Your Financial Past Doesn’t Define Your Financial Future
There comes a time in every person’s life when they look back and wish they’d done something differently.
They may have wished they’d studied something else at university, or that they had taken the opportunity to travel when they had it.
For others, the biggest regret is more what they did – or rather, what they spent money on when they were younger.
For these people – and there are many out there – it’s a mistake that keeps on revealing itself every time they look at their bank balance.
There is good news, however. You don’t have to let your past financial errors determine how successful you’ll be in the future. Here’s how to move on and get yourself in a stable, guilt-free financial position.
Accept Your Mistakes
Of all the gifts that humans have, none are as strong as our ability to look at ourselves through a critical lens.
We look back at the financial mistakes we made and blame ourselves. We blame ourselves to a degree that is disproportionate to the “crime”.
So don’t: move on instead. But before you do that, you need to accept the mistakes you’ve made.
Acknowledge that you got yourself into this mess, and then be ready to consign the issue to history and move forward. If you’re struggling to do this, remember that financial issues affect a large percentage of the population.
You weren’t the first person to make financial mistakes and you won’t be the last.
And Learn About Yourself
Now, we won’t sit here and proclaim that poor financial decisions were the best thing that could have ever happened to you, but…they don’t have to be the worst thing in the world.
You just need to keep your eye out for that bright beacon of hope, the silver lining, and see what can be gleaned from it.
This is not your opportunity to bury your head in the sand and pretend that everything that happened was just fate. Interrogate yourself, look at the things you’ve done – and why you did them in the first place.
Life is a journey, and this will be just one stage of it – so much sure you learn the lessons it’s trying to teach you.
Making the Shift
If you’re still in the middle of your financial depression, then you’ll already know that things will have to change.
Instead of visiting new destinations a couple of times a year, you might have to focus all your energies on getting your finances back to a healthy state.
In any case, you will be making a change in lifestyle.
This won’t seem like much fun as the change is being enforced upon you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t embrace what’s happening and adopt a lifestyle that’s exciting and challenging.
For example, you might find that you adopt a minimalist lifestyle out of necessity but soon discover that it has plenty of benefits. It’s a chance to add another layer to who you are, essentially. Make the most of it!
Be Proactive
Of course, it’s not enough to just improve yourself personally.
You have to set up systems that make it easier for you to have a future without being handicapped by your previous financial errors.
You can start by improving your credit score.
Take a look at https://creditrepaircompanies.com/reviews/ and begin the process of improving your credit; it’ll come in handy when you want to make the investments that can secure your future.
As well as making sure your past doesn’t come back to haunt you, you should also start saving money and planning for your financial future, even if you’re still moving on from your past.
There’s no better way to prevent financial mistakes than by having sound financial systems in place.
Pursuing Your Dreams
Also, just because your financial situation doesn’t look good right now, it doesn’t mean you have to indefinitely postpone the other big dreams you have for your life.
It’s actually probably easier than you think to set up a business even when you’re struggling under the weight of past errors.
While you won’t be able to get one off the ground while you’re in the deepest stages of financial turmoil, once the worst has passed you can look into getting a business up and running, even if you don’t have plenty of capital.
The same goes for buying a home: but you should pay extra care that you’re buying a home that you can comfortably afford.
In all, the biggest barrier to having the kind of life you imagined will be wrongly believing that a few financial mistakes in your younger life is the ball and chain you carry with you forever.
It isn’t!
Keeping One Eye On Security
No matter how determined you might be to move on from your past, you should still be wary of the money issues that are always threatening to trip you up just as you’re doing so well.
One mistake that many people make is getting themselves to a position where they’re doing OK – and then reverting to the decisions and lifestyle that got them into the mess in the first place.
When you’re putting all this effort in, you’re not doing it just so you can get back to square one – your aim is to go far beyond that, building up the capital to make your finances good, not just manageable.
Remember: Financial Troubles Do Not Define You
As you journey from financial ruin to financial health, you’ll go through a whole range of emotions.
And the most common one by far will be shame. This will lead to self-confidence and happiness issues, and is to be avoided at all costs.
Every single human on the planet makes mistakes: it’s how they respond to them that defines who they are, not the problems themselves.
Keep a positive outlook on the situation and treat yourself with the same kind of sympathy you’d give to a friend and you’ll have the platform to do great things with your life!
Cheers!