Money Matters Monday

So here I am at the end of my journey. Or is it?

The fact of the matter is, I did win a financial makeover a year ago and have been heavily
involved in a financial overhaul ever since, yet I still feel like my feet are tucked firmly into the starting blocks at the beginning of a race. It is a race that I have started several times in my life. I have pushed off of those same blocks before, but never got to full speed and certainly never came close to finishing. In fact, more often than not, I tripped, fell and got completely trampled by others who, like me, were running this financial race of life. Some fell alongside me and still others ran on ahead, strong and confident. And they run on. Grumpily, I'd sit up, scratch my head and ask, "How do they do it"?

I was tired of falling, being munched into the asphalt, losing hope that I would ever be strong
enough to rise and finish the race. So, I asked for help. In turn, I was given the amazing opportunity for a financial makeover through Imagine a Happier You, and subsequently, I was given a coach. Her name is Cristie Richards. My coach adequately gave me the training and the tools that I needed to not only finish this race, but win it!

Cristie's coaching tools included, but were not limited to, tracking my finances, making a
working budget, using a cash-only envelope system and saving like crazy. These are the tangible tools, yet there is one tool that she consistently encouraged me to use, though it was not something she could easily give me. The tool? Discipline. She couldn't be the imaginary angel on my shoulder every minute, telling me what to buy or not to buy. Discipline is something I had to practice on my own.

Sometimes there will be hurdles thrown in my path. They will come in the form of having a sick
child being life-lighted to Primary Children's Hospital for six days or a washing machine breaking down or car repair; really, the list is limitless. Now, however, I am armed with the tools necessary to hopefully sail over those hurdles, prepped for the future.

That doesn't mean I won't fall. In fact, here I am after a full year of coaching, still struggling every day to make sure the budget is balanced, that we have enough money for violin lessons and that darn watermelon we were asked to bring to the next family BBQ. My money problems haven't magically disappeared over the course of the year. I am still trying to grab hold of our slippery budget. Slippery because as kids grow and needs arise, it is ever changing. I haven't mastered it yet. What I have mastered is the discipline. And that has made all the difference.

Money is one of those things that if you don't master it, it will indefinitely master you. I want to
send a call out to anyone who has ever struggled to stay above water, financially. The call is one of encouragement, from someone who knows and has been there, and is many senses, is still there. Don't give up! Don't be the one who stumbles and refuses to pick herself back up, laying motionless, waiting for someone to rescue you by saying you've won the next Publisher's Clearing House. Realize that there is strength still left in your legs, then rise up, pat the dust off your pant legs and walk back to those starting blocks. Discouraging? You bet! Hopeless? Not on your life!

The starting blocks are put in place and it is time to take my position. My coach gathers her
things, wishes me luck and heads for the exit. My mind is focused, my muscles conditioned. Fear has been replaced with confidence. It is time to do this on my own. And I can. This race will not have a finish line. In fact, I plan on running every day that I have breath. I hope that with more practice, I will gain momentum, feeling comfortable in my stride and perhaps enjoying a few lovely vistas along the way. Won't you join me? After all, I could use a few running partners.

On your mark . . .