Priorities set books in order

Byron R. Moore, CFP ®
Moore For Your Money
The News-Star
February 26, 2005

Question: I am way behind on my credit card payments because I lost my job and was unemployed for a while. Now that I am back to work I want to get back on my feet but am not sure how. I've got the credit card companies all mad at me because I am late on all my payments. This sort of thing just seems to keep happening to me.

Answer: I am glad to hear that you are back to work.

Now we need to get your motivation "re-employed" to make a good start on solving this problem, and to finishing the job.

In a recent issue of Leadership Wired, Dr. John C. Maxwell recalled in his childhood how his father used to give him a set of chores on Sunday that had to be completed by the end of the week. If they were not completed by week's end, he could not play that weekend. He quickly learned the lesson of "pay now, play later."

"Everyone wants to be thin," Maxwell writes, "but nobody wants to diet. Everybody wants to live long, but not many want to exercise. Everybody wants money, yet few want to work hard. Successful people conquer their feelings and form the habit of doing things that unsuccessful people do not like to do."

"The bookends of success are starting and finishing. Decisions help us start; discipline helps us finish."

That's good stuff.

Maxwell points out that whether you're doing household chores or building a company, practicing the "pay now, play later" principle requires one key element: discipline.

And what exactly is discipline? According to Maxwell, "It's the means to getting what you really want even when you don't want to do the thing necessary to get it."

So how can you build up your "discipline-muscles?" Try these steps:

1. Set priorities -- decide what comes first. You cannot do everything at once, nor can you solve every financial problem you have today. Pick out the most important one and concentrate on that one. In your case, paying off your credit card debt sounds like job #1.

2. Set deadlines -- declare when it will be done. Goals without deadlines are daydreams. Decide when you are going to start (may I suggest immediately?), and when you'll be done. There is power in setting realistic, though difficult, deadlines.

3. Save the excuses -- demote your depression. Borrowing again from Maxwell, it is easier to go from failure to success than from excuses to success. Admitting failure is a good first step, but making excuses for it is a waste of time. And a funny thing happens when you stop making excuses and start working on your problem -- your self-respect goes up along with your energy.

4. Secure help -- depend on a coach. Even world-class athletes have coaches -- why shouldn't you? Find someone that will help you make a plan, then work your plan. It may be a friend who has their financial act together, or you need a more formal process such as that offered by Consumer Credit Counseling Services. You can check out their website www.moneymanagement.org. They also have an office in Monroe.

5. Stay focused -- on the results. Don't get so caught up in the details of budgeting, spending and saving that you lose sight of the result you are looking for -- financial freedom! Keeping an eye on that finish line will help you stay motivated through the tough times that lay on the road to success.

You know what? You can do this! It will not be easy, but the process of getting out of the debt cycle will do so much more for you than just get you out of debt. It will also brand into your soul a new experience of starting and finishing -- the bookends of success.