I wrote a couple times about how I am tracking my finances and that they are all pretty much automatic since all my accounts are linked to each other. I have to say, it gives me a great amount of joy to check up on all of my accounts once a month and see them working. It puts a smile on my face to see my savings grow each month and my debt shrink away. The problem is that this past month I had to incur a few additional expenses that I don’t usually have and that are not budgeted for. I do have some wiggle room in my budget but most of that wiggle money ends up in my savings.
I hid from my fears
I have become attuned to all of my expenses and I can feel when I am spending more than I should. This month, that feeling went into overdrive. Because of this feeling, I did what many people do when they are in a situation that they don’t like, I hid. I was afraid to check my accounts as I do each month because I was scared to see the truth. I felt that it was better not to see the damage. Rich Dad, Robert Kiyosaki calls this financial cancer. You can treat a sickness if it is diagnosed but not if you hide from the doctor.
I got depressed
On top of being afraid of checking on what “I still have left”, (exaggeration, I didn’t overspend that much but it’s depressing when you are working on something so hard and you end up going backwards a bit) I got a little depressed and started spending more than I usually do on other thing such as eating out more or some entertainment.
Later in the month, I realized that I was overspending on eating out and entertainment and I got even more depressed which made me want to check my accounts even less.
I faced my fears
I forced myself to look at myself from the outside and I realized that I was heading for a financial landslide.I realized that the only reason my savings was growing was because I was monitoring it regularly.When I wasn’t monitoring it, I wasn’t saving anything and I was even losing some months.
I finally took a look at my finances, filled in my financial statements and realized it was not so bad. I had a few trades like swing trading that saved me at the last minute. My net worth went down a little but it was not even close to what could have happened if I continued to hide from my finances. I still have many years to accrue wealth and the more I work on it, the better. Hiding from my fears and finances only hurt me.
This can be applied to anything in life, health, finances and even your social life. If you face your fears, you are in a much better place to conquer them and get ahead. If you run from them, you will end up in a terrible landslide that becomes harder and harder to get out of.