You’ve all probably heard the sayings “When it rains it pours” or “It’s just Murphy’s Law.” The truth is that we all face hurdles and issues every day. It is the manner in which you over come these hurdles that really matters. There are things that hold you back when these issues present themselves. They can range from how to pay for college to getting out of debt to making this month’s mortgage payment. Before you can address the hurdle, you have to understand why it is there. That will vary from person to person, however, there are usually underlying issues you need to look at, no matter your situation.
Fear
This is the initial reaction for so many. Fear of how to pay for this repair. Or wondering if you will have enough money for retirement. Sometimes it is the fear of change. It could be fear of incurring additional debt. Until you can identify your fear, you won’t be able to address and overcome it.
Denial
If you don’t think you have any concerns, then you can’t overcome them. You have to own your decisions. For many, this may in the form of apathy – because they don’t realize that they have issues. You have to be willing to address your issue before you can ever work your way past it.
Ignorance.
I am not saying that people are dumb – not at all. It simply means you do not yet know. You have to learn. As situations come up, take the time to educate yourself so that you can make good decisions which can help you achieve the result for which you are hoping.
I had an opportunity to pose this question to other financial bloggers and received some great personal experiences from some of them. Hearing these stories can sometimes inspire and help you to get through your own financial struggles.
| “Our biggest financial hurdle has been paying for our daughter’s college without using debt. We didn’t have a lot saved and what we did have saved was cut in half by the market crash of 2008. So, we ended up choosing an in-state school. Our daughter earned 18 credit hours while still in high school. We also applied for scholarships and I began a new stream of income (my blog) and used that for our college expenses.” Julie – The Family CEO Blog“My biggest hurdle has always been the fact that I love going out and being social. This makes it difficult to save money. The best way to overcome this is to set restrictions on yourself. If you pay yourself first and put money away, you can’t touch it. This forces you to be creative. For example, some nights I just host a karaoke night at my place.” MF Dasko – Studenomics
“My biggest hurdle was getting a degree and finding a good job. I have always been frugal so after I had a good salary, I didn’t have any trouble with saving and investing.” Joe – Retire by 40
“Being a military spouse and having moved 7 times in 13 years I’d have to say everything involved with each move…..different cost of living, job/no job for me (which is what sparked my entrepreneurship), public vs private school depending on where we were living, cost of going to see family always changes, the list goes on. It took planning, re-analyzing our goals, cutting back here and there possibly.” Jennifer – Got HarMoney?
“I struggled with debt for years, and overcame it by changing my relationship with money. Tracking my spending was a critical part of that. It really opened my eyes to the things that I found value in, and so I was able to spend on the things that mattered while paying down debt. We finally paid off the house and became completely debt-free last year.” Jackie – The Debt Myth |
What have you had to overcome and how did you reach your goals?