Yesterday was Blog Action Day. I did a couple of posts over at my writing blog, TheGoldenPencil, including one I titled The Day After…
It got me remembering again that I have never ever expereinced anything like true poverty. Sure, I’ve underearned and made a bunch of stupid decisions about money, but the truth also is I’ve never:
- been hungry
- not had a roof over my house
- been without heat when it was cold
- been without medical care when I’ve really needed it
- had to wear clothes with holes in them
- had to go barefoot because I didn’t have shoes
- had to decide between feeding myself or my cats
Most of us in the United States, and, in fact, the so-called western world, have never experienced true deprivation.
I made a contribution to Heifer today. What are you going to do to end poverty?
Like lots of people I woke up this morning to the news and as near as I can tell, our federal government is sort of buying at least part of our major banks. It’s calming the stock markets, which, I guess, is a good thing. But federalized banks makes me nervous. I can’t tell from the news if this means credit is getting easier again, which yesterday seemed to be the major problem.
I wonder what it would be like if everyone became debt free. What if, for example, the governments, state and federal, didn’t buy anything until they had enough money in their coffers to actually pay for it? What would it mean, for instance, if retail stores quit getting loans from various sources to buy their product, but instead saved from their profits to buy the next round? And what would happen if everyone stopped using credit cards and waited until they had saved enough to pay for their new car or groceries, etc.
This probably couldn’t happen all at once. But it seems to me debt free is a worthy goal for governments as well as individuals.
What do you think? Let’s talk about it.
Generally, I balance my checkbooks once a week. I do this because it’s easier to find mistakes. But it doesn’t always work that way. I’ve overdrawn my personal account, and that’s the second time in about three weeks. I don’t know why and I don’t know how to find the error.
Right now I feel slightly hysterical, but that doesn’t get me anywhere. I’ve shut down Quicken, logged off my bank and am giving myself some serious space to just think about it all. Chances are, when I go back later today, I’ll be able to figure it out.
It used to be that I’d never even know when I had my checking account snarled. Believe me, it’s better this way.
Okay, okay, the truth is keeping my numbers isn’t something I always do very elegantly. It’s a developing practice. And yes, I do try to include logging in my receipts as part of my meditation, but… The truth is I’d gotten way way behind… this has happened before and I know the only thing to do is start getting caught up.
So for about 10 days I spent about 15 minutes daily entering numbers, and the receipt pile lowered… Sunday was the day to really get caught up! Took probably an hour and a half… then I went ahead and entered the check book numbers and the numbers on the 3×5 card I use for keeping track of money I spend and don’t get a receipt for.
I’m now officially caught up, and it feels good.
Under earning is one of those highly personal definitions - you get to decide if you’re under earning or not. But one easy way to define it is to say, “Under earning is not having enough money to pay your normal living expenses, plus savings” on a regular basis.A regular basis might mean every month, or once a year or anything in between… you know if you’re constently running out of money, or if you have to scrimp and save just to get by.
If this is your experience, you’re most probably an under earner.
How to Get Out of Debt and Stay Out of Debt might be said to have kicked off the “cut up your credit card” movement. Mundis shares his own experience with debt and walks you through each step he took to get out of debt and begin to build a respectable income.
When you consider you can buy this book for less than $10, it only makes sense to get it ASAP.
Of couse, once you’ve got it, you’ve got to read it and I’ll admit I owned it for quite awhile before I even opened it. Then it took me even longer to read the whole thing.
Finally, I got miserable enough to start putting many of his ideas into action and I’m glad I did.
Obviously, this is not the only book on the subject - but it’s written in a simple (sometimes almost simplistic) way that makes it easy to understand.
The other think I like is his personal experiences - reassures me that I’m not the only one who is nuts on the subject of money.
If you believe, as I do, that God, or Spirit, or Higher Power, or… is all that means not only are each one part of that All but God is also in the numbers. The idea that keeping numbers can be a Spiritual Practice may seem strange at first, but if we approach logging in every single cent we spend with a meditative attitude, we may be pleasantly surprised.
