Thursday, November 08, 2007
Financial Fitness - A Diet of Sorts
| By Lynn Forgy Cutting back on expenses often feels like cutting back on calories - losing "financial" weight can feel a lot like being on a diet. In a sense, you are on diet but rather than affecting your physical health (although it might do just that), your financial health is being improved. This process doesn't have to be complete drudgery or lacking in fun. You and your family could treat cutting back on expenses as a game, or find creative ways to increase your income. Treat it as a family affair. One of the main reasons why “diets” fail is that they deprive us. But you do not have to live like Ebenezer Scrooge in order to trim expenses. (Do I detect a Bah Humbug?) Turning off lights when you’re not in the room, turning your thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer, unplugging appliances not in use, etc., can reduce your monthly bill. Ta da – you’ve just taken off the 1st “pound”. “Diets” may not fit into your everyday life – tracking expenses, making budgets, etc. can be time consuming. BUT it is worth it. Rather than spending an inordinate amount of time every day doing this, you could make it a weekly activity. Or if you find you’re spending most of your weekend filling out budgets, tracking expenses, etc., why not spend 10 minutes each evening doing it? The trick is to make it fit into your life. Another important thought to mention is that it takes 3 weeks to form a new habit. You should “diet” daily for 3 weeks for your new healthy habit to take effect. “Diets” may not be budget-friendly. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on budgeting software, fancy tablets, and the like. Old-fashioned pen and paper, or an Excel spreadsheet works wonders. Dave Ramsey’s website offers free budgeting worksheets so there’s no excuse for not starting your diet. “Diets” can slow your metabolism – Severely or radically cutting back may actually decrease your motivation or inclination to stick with your new program. “Dieting” is only solving half of the problem. To effectively lose the financial weight, you should make this a newfound lifestyle. Having less stuff does NOT make you a lesser person. And just because your child is not wearing a $400 pair of UGG boots with a Louis Vuitton purse that cost more than 5 car payments does not mean you don’t love him or her and certainly doesn’t mean you’re the meanest parent on the planet. Labels: diet, financial fitness, money management |
posted by Krista at 10:55 AM
