Archive for the ‘Financial Reality’ Category

One of the questions I like to pose every so often is “why do you spend?” Often times, people over-do it on things they enjoy to make up for the things they don’t. Maybe you work in a field that just doesn’t do it for you, so you make up for disappointment in your work life by over-spending in your personal life. Or maybe you overeat as a way to deal with your destructive family life. Instead of covering up bad feelings with money, I want you to heal them with finding your life’s purpose.

A vice or an escape?

We all have vices, but how often are you relying on those vices as an escape instead of just something to enjoy occasionally? I spoke extensively about debt last week: conquering it with a positive mindset and letting go of the fear and shame associated with it. I think so many people fall into debt because they use spending as a way to fill a void in other areas of their lives. Once spending turns into an escape, your financial life is in jeopardy.

Getting in touch with your life’s purpose

This week, I want you to talk a few days to just focus on what you’re truly passionate about. If you’re not sure how to figure out your true life’s purpose, take these few days to explore yourself. Do a yoga class. Spend some time alone. Write in a journal. Do whatever it takes to just let your mind wander into your true self. A good way to start this is to ask yourself: “What is the most important thing in my life?”

Spending purposefully

Once you’ve figured out what’s really important to you, I want you to take an inventory of what you’ve spent money on in the last week or two. If the purchases you made give you a feeling of anxiety or are things you regret buying, they’re probably not in line with your life’s purpose. And you know what? That’s ok. The next time you walk into a store, you’ll know what you really want because you took the time to figure out what didn’t matter.

When you have to make choices about how to spend your money, do so with your true life’s purpose in mind. A lot of us are accustomed to spending money in a reactionary state; we had a rough day so we’ll treat ourselves to an expensive pair of shoes to make it better. But when you’ve aligned yourself with your true desires, you’ll feel more satisfied with your life and the money will take care of itself.

Last week, I talked about the five ways women sabotage our relationships with money. We find reasons to spend when we don’t need to, and we are constantly thinking about the other people in our lives before ourselves. In order to have a healthy relationship with money, we need to counter those negative thoughts with positive actions.

Instead of putting others needs before ourselves, we should Read the rest of this entry »

December 2010 marks the three-year anniversary of the Great Recession. We’ve spent the past three years hearing so many stories about what went wrong. People got laid off unexpectedly, couldn’t find another job, and ended up losing their homes. And others had to go from a typical middle-class income to unemployment literally overnight.

What we overlooked, however, are the positives that came out of this rough economic time. Here are five good things that came out of the Great Recession.

People learned how (and why) to save

With the threat of being laid off at any time looming, people stopped spending freely and started tracking where their money was going. Families started cooking more instead of eating out, and some even started growing food in their backyard to cut grocery costs. Another change brought on by the recession? People cut up their credit cards and worked on a cash-only policy. They also added more to their retirement savings and started itemizing their deductable tax expenses (http://goo.gl/6xH3D).

Creativity flourished…

While consumers were forced to make cuts, companies had to think of more creative ways to market their products and services. Since sales are harder to get and budgets are slashed sometimes by 50% or more, workers had to get to their bottom-line more creatively than ever before. (http://goo.gl/ft9z5) And this went beyond the workplace. Slashed personal budgets meant keeping refurbishing older clothes, doing home renovations by hand and getting creative in the kitchen.

…As well as small businesses

Did you know that college students can rent textbooks now instead of buying them? Where was that when I was in school! Websites offering this are everywhere, and a lot of students are taking advantage of it. Other businesses are profiting from the recession as well. Pawn shops and thrift stores are “reporting higher volumes of business and even a broadening of their customer bases.” (http://goo.gl/TuaWb).

People began to pursue their true passions

A while back, I read an article about a man who got laid off from a management job. Instead of searching for another similar position, temping or getting part-time work, he decided to intern for a politician. At 42, he was the oldest intern in the building. I found this so inspiring. He turned his recession layoff into an exciting opportunity for himself. And there are thousands of others who took the same path that he did.

We started to value what’s truly important

And it’s not money or a bunch of stuff, either. Your health, your family, and your children – they’re all priceless. And the recession reminded us of that. Sure, less money meant more stress. But it also meant more time with your kids, and pursing that career you always wanted to but never got around to. This recession forced us to re-evaluate our relationship with money, and that newfound stability has set a great foundation for the future.

Tags: recession, great recession, the great recession, recession anniversary, Julie Murphy Casserly, unemployment, saving money, emotion behind the money, emotion and money