What is it about tax time, more than any other season in the year, that we start taking a hard look at our finances? It doesn’t come in the summer when the kids are all out of school. And it sure doesn’t come at Christmas.
With spring comes daylight savings time and longer days. Parks are filled with kids and more and more families begin to plan trips and summer vacations. But spring can also bring feelings of anxiety, worry, depression and fear.
“I didn’t think we would owe this much. How are we going to afford this tax bill?”
“We make too much money to be this broke. Where is all our money going?”
When reality hits, it takes a toll. I can’t recall meeting a single person who was happy to pay their taxes. But I have met with singles and married couples who agreed to put a plan together and executed that plan. For them to owe taxes, it turned a crisis into an inconvenience.
A well laid-out plan is successful only when everyone is on board. We will not have success until we commit ourselves. Two people pulling in different directions is financial tug-of-war. There’s always a loser.
When you submit yourself to a plan, blessings will follow. The success might not be immediately apparent, but seeds are being planted to bear fruit in future seasons.
I took my own family into debt many years ago. A lot of it. I wasn’t just driving the family car off the cliff, it was a semi-truck full of bank notes and maxed out credit cards. I remember when we decided the path we were on wasn’t going to take us to the place we wanted to go. We had to turn back and it took some time.
It was hard. But it was worth it.
What we needed was discipline. Accountability was a big one, too. How could we stay accountable and disciplined to a plan that didn’t exist?
Once we worked out that plan, and stuck with it, those “spring” feelings started to fade away.
How do you start your turnaround?
You need to ask yourself one simple question.
“Am I ready to change my life?”
And if your answer is yes, then your journey can begin today.