Life as an Ostrich
I was thinking about several different things this week and wondered which of these would be the best to talk about. I finally settled on the thing that most of us tend to do with our credit card bills, payments, etc . . .
| BURY OUR HEADS IN THE SAND AND ACT LIKE THEY DON’T EXIST! |
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How many times have you gotten that credit card bill in the mail and just tossed it on your desk without opening it? Or left it in the mailbox because you didn’t want to open it? If you think like I did at one point in my life, you think if I open it, I have to deal with it. Inside that envelope is also a list of the goofy things that I have charged through the years (my stereo system being the main one) as well as a documented list of the charges that are due because I did not pay my bill last month. $29.00 Late Fees. $29.00 Over limit Fees. 29% Interest – How did I get to this level? I thought it was 5% when I signed up with them. All of these questions and more like it plagued me as I’m sure they do a significant number of people with credit cards. But don’t be an ostrich . . . bury your head in the sand and pretend it’s not there.
So what do I do? I don’t have the money to pay everyone at the end of the month. Somebody has to suffer from my lack of income, and I’m sure not going to take food off of my table to pay some huge credit card company that is now charging me 6 times the interest that I signed up for!
The answer is that you need to take a brutally honest look at your entire financial situation. Take an hour (and have a Tylenol or two for the headache that may join you) and make a complete list of everyone you owe money to. Don’t be afraid that seeing it will hurt you. I have never heard of anyone getting attacked by a list. Go through that list and figure out what you are paying every month on that. Then take a look at your monthly income. Be honest with yourself – do you have enough money coming in to cover your mortgage/rent, food, car payment, credit cards, personal loans, medical bills? If you have less money coming in than you have going out, you need to take a look at doing one of two things.
1) Increase your income – get a part time job. Ask your boss for some overtime. Look at getting a new, higher paying position somewhere else.
2) Look at the options that you have to help you eliminate some of the debt that you carry. There are a number of them available to you. Click on this link to take a look at them.
It’s an odd but little known fact that an ostrich has eyes that are bigger than its brain. Don’t live your life as an ostrich . . . your brain is significantly larger than your eyes. Make yourself use that brain to examine all of your options, weigh the pros and cons, and then take action – the step that will never happen if your head is buried in the sand.