Whether everyone will admit it or not, the new year brings with it a new awakening. Once again they have overspent during the past holiday season and they vow that this year things will be different. How to begin again with new resolutions on how to spend less, beginning now, somehow jump starts the new determination to be more sensible about saving money.
If nothing else, this new belt tightening is good for not only for the potential savings plan, but is a way to start the ball rolling up the hill once again. What ball, some reality testers will ask? The ball that was dropped at the outrageous party that signified nothing other than a total lack of restraint. The money that was spent can now be put to a better use, these new tightwads will decide.
What are some of the strategies that are now being put into focus as January is plowed through? The number one probably is, buy only what is absolutely necessary. That will be followed by a determination to get rid of the accumulated junk that takes up space and collects dust. Next will come the resolution to tone down the gift list and to make it more appropriate to the season.
Finally, as depression set in even further, as one digs deeper into the reasons behind the overspending as the bills come in, many decides they have been taken once more. Their creator has shown that the spirit of Christmas, or by what other name it is called, was real. All those desperate attempts to get in there and get counted before it was too late, just in case there was a God after all, was well intentioned.
Now poorer but wiser, one begins to take stock not only in one’s own ability to trip over their own feet at every chance, but to acknowledge that they don’t know it all, after all. Money does not grow on trees, not even on Christmas trees, and it’s use is only for convenience and not for any other means. It would have been far better to have bought a smaller priced gift and given with love and sincerity than the thirty thousand dollar car that was given begrudgingly.
Nothing really has changed but the seasons, and no amount of trying to convert any of it to the whims of a spoiled and misinformed and unruly society cause time to falter one minute. It is always on time. December was for sharing, January is for stock taking, and that’s that.
Yet, to not pause in these frigid months and to review the past year would be to deny one’s own part in making it the year most would like to forget. This too is healthy. It allows for truth. Oh, what a fool I have been!
How can I do better this year? Well to begin with, many will decide to try to be better and to sin less. But being human is not easy, nor was it meant to be, but what it has going for it is that there are always a new year, a new day, a new dawn that allows for hope. God help me help myself help the world would be a great utterance. It gets the cart behind the horse, and not before it.
Then, with the creditors beating at the door, get down to work and see how you really can pay off those debts and mean it this time. Consult with an expert on how to actually pay off your debts before you actually land into jail. Or better still, check on-line, especially if you are unsure about the next step. They will help you determine which road to travel next. Bankrate has a list of determinants that will show you whether you truly need professional help.
These will have to do with credit card debt, and the truth, “You have more credit cards than a successful gambler has poker chips”. and credit, and credit card debt, etc. After that, of course, they will offer you their solution. And don’t expect it to be free, but at least read it, and then check around at other solutions.
And then stop procrastinating, get a handle on your spending and this holiday season, go to church, say your prayers, and invite the family over for dinner. But ask each of them to bring their own food. They will be delighted.