People experience money problems for a variety of reasons. Maybeyou lost your job, used your credit cards too much, have a bunchof medical bills, paid too much for your dream home or any number of other reasons.
What ever the reasons for your money problems, most of them could be prevented. I know for a lot of you, I am talking in thepast tense. The problems are already here so prevention is irrelevant. This is not the case.
Only when you understand how you could have prevented the problem in the first place will you be able to fix it. We don'tneed to look at symptoms here, we need to explore root causes. I have developed a theory. Some people aren't willing to sacrifice, no matter what the rewards.
Sacrifice and discipline go hand in hand. It seems that our parents and grandparents understood this better than we do. They had to sacrifice just to put food on the table. They alsounderstood that they had to forego what they wanted to have what they needed.
I believe that most of us have a basic understanding of discipline, however in today's society we don't have to choose between food and a big screen TV. We want it all - we can have it all - NOW. It's too bad that many times this will come back to haunt us.
If you want to prevent your money problems, you have to have the discipline to sacrifice. You need to understand that your needs come first, that you have limited financial resources andthat never spending more than you earn each month is essential to your families financial survival.
It is even more important that you learn discipline and sacrifice if you already have money problems. When you develop these skills and hopefully overcome your financial woes, you will have a better chance of preventing it from happening again.
How Did I Get In This Mess?
When I was younger and having all kinds of money problems, I askmyself a thousand time how I got myself in this mess. It seemed like one day we were doing fine financially and the next we owedeverybody. How can it happen so quick?Where Does Your Money Go? Taxes
Trying to stay within the theme of Budget Stretcher, I thought a series of articles on knowing where your money is going may help some of you understand just how much you pay on certain expenses.Preparing For The Worst
I would say that most of us have experienced money problems at some point in our lives. This could have been caused by the lossof a job, injury or illness, over spending, and the list goes onand on.