This is how it seems to work for me. Each morning I begin with reading something spiritual. I then spend anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes in quiet contemplating the main idea of what I read. I often end this session by noting at least five things I’m grateful for. Then it’s time to turn on the computer.
I use Quicken Home and Business to track my spending and, when I’m on it, I spend maybe 10 more minutes recording the expenses from yesterday. I really work to do this with an attitude of gratitude and bring a meditative quality to this exercise. When I’m successful, it feels like I’ve extended the time I devote to my spiritual practice.
This approach also helps keep me sane and even centered about my earning and spending. It seems God really is in the numbers.
I don’t know about you, but the word budget conjures up visions of constriction and rigidity. On the other had, spending plan sounds gentle and expansive. So I don’t budget, I create spending plans. Okay, I’ll admit, this is, at least in part, a mind game, but why not? After all, it’s my mind that deals with money. So if using spending plan helps keep me on track, I’m totally comfortable with throwing out the word budget.
How Does a Spending Plan Differ From a Budget?
There actually is a difference. A spending plan allows me to plan how I’ll spend the money I’ve got. A budget, or so it seems to me, insists I spend money only in pre-specified ways. For example, I have allotted myself $25 to spend each month on clothes. Not much, I’ll admit, but more than I’ve often allowed myself in the past. So there it sits, the possibility of spending $25 on clothes. For me, that money accumulates. This month I actually spent just over $30, and I spent it confidently, knowing I hadn’t spend any on clothes last month. Another example – I know my spending plan calls for $60 a week in groceries – that’s food, not the self-care items we so often buy at grocery stores or the books and magazines I’m wont to pick up there. Walking into Trader Joes, I know how much I’ve got to spend this week. I don’t have to guess. It makes shopping so much easier.
If I Go Over?
Another thing I like about a spending plan is it’s a plan, not an absolute. If I go over my plan in one area, I don’t beat myself up the way I might if I were on a budget. After all, it’s just a plan and we all know plans change. But knowing I’ve gone over my planned amount brings some clarity to how I’m choosing to spend my money. And it is always a choice. Spending plans make it much easier for me to be conscious of the choices I’m making. What’s really surprising to me, is by making a spending plan each month, I’m much less likely to overspend. In fact, I often spend a bit less than I’d planned, which is also a good feeling. It really is all about getting out of vagueness and into clarity.
Dave Ramsey, who teaches folks how to get out of debt and stay out of debt, hates credit card debt. Small wonder, when you consider credit card debt is unsecured and the cost, or interest rates, are, for the most part usurious. When you realize that, at 18% you’re paying $18 for every $100 you charge, you begin to get the picture.
I was tickled, when looking at Ramsey’s site to see that for his various products and services, he does NOT accept credit cards! What a concept. He will only accept debit cards. Debit cards take the money right out of your checking account; it’s almost like writing a check, except the withdrawal is instant.
That instant withdrawal means whatever you’ve purchased is paid for, period. And it’s also a whole lot easier to stay in clarity about how much money you’ve got and how you’re spending it.
Consider using only a debit card for credit-card-type purchases.
Most of the folks I know who are involved in letting go of unsecured debt and under earning also report they have issues with clutter. That is, they report that, like me, paper tends to pile up until it falls over, stuff collects in the car until it’s too embarrassing to take a passenger, and the dishes tend to get done only if there are no more dishes to use.
My hunch, and it’s sort of based on my own experience, is that the hook between debt and clutter is vagueness. The less vague I become about my money, mostly by keeping my numbers, the more money I seem to have. It’s almost magic!
Clutter seems to be somewhat the same. I can actually go several days before I notice the clutter in the kitchen, or the stack of books I’m stepping over, or the stack of papers wobbling on my desk.
But when I schedule 15 minutes of clean-up time… actually make an appointment with myself and get it written down on my daily calendar, I actually take action and do some, if not cleaning, at least tidying. When I schedule 15 minutes of clean up six days a week, it’s not long before things start to look better around my house.
I have no idea how these two things came to be related in my mind and actions… and I don’t much care. The story doesn’t matter, the corrective action does.