Frugal Living

Rebuilding Good Money Habits After A Difficult Period In Life

Rebuilding Good Money Habits After A Difficult Period In LifeMoney is often hard to manage in our daily lives. The necessity of stretching a budget along with the difficulty of building good money habits is often something people don’t learn until well out of their youth. Sometimes, unfortunate people even neglect to learn those life lessons when they are truly needed and required. To add even more burden to this requirement, some people find themselves facing truly difficult life circumstances such as mental health issues, heavy grief or addictions which prevent them from functioning on a normal personable level, so wise money management is often the first thing to be effected in these instances.

When addicted, or suffering deeply in any capacity whatsoever, people often find that their long-term thinking is often replaced by short-term desire, and this can obviously wreak havoc on long term plans or financial commitments. There are many scientific arguments to back this up, and sometimes the solution doesn’t look pretty. Not only are these people trying their best to recover, but these issues can be even more difficult to resolve when money is tight. As per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, humans need the ability to feel safe, sheltered, clothed and fed in order for them to start progressing at any point in life which is on firmer ground than ‘zero.’

After this period, it can even be hard for something to shift their thinking and attitudes towards money. This doesn’t render them stupid. Most people would like to and understand the need for tight, wise money management. However, bad habits that have accrued can make it difficult to brush away the cobwebs regarding these habits. Luckily, it is possible to do, and in this instance, all efforts should be made to do so. If you find yourself in this situation, or are looking to advise someone you know who has struggled and is aiming to get better with their money management, you are in the right place to start making progress. This article will give you some simply tips to hopefully overcome your difficulties and provide you with the best and most firm ground to begin. As a preventative measure, making sure you have health insurance for addiction requirements can help you make sure that if something goes wrong in your future, your finances can be rectified, or at least understood with a much-lessened degree of recklessness.

Savings Attitudes

The best way to begin feeling more independent with your money again is to tally up whatever income you have. Of course, this guide will have to assume that you have some form of regular income, be that from insurance, temporarily approved welfare or a new job you have achieved with positive work ethic. Once you have achieved this, you need to save. Opening a savings account adjacent to your regular daily accounts will help you separate the income you have and allow one resource to act as a solid backing when it comes to keeping an emergency fund. You should aim to save at least 10% of any significant income you receive, but you can also save more if you feel you can. Be sure to choose the best interest on your savings account. If rebuilding a faulty credit check, your ‘savings’ may simply go to paying off these debts. In this case, you should:

Approach Debt Consolidation Charities

One of the modern miracles of our society is that there’s likely an organization somewhere which can help you overcome your personal issues on all fronts. Some of these are charities, and often they have the best access to the resources you need to achieve the things you desire to. Debt consolidation charities can help you do just this. Opening a profile with these operations can help you discuss, identify and organize any debts you have so far, and invent methods of overcoming these issues wisely. Sometimes, having all of your commitments in front of you and out in the open can be the number one step to helping you make some progress with them. These charities will give you the opportunity to assess any income you have and balance that against your current outgoings you need to live comfortably. Any extra will be put towards your priority debts, those which truly affect your ability to live with a degree of independence in your situation.

This isn’t all these charities offer, however. Often, they have good relationships with many creditors across all levels of industry. They are sometimes able to contact these creditors in your name and allow the strength of their reputation to convince them to err on the side of leniency in your case. This obviously won’t let you off the debt, but it can lessen their attempts to bring you to court to force you to pay immediately. It might help you arrange a payment plan to be paid monthly in an attempt to pay off the debt.

Lifelines like this can make all the difference for someone recovering from the difficulties and suffocating nature of being in debt.

Apps

Another modern miracle of our society, especially when managing money, is the sheer amount of technological solutions that exist to help you do so. No matter how you like to budget currently, either mentally, through pen-and-paper or through hiring accountants, you may glean some future use from software applications such as YNAB (You Need A Budget.) These programs help you immediately identify your income, your outgoings, as well as helping you round up the difference on your purchases, funelling that towards your stated financial aims for that week or month. Why keep all of your budgeting in your mind, when an app can help you stay on track with much more reliability and efficiency? This comes to a common attitude which is so important for you to develop, especially if you’ve been relatively unimpressive with your budgeting skill so far. Try and avoid the tendency to justify your mental budgeting, because you’re MUCH more likely to forget, or bend the rules you have previously set for yourself when your balance isn’t a tangible, deductible thing you can physically see. Using one of these note taking programs allows you to subvert these issues by giving you a practical activity which in its action states “I am going to DO this thing.” It’s akin to being much more likely to work out, even if you feel terrible in the morning, if you simply make yourself walk to the gym in the first place. Placing this budgeting responsibility in front of your face will help you take the first step to budgeting, and building this habit means you are much more likely to continue in your financial seizing of ground.

Treat Yourself, But Differently

One of the reasons people fail to save and build good money habits is that they feel it deprives them of living their daily life well and enjoying the money they do have. Treating yourself is nothing to be ashamed of, but treating yourself wisely is of paramount importance, so long as it’s relatively irregular. Do you really need that wardrobe reboot, or simply a new pair of trousers? Do you really need to buy a brand new pair of shoes, or repair the soles in a perfectly good current pair? Use the ‘old school’ mentality of value for money, and you could be surprised at how far this stretches your budget. Don’t be afraid to go without. Sometimes, teaching yourself a temperate attitude can be of much more value.

These tips will help you stay on top of a difficult period in your life, and rebuild with solid financial habits to back you. Good luck!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.