Are you ready to get out of debt?
You have your budget put together, you know how much extra spending cash you left to work with. You have your debt plan together and know how your going to pay off your debt. Finally you even have a emergency fund set up to sock a few bucks away.
But are you really ready?
Are you mentally prepared to make one of the toughest financial journeys in your life? If this has got you a bit stumped here is a list of things you may want to ask yourself to see if you’re really mentally prepared to make that financial leap into the unknown.
- Can You Handle The Temptations. When you go to the store or shop online can you handle the mental temptations that are screaming in your head telling you to buy this or that. You know what I’m talking about that little voice in your head that says, ” I would really like to buy that.” I know these are tough to talk yourself out of but if you can’t break this mental cliff getting out of debt may not be in the cards for you.
- Can You Handle The Peer Pressure. Can you handle when the sales person across the counter is trying to talk you into something you really don’t need. If a sales person calls you on the phone do you have the power to say NO. If your easily purswayed to buy something you need to break this mental pressure point before it crushes you.
- Can You Stay Focused. Can you keep your attention on this plan to get out of debt long enough to actually succeed. Can you keep your focus or do you easily get swayed in other directions. If this sounds like you, you may have to look into ways so you can stay focused. Without focus and that ability to think long term about your situation you will always keep falling back into old habits that will get you into financial trouble.
- Can You Stay Patient. Getting out of debt takes time, lots of time. It’s not a fix and forget type of situation. You need stay patient long enough at least to see that things are working. If you just started your plan to get out of debt 6 months ago and haven’t seen much in the way of results and you’re considering quitting, DON”T! A debt plan can take anywhere from a year to several years to complete.
- Can You Handle Things If They Get Out Of Control. If you’re in the middle of your plan to get out of debt and an unexpected debt comes up such as your water softener goes out are you going to be able to handle the situation. This happened to me once on Christmas which made it really hard to deal with. I had my water softener go out and it was going to be a $1000 buck to fix it. Luckily we could pay for it but it took about everything we had to do it. This left us with a not so great Christmas but we managed.
- Can You Handle What Others Are saying. Are others talking about you behind your back. This is just one of the side effects of getting out of debt. It may be your friends, family, heck it may even be your own spouse. The point here is that you have to work past all of this. In fact my wife had little confidence in me that we could solve most of are financial issues but I just looked past all of it and kept on working at it. Once she seen that we had more money showing up in are bank account her belief level started to rise and what was once a sore subject to talk about is now an easy subject to talk about.
- Can You Handle The Stress. Getting out of debt can have a very stressful effect on you. In financial services I remember seeing people dealing with huge amounts of stress. In fact I even had one particular lady break down and start crying right in front of me because she was in so much debt. The stress had literally consumed her. This is why I always recommend rewarding yourself once you pay off a debt. Happiness relieves stress. Maybe not all of it but you need a way to relieve your stress so you can at least stay halfway sane.
- Can You Keep Your Word. Doing what you say you will do is very important, especially if it’s keeping a promise to yourself. Sometimes just being able to keep a promise that you will do something is all that stands between you and getting out of debt. Can you keep your word to others. If you have a tough time doing what you said you will do this may lead to people loosing trust in you.
- Are You Willing To Ask For Help. A lot of us like to be the do it ourself type but you need to be prepared to ask for help. This may be talking to a friend or family member or maybe somebody more professional like a financial planner, or someone who does debt consultations. Sometimes this is all you need to get back on track. I know what your thinking I can handle my own situations. The truth is that’s not always possible. One last point asking for help also speeds up the process. If you are looking for a way to get out of debt a little faster this is your best route.
- Are Willing To Except Your Mistakes. Are you willing to forgive and forget. Sometimes we like to hang onto old financial mistakes we made many years ago and let them burden us with guilt. For example I bought a timeshare which I thought was a great idea at one time ended up being a financial disaster. I sunk thousands of dollars into something I simply didn’t want. In the end I sold the timeshare back to the company I bought it from and had to except the loss and the terrible mistake we had made and move on with are lives.
Are You Prepared?
If this sounds like a lot to think about don’t get to worried about it. You may or may not be making all of these mistakes. If fact you can tell which ones I’ve made because I had examples to go with them. If you have a budget and a plan all you need now is some simple mental motivation to keep going.
If you are making some of these mistakes write them down and write out how you would go about solving them. What would be your next action step to solving these mental road blocks? Write it down and start taking action immediately. Sometimes all you need to do is take that first little step to get your mentality on the right track.
To a debt free life,
Chris
This post was recently featured on The Carnival of Money Hacks by The Penny Daily.
