 7 - Get Fit

About two years ago, I began a search for new term life insurance policies - one for myself and one for my wife.  When the quotes started rolling in, I noticed something.  Her premiums were lower - much lower - than mine.  At first, I thought this might be because she’s a woman and I’m a man.  I called an agent and asked why there was such a discrepancy, and he told me that it had much more to do with the fact that I was overweight, than it did with my wife being a woman.  As a test, I ran a few more quotes, using my ideal weight, instead of my actual, and I was shocked.  The premiums were reduced by more than 50%!  Moral of the story?  It pays to get fit.

Lower Insurance Costs

If you plan to purchase life insurance, disability insurance, or heath insurance, and you are not covered by a group policy from your employer, more than likely, the more in shape you are, the lower you premiums will be.

Lower Gasoline Costs

Back in July, Lazy Man wrote a very interesting post about saving money while driving - and he included a quick tip about how losing weight increases gas mileage.  I’d never really thought about this, but after doing a bit of research, it looks like reducing the weight in an automobile by 100 pounds will reduce fuel costs by 2%.  As some of you know, I also blog about weight loss, over at No. Calories Needed, and my ultimate goal is to lose (about) 80 pounds.

Lower Health Care Costs

When I write “get fit” - I usually mean “lose weight”.  The truth is, obviously, that getting fit is about much more than simply losing weight.  Here are two big time health issues that cost billions each year -

Smoking - If the fact that it causes cancer doesn’t deter you, perhaps the fact that it’s a very expensive habit will?  At $3 a pack, per day, your habit costs you more than $1000 per year.

Type 2 Diabetes - From WebMD: Anyone can get type 2 diabetes. However, those at highest risk for the disease are those who are obese or overweight… My grandmother had diabetes.  She had to learn to give herself shots, she was constantly checking her “sugar”, and she dealt with terrible pain in her joints and limbs.  Diabetes is a debilitating, expensive disease.

Lower Clothing Costs

This one might be stretching it - (get it? stretching it) - but, as a big dude, I pay more for clothes than a skinny dude does.  Well, I did, until last week when I moved down from 2X to XL shirts.  That’s write, after losing more than 8 pounds, I bought a new shirt in the regular sizes department.  Larger sizes, of the same style garment, cost more (at certain retailers).  Losing weight not only reduces the cost of new clothes, it also makes those “one day I’m going to get back into these” clothes in the closet into “wow, these fit” clothes.

I’m sure that there are other benefits that I’m forgetting.  Can you think of some more ways that losing weight helps us save money?

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