The Key to Financial Peace of Mind
By Troy Rampy, Editor, The Wellness Blog™
Studies show that money is one of the main causes of stress for many people. But then, most of us don’t need researchers to tell us that! Especially, not now.
Even though there are some tenuous indications that the recession may have bottomed out, most of us are still painfully aware of just how fragile our economy is and how painfully not in control we are. So really, what can we do?
Well, this past weekend I saw a production of The Music Man at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland. Now all of a sudden I feel like breaking into song in response to my own question, “Trouble, oh we got trouble, right here in River City! With a capital ‘T’ that rhymes with ‘P’ and that stands for Pool.”
Yes, much like the song and Professor Hill who sings it in the play, there’s a bit of flim-flam about the whole topic of money. There’s always that sense of fear that we can easily go into regarding money. Oh we got trouble. We worry about it. We stress about it. Right here in River City. But all too often, we don’t take the steps that can bring us financial peace of mind. With a capital “T” that rhymes with “P” and that stands for … Peace of Mind!
Organizing and simplifying our finances goes a long way toward reducing our stress, improving the overall quality of our life, and providing peace of mind. Here are some easy things you can do to improve your financial peace of mind … starting today. And don’t be fooled. While all of these are relatively easy to do, they actually do work. You just have to implement them …
-
- Establish a budget. Yes, it’s true. Establishing and sticking to a realistic budget is the number one thing you can do to actually reduce financial stress in your life. This is not as difficult or odious as you might think. Just sit down with your checkbook and debit card and determine your primary, repeating expenses. Do a little math to find the difference between what you make and what you spend each month, and make the appropriate corrections. Voila!
- Eliminate debt. Begin with your highest-interest debts first. Typically your home mortgage will be the last debt you eliminate because it’s so big. BTW: By adding even $50 to $100 each month to your mortgage payment, you will reduce the overall amount you pay by several thousand dollars and shorten the life of the mortgage.
- Get rid of all but one of your credit cards. Use it for airline and hotel booking or prudent catalog buying. Try to make it a debit or airline mileage card. But if it’s an airline card, be sure to pay it off each month.
- Focus on savings. There are two components to increasing your savings and net worth: increasing your income and reducing your expenses. Consider each purchase carefully. Do you really need it? Will it be just one more thing you have to maintain? If you do need it, get the best one. Remember: This is not about quantity, it’s about quality.
- Consolidate your investments and checking accounts. Simpler is better, period.
- Look into automatic bill paying. For people who maintain high balances in their checking accounts, this is a great time and energy saver — not to mention the postage stamps you save. But if you don’t maintain a sufficiently high balance in your checking account, automatic bill paying might cause more headaches — and expense in returned check charges — than it’s worth.
- Restrict the number of your donations. Choose 1 or 2 charities that are especially meaningful to you, and focus all your giving on them.
- Reevaluate extra expenses. Reevaluate how much you actually use your second home, boat, time-share, or camping trailer. If you can’t justify the expenses, sell them and bank and/or donate the money.
With a capital “T” that rhymes with “P” and that stands for … Peace of Mind!
“Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi
