Are You Broke?  
Find Happiness and Recover Your Financial Position

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What do you do when you come home on day to find out that you are homeless or to find someone on your door step serving you a summons to court? You may think "Life is not fair" and "Why me". However, let me tell you something - Life is not supposed to be fair. And, you are not the only one struggling with financial issues.  If you are reading this article you may not be happy with your current financial situation, but you are not the only one at home staring at a stack of bills on the kitchen table. 

How To Recover Financially?

Pray. Yes, prayer helps, it you’re the religious type.  However, if you going to pray, pray for God to give you the guidance to pay your bills.  What about happiness?

Happiness is a state of mind. You determine whether or not you can find some sort of happiness in a bad situation, and no one chooses to be broke, but it happens to most people at some point in their lives, including me.  You must find a way to work through your financial issues rationally. How can I be broke and happy?

1.  Awareness.  

The first step is to admit that you have financial problems. Everyone wants more money, but the question is can you handle more money. I will go into more detail on this question later, but let’s deal with step one for now. After you become aware of the problem, then you can start figuring out how you got into financial trouble in the first place.  You will finally start evaluating ways to get out of debt.

2.  Step by Step. 

Getting out of debt is not a one step process, so you have to stop daydreaming that you are going to win a large sum of money, and instead focus upon what you can do right now in order to generate an income.  My least favorite statement is "when I get my refund check, I’m going to pay off by bills".  That usually doesn’t happen, so ou have to develop a plan and stick to it.  

What did I do?  I changed my lifestyle. I stopped spending my extra money on the things that I thought I needed - My weakness was over-shopping. I would spend hundreds of dollars a month on eating out and buying clothes at the mall, but finally, I changed my shopping habits. I started going to wholesale and discount stores, such as Burlington Coat Factory. One day I woke up, realizing that I had not shopped at a mall in over three years and had saved a tremendous amount of money. More importantly, I learned to live without credit cards.

3.  "All I need is More Money".  

"More money brings more happiness". Do not fall into that trap. People who appear to have financial stability have more problems than you think. They may have crazy kids and spouses who spend all of their money silly things, such as $600 for Coach purse.  What good is it to have a $600 purse if your heart is empty and your life is unsatisfying?

4.  Be Satisfied.  

You can always recover your material posessions, so the best thing you can have in this world is people who will support you when you are down. Financial pain is one of the leading causes of suicide, and I believe that this is caused by people's attachment to an identity that is dependent upon physical objects.  Don’t make the mistake of comparing yourself to your material things or not having nice things.

Remember, your situation can be worse, and somebody else is probably in a more painful and challenging condition somewhere in the world, right now. If you food, clothing, and shelter, be happy. You may live in apartment or move to the poor side of town, but remember that people in other countries are probably in a worse position than you are now. Having the basic requirements needed for living your life will make you realize that you really don’t need a lot to be happy. I work with people who make at least two times more than me, and they more mental and emotional problems than I, because they don’t know how to relax and accept the beauty of the present moment.

5.  Make a plan.  

Start making a plan to pay down your debts. The only way you can do that is to accept that you have to pay your creditors, so contact them, and make a payment plan. Be aware that your creditors will try to collect the total amount all at once, but don’t give in. At the end of the day, your creditors will accept what you are able to pay, even if you only pay $25 a month. 

Don’t worry about your credit score. More and more lenders are starting to lend to individuals with bad credit in an effort to rebuild their credit. Depression will make you believe that you will always have to settle for less. Once you start paying your outstanding debt, you will realize that life is not so bad after all. 

Follow these simple steps, and you will begin to move out of debt and despair and into a position of internal strength and financial health.

 - Heather Browning, MBA, BA