Have you ever been overweight, in debt, a smoker, junk-food addict, stressed out, life maybe in a bit of a mess?
The solutions are so simple…
Little acts of self-care that really add up over time.
One of the most stressful problem areas can be your financial life. Unpaid bills that are stuffed in a drawer because you don’t want to face them. Creditors calling, collection agencies calls being avoided. Borrowing money from family, even from kids’ piggy banks, just to put food on the table until your next paycheck.
This can cause you to be stressed out, and even though you might avoid thinking about the whole mess, it will always be on the back of your mind.
And then there’s the feeling of helplessness when you don’t think you can get out off the hole you’ve dug yourself into.
So what has to happen to turn things around?
Some small steps of financial self-care:
- Make a simple list of all bills and the amounts you owe.
- Prioritise them in terms of urgency, and make a plan to pay them off.
- Cancel subscriptions and other payments you don’t really need. Eliminate all but the essential.
- Start saving, even if it is just $20 a paycheck at first.
- Start regularly reviewing and taking care of your finances (weekly).
- Eventually, your increased savings will allow you to start investing as your debts became paid off.
- Take on extra jobs to pay off debts faster.
- Learn how to automate your finances so you don’t have to think about them as much.
It is a slow process, but these small steps of self-care will change your life. Soon debts became manageable and then become zero! Savings will slowly grow and then transition to investing. Bills come under control, and you develop a fundamental financial safety that will be a keystone to your peace of mind.
It won’t happen overnight, but it will change. And you’ll be so much happier.
What can you do if you’re in a similar situation? Start to see these simple financial steps as a part of taking care of yourself. Just as you should take care of your hygiene, you should take care of your bills and savings. That doesn’t mean you need to think about it every minute of the day, or even every day … just regularly.
Once you start this simple form of self-care, you’ll be amazed at the changes you’ll see.