Courage to Change

People are talking a lot about the current state of the economy. Blame has many different faces: hyper inflation of food prices, oil costs reaching astronomical proportions, challenges in the mortgage industry, soft sales causing companies to downsize, and any one of a whole host of enemies.

There is one place that hasn’t seen much blame: within ourselves.

Throughout our lives, adversity happens. Our lives are nothing if not filled with change. For some, change is harder than others, especially when it comes to our financial lives. Yet change still wanders into our lives, sneaks into the crevices of good intentions and solid plans. So what can you do?

If life hands you lemons, make lemonade
Starbucks and cable are not life necessities. Most of us know this intuitively. In October, Oprah aired “The mom who shopped her family broke”. I watched in horror as a California mother of 6 spent $400 a month at Starbucks, paid for 3 cars, 2 homes and yet had no health insurance for her children. The level of financial catastrophe was extreme – and they needed to take extreme measures to fix it.

The necessary change they needed to propel themselves out of over six figures of consumer debt was drastic. They needed to move, spend less, get a second job and sell many of their possessions. The solutions were relatively simple but the family never considered them, because they were so far outside their normal routine. It’s easy to accumulate things we don’t need and grow new habits when we just don’t pay attention to it. We cast the blame on the irresponsible, yet how many of us have lived carelessly beyond our financial means?

Yes, you can.
We can learn quite a bit about ourselves from this family. You may not be avoiding health insurance for your family, but perhaps you’re putting off getting life insurance, investing in your 401k, or living a little outside of your current income, hoping that it will eventually catch up. We can look at our current spending and say “what would I have to do to eliminate or reduce this expense”, even with expenses we consider immobile or necessary. Think your utility bills are fixed costs? Try some tricks to lower electricity expenses. The high cost of fuel eating into your budget? Consider spending some time routing your errands together so you make less trips, contact someone to start a travel pool, look into public transportation, or even (gasp) moving closer to your work. The next time you hear yourself saying “I need ____” or “I have to buy ____”, really think about that statement. What would it take to eliminate that cost? Is it alternative worth it to you?

Saving money by realizing our choices can be incredibly empowering, even when it doesn’t result in finding extra money. Only you have the ability to see what you can truly change.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most
intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

-Charles Darwin