Mike Carruthers:
If you are to ever get a handle on your finances you have to
be able to answer this question...
Shannon
Plate:
How much money is coming into your house and how much
money is leaving your house? And once you do, once you've tracked
it for a little while, now you can make choices on what to change.
Shannon
Plate, author of the book, Degunking
Your Personal Finances says only when you track your money
do you discover how the little things really ad up.
Very
often it's entertainment, how many times a week do you run through
the fast food places that are ten or fifteen bucks a crack.
Very often it's parents handing out money to their kids, five
and ten dollars at a time and not tracking that.
If you
stop every morning on your way to work and pay five dollars
for a cup of coffee and a doughnut that's over a $1,000 a year.
So, now
the choice is do I spend a thousand dollars going to Starbucks
every morning? Is that important enough to me to do that or
would that thousand dollars be better spent going against my
debt at whatever interest rate you're paying?
And Shannon
cautions against refinancing your home to pay off your credit
cards because statistically odds are you'll run your credit
cards right back up again.
And I
think the reason from a psychological view point is, it wasn't
hard to get out, they didn't have to change any behaviors to
pay off the debt so the behaviors that got them in debt are
still there.
You can
link to Shannon's website
from ours; somethingyoushouldknow.net.
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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How even tough changes don't need to last long to yield
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How having clear financial goals is a huge first step
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