There's A Sniper In My Mailbox

There are thousands of sites that will give you advice on consolidating debt, how to approach attaining work, lifestyle tips, etc.  Mine is about coping.  This is how I have learned to alleviate some of the fear until I can get through to the other side.

Ah panic. One of the great bitches in life, idn't it? And many of us are feeling it a lot these days, especially when doing things like approaching the mailbox.  Or looking at the stack of bills on your dining room table.  Or checking your bank account balances. Many of us tend to want to erase the entire problem.  Unless you knock over a bank...please don't...or you win the lottery or a rich relative leaves you a ton of cash, it more than likely ain't going to happen.  But if you are doing at least something in the right direction, hopefully, you won't feel like it is ruling you.

First step, schedule your pain and consollidate it.  Don't spend your whole day dreading the mailbox and its surprises.  Leave the mail in there until the next day.  It isn't going to expire in a 24 hour period.  Wake up rested and centered, get your morning coffee, go to the mailbox, grab what is in there.  Go into your bank account online, look at what is in there, look at what you owe. Deal with it. Then. There. 

Second step, set up some routines to contend with the controlling factors.  Plan for the bigger picture. Ideally, financial woes are a temporary problem, but it may take awhile standing with your finger in the dyke before the water goes down.  One of the things that I found that has helped a lot is taking 5 to 10 dollars a day...if it is possible...and pay a little extra on credit card balances that are not due or chipping down utility balances. On line banking is your friend. Set up the ability to do one time payments from your bank account site to your different billers and pop the ones that make you feel best shrinking.  Think about who is nailing you with the highest credit rates, who only lets you pay in cash, all of the factors that will justify that is the one you want to hit today. Then drop some coin on them and make them fade away just a little.  It makes those utility bills less dramatic when they turn up in a smaller chunk and easier to cope with in the long run.  Every bit that you chop out of the credit card bill is that much less being tapped with interest rates.  And if you have very little in there, you are aware of exactly how much that extra cup of coffee is going to cost you in the long run.  5 dollars a day in extra little things like coffee or public transportation when you can walk?  Or $150 a month worth of smaller utility bills and less money for the credit card companies to take from you?  Which is worth more to you?  Looking at your spending in detail gives you an idea of how even small spending ripple effects your ability to solve these issues in the long run.


Third step, make a plan on how you are going to approach the things that are looking a little tricky.  Write a list of things that need to be tended to.  Write a list of your resources.  Think about how you are going to deal with and what you are going to do.  Write those checks, make those payments on line that need to be sent, do all of those businessy things that need to be businessed. Then, with the exception of what you specifically need to do to solve these issues that day, put it away and get on with life for the rest of the day.  It's bad enough the people in this country have gotten screwed as badly as it has already.  Don't let it stop you from moving forward because you are hiding from it. Take control back and find some peace.