Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Get Out of Debt

OK, MintLife readers: I’d like to have a heart-to-heart here.

Christmas is behind is, which means you might be reeling from all that holiday spending.

It doesn’t matter how much we talk about the spirit of the season being what really counts. The reality is the holidays mean paying for presents, parties, extra food, travel, and a host of other expenses.

If you were already struggling under a mountain of debt in 2013, it’s only going to get worse.

Unless you do something about it. Like, really do something. 

It may be tempting to think you’ll buckle down once the holidays are over, but that is the mindset that keeps you in debt. Trust me.

I may be debt-free and have an emergency fund now, but I could tell you about the Christmas we searched for a tree farm that took checks because there was no money in the bank and the credit cards were maxed out.

What changed? It wasn’t our income, that’s for sure. It was our mindset.

Unless you change yours, here are five reasons you’ll never get out of debt.

 

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You don’t have a budget or track your spending

Some people are number geeks and could spend all day slicing and dicing their budget numbers. You know who you are.

For everyone else, budgets can be boring, restricting, dumb…pick your favorite adjective.

However, if you don’t know where your money is going or even how much you make monthly (believe it or not, some people don’t), you’ll never get out of debt.

You won’t know if you are able to pay off the groceries you are charging or if you can put money into savings.

Every time you open your bank account, it will be a crapshoot whether there is money there.

Tracking your expenses used to entail pencils, spreadsheets and agony.

Now you can simply use a service like Mint that will do all your budgeting and tracking effortlessly and free. No more excuses.

You shop for fun

Once spending money becomes a form of recreation, you can probably kiss your savings good-bye.

Unless you have a large amount of disposable income, chances are you can’t afford to be spending indiscriminately.

And that’s what people do when they shop for fun; they spend on a whim. They see something they want, and they buy it with no thought to whether they need it or can afford it.

If you pass your time wandering aimlessly at the mall or surfing retailers online, don’t be surprised if your savings account balance hovers around the single digits while your credit card balance climbs to its ceiling.

You surround yourself with the wrong people

Likewise, you will never get ahead if you are running with a crowd that is constantly trying to one up one another. Keeping up with the Joneses is not good for your pocketbook.

I don’t want you to ditch your good friends, but I do think it’s smart to consider whether you need to be spending time with casual acquaintances who are more interested in keeping up appearances than in keeping up your friendship.

Instead, look for like-minded people who appreciate you for who you are even if you can’t afford to be dining at that swanky new restaurant every week.

You have an “as soon as…” mentality

This was one of my downfalls. I always had an excuse for why I couldn’t get my money under control.

• As soon as the holidays are done, I’ll write out a budget.
• As soon as I get a better paying job, I’ll start paying down our debt.
• As soon as I finish buying the last of “X” for the kids, I’ll stop spending.

The timing will never be perfect. Smart money management is like dieting and exercise. You will always find a reason to put it off.

Waiting for the stars to align is a sure-fire way to remain in debt indefinitely.

You have a character flaw

Let’s get right down to it; you may be in debt and you may stay in debt because it’s simply your fault.

Ouch.

Remember, I’ve been there. I’m not judging; I’m looking in the mirror.

We want to think our debt is the result of forces outside ourselves – the hospital stay, the lousy economy, the housing market.

However, at the end of the day, we need to take responsibility for our own actions.

I am not talking about the people who are living in poverty, and I am not talking about those who experienced something catastrophic, such as a total disability, that pushed them over the edge.

I am talking about us middle-class families who live like we are upper-class families even though our paychecks can’t support the lifestyle. We need to acknowledge our part in our debt.

The fact is maybe, just maybe, if we lived below our means and saved for a rainy day, we would be able to weather life’s storms a little better.

For me, my character flaws were self-indulgence and weakness. I had a hard time saying no to myself when I could so easily justify purchases with the idea that “everyone uses credit cards.”

By the time I hit that fateful year in which I had no money and no tree a week before Christmas, I had dug myself a deep hole, one that would take nearly 10 years to climb out of.

But today, I have money in the bank and don’t freak out when the van makes a strange noise because I know I can pay for a repair. It’s a wonderful feeling.

I love living this way, and I know you will too.

“Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Get Out of Debt” was provided by MoneyTalksNews.com.