Don't Do Debt.com : Incentive happens: A vision and money

January 06, 2004

Incentive happens: A vision and money

The holidays are now officially behind us. Okay, well actually, tonight marks the end of the holiday season for me as I had one more party to attend this evening. I declined at the last minute as I felt compelled to write about some questions asked of me while travelling around during the past few weeks.

One thing I'm frequently asked after the madness of the holidays comes to a screeching halt, is how to have more money. One person recently expressed concern about her inability to save money, another asked about how to have more money to get out of debt. A mother asked me how to teach her sixteen year-old about money as she recently took on her first part-time job. Other questions have come up, too, but here are a few thoughts I had in response to these questions:

I don't have the perfect answser for anyone. But one thing I live by for myself is this: I have a vision for what I want to do with my life and my money. I have things I want to accomplish:

I want to learn more about wine, food, cooking. I want to learn another language. I want to travel- domestic and internationally. I want to learn more about art and I'd like to learn photograpy. I of course would like to buy property sooner than later and grow my stocks and investments. I'd like to give back to my community one day. I'd like to have time to learn how to write songs and a screen play and to do the other things I've listed. To accomplish these things, I need money, I need time.

The best thing, the best incentive I can give people is this: make a list of important things you need and want to do. When you realize all all that you want from life, suddenly your spending habits change and you could eventually find yourself second guessing spending decisions (before the fact, not after). Time is certainly part of this equation: It's difficult to have the time to do what you want if you're constantly working to dig yourself out of debt or to save money in order to get ahead.

Don't get me wrong, it's not just as simple as snapping your fingers and making all of this happen. Trust me, if I could figure that out, I'd be a wealthy person. This day and age, it's tough just to have enough money to live every day, especially if children are part of your equation. .

But my thinking is this: If you have visions for your life, your future, your money, incentive will happen. Having incentive goes a long way in helping you really priortize how you currently spend your money. You realize trivial spending when you can see what's important in the big picture. Create incentive for yourself. Think about your life in the grand scheme. Think about the big picture - what you want to do, to accomplish, to own, to give back. Incentive to get out of debt and to save money will happen.

Posted by Susan Powell on January 06, 2004 at 08:53 PM | Permalink

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February 2004