The Four P's

Perseverance, Patience, Participation, & Perspective- Four words that sum up success in not only your finances, but life.  Perseverance, because without it you give up short of the mark when things get hard or aren't working.  To me, this is the #1 ingredient for success, because the lack of it shows in your character.  It's easy to give up or quit when things get hard.  Having perseverance means that you muscle up and shoulder the hard times as well as the good.  Having perseverance also takes a lot of another P- patience.  You can't have one without the other.  Like they say, if you ask for patience, it's tested immediately.  So expect it to be hard at first.  I chose participation because you have to be in the game to win.  It's a choice we make every day.  There is no standing still.  You are either moving closer to or farther away from your goals.  And Perspective, because it's hard to participate, have patience and persevere through the tough times if you don't keep it in mind.  Without proper perspective, hope fades and we despair easily.  Being successful isn't an accident.  It won't just happen.  It takes all these qualities working together to get to where we want to be in life.

Change Happens When You Do

Believe it or not financial problems are only the symptom of other bigger life problems.  I see this all the time with my counseling.  Whether it was a lack of planning, poor life choices, addictions, mental or physical illness, all of these problems cause financial problems.  Until they are addressed and you set on a new path, they will still yield the same harvest of problems- financial or otherwise.  So unless you want more of the same, take a look at your life and see what is the root of your financial woes.  I particularly like the quotes I chose for this month because no matter how you put it, change only happens when you do!  

Busy Days

Well, as you can see I've haven't posted in a couple of months....let's just say that I've been very busy enjoying summer with my family.  I'm just now starting to feel a little more back to normal, now that my baby is getting a bit older and we are done vacationing.  I've decided that I'm changing the format of my blog again.  I don't have as much time as I used to and so instead of weekly tips I'll just post them as I have time to do so.  This may or may not be on Fridays as it has in the past, but I hope to still have something weekly to talk about.  As always feel free to join my Facebook page to post questions or topic ideas.  I'll post things on there too, hopefully several times a week.  Or feel free to email me as well.

Quotations of the Month June & July

"There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up." Proverbs 21:20

"Despair is most often the offspring of ill-preparedness." Don Williams Jr.

"If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for." Florence Scovel Shinn

Tip of the Week June 24-July 1

Emergency Funds & Insurance

As if I haven't beaten this topic enough, I'm going to do it again. On average you have a major life event (job loss, major medical crisis, other very bad things that impacts your finances) at least once a decade. I knew we were due to have one and we did in the form of having our 3rd daughter. She was born 3 1/2 weeks early and ended up staying 2 weeks in the NICU. Facing massive medical bills we were so glad that we were prepared with the proper insurance and an emergency fund. We only ended up paying $770 of the $32,000 bill. As a bonus we made money because we had a supplemental maternity/hospital policy through Alfac. While this was originally purchased because we have a high deductible health insurance plan, I could never imagine how useful it ended up being. We didn't have to use our emergency fund to pay for hospital bills because it paid entirely for our portion until our max out-of-pocket was met.

While you may think everything is going well today. You are making good money, everyone is healthy, and life is good right now; everything and I mean EVERYTHING can change in the blink of an eye.

Homework:
If you don't have a plan for your money or are not actively working towards those goals, you are by default moving away from those goals. Being prepared for life doesn't just happen. Start or resume those plans today!