Amy's Success Story

     Real life story: One of my very first students was "Amy". Amy is typical of one of my favorite students, in the fact that she wanted to get her finances right. When I met Amy she had no plan, no budget, no records, and no idea where her paycheck went each month. When I talked to her about her situation it was clear she had the best intentions of being responsible about her money; she just didn't know where to start. Very poor past decisions had dug her into a deep hole that she didn't know how to get out of. In fact, when she fought to get it out of it there was "a quick sand effect". The harder she tried to get out the faster she seemed to sink! She had become very depressed about her constant money struggles and it was affecting other areas of her life.

CHRISTMAS GIFTS OR TRANSPORTATION?

     An example of poor decision making was her car. She purchased a brand new car and transferred old debt from her last car onto the new car loan. The combination of a higher interest rate and a higher principal amount meant she was paying much more for the new car that most other people would have. That was just the beginning of her car problems though. It was hard to keep up with the inflated payments to begin with, but Amy felt great pressure at Christmas time to buy her family members lots of nice presents. She delayed her car payments for two months in order to pay for the presents. Her car was then repossessed while she was sitting at home after work one night in mid January just as the euphoria of gift giving and the overspending gift giver remorse was setting in. She was immediately put into the very tough position of arranging transportation to work the next morning when she discovered her car was gone.

     Amy had a lot of issues for us to address. Like many of the people I have worked with she wasn't just starting from scratch. There were a lot of issues to address first before we could start with a fresh slate, so to speak. She was a good example of "poor decision dominos". One bad decision led to another one which leads to another one. The consequence of each of these decisions, when considered individually, seemed fairly harmless, but they grow on each other. Each time the consequences are worse until the bottom falls out on you.

     Example: A small example of her questionable decision making was how she got coffee in the morning. She told me she had to have coffee in the morning. Ok, no problem. However, she liked to hit the snooze button 2 times before getting up. That always led to a rush to get out the door to catch her bus (remember there was no car anymore). Since she didn't have time to make coffee at home so she bought coffee for $2.00 at a coffee shop at her bus stop. She was spending $10 a week (5 day work week) on coffee. Coffee at home would have been about 25 cents a day or $1.25 a week. We discussed later that the extra $8.75 a week she was spending on bus stop coffee would have been more than enough money to buy the Internet service she wanted for her home.

"POOR DECISION DOMINOS"

     Here is a bigger example of "poor decision dominos". Amy got caught up in a nightmare with a paycheck cashing company. These people were really socking her with fees. She borrowed money in advance of her paycheck. She gave them access to her checking account so they could get their money. The moment her paycheck was direct deposited into the account they took money. Her repayment arrangement was more than she realized she could handle. That left her with not enough money in her checking account to live during the week. That led to more borrowing which got her in more trouble. She was losing control of her situation and had no plan to get out. That said there is a core set of behaviors that have to happen regardless of what financial situation you are in, if you are going to get on track. There has to be a written, realistic plan that includes milestones to demonstrate progress.

WE CAN DO IT TOGETHER

      Together, we created a basic plan and budget for her. Initially, her goal was to take care of all the loose ends that were distracting her from moving forward. To Amy these loose ends were like chains around her neck holding her down. Each chain that she got rid of made her feel like she was moving faster toward her goal of a clean slate. That took several months, but she did it. She was then able to focus on tasks like taking care of health concerns, adding to a savings account, and rebuilding her credit score. She will tell you that she happier about her financial situation today than she ever has been. There is a secure feeling that comes with knowing what is going on with your money and that you have control over it. Certainly, her stress over money is gone. The key to the transformation was that she wanted it to happen and was willing to take the steps to make it happen. She was ok with telling me that while she was a very smart, working professional she had absolutely no idea on how to get control of her money. She took the time to learn that skill and has done very well for herself.

     I am proud of her and it is satisfying to me to help others rid themselves of the stress in their lives due to the burdens of managing their money. It is exciting to watch people add quality to their lives and start enjoying themselves again once they have learned the skill of money management. I would like to help you do the same thing. Please use this website as one of many resources to learn about managing your money. Email me and let me know how I can help you. 

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