With so much going on with court cases, my father’s passing and R’s upcoming operation, I totally lost my focus on my finances. At a time when an emergency fund should be the MOST important thing that I do, I forgot to tuck away my 10%. Basically I got out of the habit of saving and it happened without me even realizing it.
To complicate matters, our income has dropped over the last two months. This probably has as much to do with all the other stress going on. I have been less diligent about advertising and I have been much more focused on the crisis of the moment than on business. It has been hard to focus on writing, it has been hard to focus on much of anything.
Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I woke up this morning and realized that my emergency fund has dwindled and that I have done nothing to rebuild it. The first thing that I did was move half of my paypal account into my Ing Orange Savings account. It won’t bring my emergency fund back up to the $500 minimum but it is a start.
Over the last two years, I have found that the most important step to improving my finances is to start. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to save an emergency fund, pay off your debts, increase your income or build your retirement, it’s starting that is the most important step. It gives you an imediate sense of satisfaction and accomplishment and starts the momemtum going.
If your goal is to build your emergency fund, put $5 or $10 into it to get it started. If you need to pay off bills, pick one and send a snowflake off right now. If you need to increase your income, sell something on Craig’s List or eBay. Building your retirement, use the snowflake concept to send a little money to your retirement fund.
You will imediately feel better. You will feel as though you have accomplished something positive. Use that feeling to keep your momentum going, find a way to do something towards your goal every day. Give yourself credit for every little thing that you do.
In my case, an emergency fund is not something that I can build quickly. There is not enough money in our budget to put large sums of money into savings. I am doing well if I can put $25 into it at a time but even smaller $5 deposits add up quickly.
Today I got started getting back into the savings habit. I feel good about it. Instead of looking at how far I have to go, I am going to look at what I have accomplished. I am going to rework our budget so that we can find some amount of money to send to R’s alimony bill. It will only be a drop in the ocean but no one will be able to say he isn’t trying.
Do you ever lose your focus? How do you get started back?
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A baby step forward is still a step in the right direction! hang in there!
You are right that the most important is first step. Everything that appears after that is just the effect of early job. Everything lies inside Your mind and that is the place that everyone need to focus at start.
[...] from Oh My Aching Debts presents Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life, and says, “I tend to lose focus when life gets hectic and I have had to drain my emergency [...]
Cool title as all this article!