The other day, I bought flowers for my home. In fact, I’d noticed that the last couple of times I went grocery shopping I picked up flowers for my home. The reason why I noticed this was that I’d stopped doing this for several years. I love having fresh cut flowers in the home, but during the hard years of debt repayment I stopped buying them because it felt out of alignment with my overall financial goals. The reality was that I was in a financial season where that type of treat weren’t a priority. It’s becoming clearer to me that my previous financial season is ending and I’m moving into a new season. I’m going to be honest and say that I’m going from an indebted financial season to a financial season of growth and I have some feelings about it. Especially because I know that there are many people going into a season that is different from the one that I’m going into. I decided to share this episode to talk about when you’re going into a good or bad financial season and how to manage it.
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How to Achieve Your Next Financial Goal. Are you working on paying off debt, earning more, or creating a first time savings? Watch the following video with my tips on how I paid off over $60,000, grew my income, and finally began saving. I share what I would have done differently and what you should avoid too.
Show Notes
- One of the things that I didn’t realize was that everything has a season. In fact, there are a number of songs that talk about seasons literally and metaphorically those moments when our life changes in positive or negative ways. Your money also experiences different seasons and I wanted to touch on.
- Just like a farmer you have to plant a lot of seeds with your money. Whether it is
- Investing in a 401K
- Having a savings
- Deciding, or not, to buy a home
- Growing your income
- And, just like a farmer you have to watch for the weeds
- Debt
- Bad financial skills
- Financial enablers
- Lifestyle inflation
- You get the picture. For me, I’ve been in a hard financial season for many years digging out from under the weeds and now I’m at the tail end of that journey. It’s a very humbling experience because I want to shout it out from the rooftops and celebrate. But, I feel a bit of guilt because I know what’s going on in the world right now. Especially, here in the United States. I know that people may be moving into a hard financial season that came out of the blue.
- Job instability
- The cost have managing homeschooling
- Debt that was previously manageable no longer being manageable
- Tenants who can no longer afford to pay rent
- Here’s the thing, if you’re moving into a season that you weren’t prepared for now isn’t the time for prolonged:
- Self-blame
- Bitterness
- Anger
- Instead, now is the time to acknowledge those feelings a create a plan to weather the storm. I can tell you having got to the other side, it’s possible, but it will be hard.
- Going into a financial season of growth has been surprisingly emotional for me because I was changed so much by the previous financial season that I was in. I worry that as I grow my wealth that I will forget where I came from, or that I will accidentally become one of those douchey people who talks thoughtlessly about benefiting from other people’s financial loses.
- Why do I worry about that? Because I’ve known a lot of people who’ve gone through the two different financial seasons and both will change you for the better or for the worse if you let it.
- So, how to manage that new financial season?
- Acknowledge that you’re in one and be honest with yourself if it’s a good or bad season
- Find support and community. You need this for digging out the weeds or income growth. For the past 2 years my involvement in the Debt repayment community has dwindled as my involvement in the Slow F.I.R.E. and entrepreneurship spaces has grown. This is just a naturally progression and how things work.
- Educate yourself
- Make constant adjustments to the time it will take to achieve your goal
- The last thing that I will leave you with is that neither season is permanent and that like with any garden you have to tend it each day.
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Love this post! I’ve been in a few different seasons with life events and with how I managed my money and career. It does help to be flexible and self-forgiving in order to keep going. As you said, nothing is permanent. Once I reached a better position, I realized I needed to save more to help me through the rough times.
Thank you so much for the feedback. I’m really tripped out right now and this new season that I’m transitioning into kind of freaks me out a little bit. But, I’m ready for it.
I was just talking yesterday about how I am entering a new season, not monetarily though, but with art. My husband broke his foot last week so I have a lot less time to spend on myself and my art because I have to handle all the household and life tasks, including chauffeuring him to work. But like you said, it’s a season. So I know it’s temporary and that helps a lot to keep perspective.
It’s so interesting how art can be affected by mood. I love writing romances but the distractions from the Pandemic killed my creativity. I’m just now getting back into creative writing.