“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it’s also what it takes to sit down and listen.” – Winston Churchill
Welcome to the Badge and Budget Investor Blog! This week we are delving into the topic of courage and personal finances. What I like to call…Courageous Finances.
What is the roll of courage in our finances? Courage defined by the dictionary means “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.” We love moving forward in our personal finances and it’s important that we look to the future.
It is also extremely important that we face our personal financial situation. When facing something scary, face it with a spirit that enables us to face difficulty or pain without fear and with bravery.
Remember when you were testing to become a police officer and you had to jump over two types of walls, a solid wood wall and a chain link fence. Standing there facing that solid wall looks really intimidating, it’s usually six feet tall and made of smooth wood. The smooth wood doesn’t allow for the best footing for getting over the wall, but you had courage, courage to overcome that wall.
The best feeling was the encouragement you had during the obstacle and after the obstacle. The solid wall is hard, much harder to climb that the chain link fence. At first glance it seems insurmountable, but after pausing and applying great effort is can be conquered.
Whether you believe it or not the general population has consumer debt. Normal people call it normal to carry debt through their life. It is essentially the status quo to hold onto debt. Weird people get rid of debt as quickly as humanly possible. I encourage you to be weird.
Once you start to think and see that debt is bad and you want to get out of debt you will face MANY, MANY obstacles. The obstacles might be family, friends, credit card interest, or your significant other.
You will be faced with many courageous financial moments in your debt free journey. Moments when you choose to cave in and continue or go back into debt or when you decide that you are done with debt! You have had enough this is a fight for your life, a fight for your financial life.
I was recently coordinating a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University course. We were in week three. In week three, the Financial Peace University course talks about building a 3-6 month fully funded emergency fund.
A couple in the course asked a great question that went something like this, “What would you do if you were getting a large tax refund and you were in Baby Step Two?”
In my head I thought wow that is a tough decision. 1. Spend it on …… 2. Save and Invest it….. 3. Pay off debt….. I turned the question back to them. I asked what would you tell me to do if I was receiving a large tax refund and I was in Baby Step Two?
By far the easiest path is the path of least resistance which is to spend the refund, right? That is what most have, did and will do. Absolutely, it is so easy when see our bank account with that sudden deposit it is so easy to turn around and spend it, like it was never there.
But let’s ask ourselves, what it the most courageous financial decision…..Be weird. Pay off the debt. Stick to the plan!
Baby Step 2 is to pay off all debt except the mortgage using the debt snowball method. It is really simple, but difficult for our human instinct, also known as our emotions, to execute.
What if I told you that the tax refund the couple had would cut their total debt in half and therefore exponentially speed up their ability to pay off the rest of debt. The fact is we are emotional people and we make emotional decisions. Everyone needs courage to make personal financial decisions.
As leaders we must express encouragement, enthusiastic encouragement, for the little wins like getting over the solid wall. As financial leaders we must constantly ask ourselves what is the wise thing to do with money?
EnCOURAGEment is the catalyst to courageous finances. The reason the course works is because the participants encourage each other to get out of debt.
It is so easy when we are alone to listen to our inner critic, that little voice inside our head that talks to us telling us go buy that new pair of shoes, go buy that new shirt, go spend that money. The best way to silence that inner critic is to be around people. We need to be around people that have similar values to our own values–financial values. People who care about us and want us to be successful.
When we put ourselves with others who will encourage us, we will in turn be more successful accomplishing the difficult task of becoming debt free. Having courage to become debt free will give you financial opportunities you never knew were available. Have courage!
Synonyms for courage are audacity, daring, endurance, fearlessness, grit and heroism-great words for a great person. You are worthy of financial freedom.
“In all realms of life it takes courage to stretch your limits, express your power, and fulfill your potential… it’s no different in the financial realm.”–Suze Orman