Who's in Charge Here?

Have you ever looked into your wallet and wondered, "Where did all my money go?" Or looked at your credit card statement and scratched your head, "What the Dicken's did I buy at that store?" Or checked your bank account online and thought, "How come there's so little money left?"

I'm amazed at people who don't know what they're doing with their money. You drag you sorry butt out of bed every day to go earn some money, but you won't spend some time keeping track of it? Really? During book tour for Never Too Late I met a heap of bodies that told me, "I have no idea if I'm on track with my retirement savings." Really? You don't know? So, who would know?

As for all the people who want to blame someone else for their mess: the credit card companies charge too much interest, the bank lent me too much money,  I wouldn't use overdraft if I didn't have it… OMG! Quitcherbitchin' and fix the mess you made. No one MADE you shop on credit. And no one is making you stay stuck in the muck you're in… except YOU.

What is it about money exactly that leaves us throwing up our arms in total surrender? Or choose to close our eyes, roll over and play dead? Why would a reasonable human being who knows that they need to make more money sit on their couch and whine about not having enough? And what is it that makes people think that there's an easy way out of a big pile of debt poop?

I've seen people whine about how much debt they have in one breath, and then in the next tell me about the kitchen reno they're planning, the vacation they just took, or the really great deal they just got on whatever it is they just bought. Talk about disconnected.

Until we recognize that WE are in charge of our money, that we decide how to make it, spend it and save it, we are always going to be looking for some kind of magic solution. I'm convinced that's why so many people leap into investments they neither understand nor are prepared to research: they're looking for an easy way to make lotsnlotsa money to solve all the problems they've created for themselves by ignoring the basics of managing their money.

I've you've ever said, "That's just too much work," or "It isn't worth all that effort to keep a budget" or "Debt is just the way life is" then you're exactly the person I'm talking to.

Until you accept that YOU are in charge, and only YOU can take the steps required to make things different, you will always be a mess of can'ts and I-wishes.  Yes you can. And you'd be way better off expending some of that energy your wasting on wishing on actually DOING something.

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