Tips Series: Rescue Your Financial Plan

Here is todays post on Personal Finance Tips

Have you given up trying to succeed with your financial plan? Have you gone through personal finance disasters? Do you suffer from give up-itis?

You may be wondering what give up-itis is. To explain that, let me share with you a story from Donald O. Clifton’s book, “How Full Is Your Bucket?”

U.S. Army chief psychiatrist, Major (Dr.) William E. Mayer, did a study of the lives of soldiers who were held as prisoners in the Korean War. He studied 1,000 cases of soldiers who suffered extreme psychological depravement as POWs. These people didn’t suffer physically as in being tortured, but they were systematically deprived of the normal benefits one can receive from friendship and support. They caught a deadly disease: extreme hopelessness.

The methods used to cause this hopelessness were conniving and deceitful. The death rate in the POW camps there rose to 38%, the largest in military history. Half of those soldiers died because they had given up.

To break down the spirits of the soldiers, they were offered small rewards for ratting out their fellow inmates. There were no consequences to the soldiers because of the snitching, however distrust and hatred ran rampant throughout the camp. The North Koreans in charge held mandatory group meetings where the prisoners were forced to tell of all of the bad things they had done and any instances of good that could have been done, but failed to be done. Without emotional support, the prisoners soon began to give up. Some would go into their huts, sit in a corner, pull a blanket over their heads and were dead within two days.

You may have suffered from a recent financial loss of some kind, perhaps a loss of a spouse, a job or your personal health. If you can learn from the hopelessness the soldiers suffered as prisoners of war, you can start getting your financial life back on the right track.

Don’t give up and pull the covers over your head preparing to die. Seek out friendships that are emotionally supportive. Support other people in their struggles with life and you will fill that emotional bucket you need to avoid give up-it is.

With emotional support, you will be able to face things in your personal financial life that you never thought you could face.

Five Personal Finance Tips

1. Be honest with yourself about what has happened to you. Find out where you are right now with your money.

2. Re-examine your living expenses and what you actually need to survive. Is there any place that you can cut back on spending? Where can you most effectively decrease spending?

3. Write down how much money you are bringing in each month and make plans to increase that amount. There are many ways you might be able to earn extra income to help you through. Odd jobs and piece work types of jobs are plentiful.

4. Start tracking your expenditures if you don’t already do so. Tracking what you do is the best way to help you pinpoint the problem areas that you may be causing.

5. Set goals that you would like to reach and tell a friend about them. Emotional support from friends is really invaluable to you.

What is your plan to improve your financial situation?

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