Have you ever been one type of person, yet know that being that type of person wasn’t going to ever get you where you ‘said’ you wanted to actually be? Financially or other wise?
Well, changing seems to require some magic on our parts and often we’re just not equipped with the right tricks up our sleeves to do the changing.
But then along comes a book…a fabulous book. And in that book, you begin to see what it actually takes to change yourself, change your relationships, change the culture, even change the WORLD!!!
I just finished one such book and I have to thank Stacey Sherman, one of our wise Creative Wealth Coaches, for the suggestion. THANK YOU!
The book is SWITCH: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Financial changes seem to be particularly hard for people which made the book all that more fascinating.
Riders and Elephants
This is the main theme of the book and it’s taken from University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Happiness Hypothesis. Haidt says that our emotional side is an Elephant and our rational side is its Rider. Though it seems to the onlooker that the Rider is the leader, he can’t really accomplish any change without the willingness and effort of the Elephant.
The book goes into great depth about what has to happen in order for us to change ourselves, our organizations and even the world. I loved the book so much that the next few articles are going to explore different aspects of the book.
Finding The Bright Spots
One of the things that I really loved was their piece on looking at WHAT IS ALREADY WORKING to find clues on how to make change happen more organically and easier. They call this “Looking for the bright spots.”
So, this is where we’re going to start and I need your help to get the ball going. This blog post is a participatory post and I need your help.
I’m going to pose a 3 questions and if you would do me the honor of posting your valuable answers via the comments section, I’d appreciate it very much! This way the bright spots will be here for all to see. Here goes…
Question # 1:
When is saving money easy for you? In other words, do you need to be in a particular situation, have a certain type of job, live in a certain type of place, be making a certain amount of money, be in a special mindset, have a powerful goal to work for? Whatever it is, WHEN is the act of SAVING easy for you?
Question # 2:
When you have made changes in your financial habits in the past, what was the motivating factor? Did you set a goal, take a class and learn new information, get a lecture from a parent, etc. What exactly motivated you to actually make that change?
Question # 3:
What financial habit comes easy for you and why? Is is saving a percentage of your paycheck, shopping sales, using coupons, etc.? And it can be any habit that involves money.
OK, that’s all we’re going to do today. I can’t wait to read all of your answers!
1> When is it easy? – When I have a GOAL in mind and I know it is achievalbe. (People who really want to do something find a way – others find an EXCUSE)
2. Making changes is easy when I have a GOAL and a timeframe. (Goals are dreams with deadlines).
3.What comes easy? – LIVING below my means. I don’t earn a huge income but managed to buy my first house at 22, and have it paid by 28. Simply spending less than I earnt and using the rest to pay debt and now invest. At 40 I am already bearing the fruit of my perseverance in my early days… My parents were also a HUGE factor. They got out of the rat race at 50, simply by living below their means and investing in property. Not bad for a mechanic and part time bus driver aye?!
Great Answers and Input and GOOD JOB! Wish you were teaching The Money Game to people!
Love the questions. And its easiest for me to save money when I have spare money to save. Which is pretty much never so that needs to change. The 2nd question is about motivation to change and that would be fear due to economic insecurity. The fianci habi for the 3rd question is spending money is the easiest habit. Looks like I only have bad habits.
Thanks Andy. Don’t look at the habits as good or bad. Think of them as supportive or unsupportive. Takes the judgment out of them. 🙂 E
These are great soul searching questions, here are my answers:
1. When I look back I saved when I had a powerful goal like my first internation trip.
2. My motivating factors are seminars based on teaching how to get out of debt.
3. A financial habit that comes easy for me is 401K or anything where I can not touch the money easily. I sometimes do ok when I don’t have a way to pay off a credit purchase within 2 paycycles, I will not use the card (SOMETIMES).
I am looking anxiously forward to your future articles. This article is forcing me to go back over previous techniques because I have been lax over the past few months. Thanks
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer. I’m looking forward to covering more of the book also. Please forward the link to this blog to your friends and ask them to answer the questions also: http://innerwealthpublishing.com/cwi-blog/camp-news/making-the-switch-to-financial-security-and-freedom/
E
1. When is it easy to save money…when we have money leftover. We are working hard to get to this point and are almost there!
2. Making changes is never easy. My husband had been taking care of the money as I was doing most of everything else and didn’t have the time or brainpower. Then I had surgery and had some time on my hands. I wanted to work part-time from home in order to spend more time with my kids before they went off to college. In order to do this, I had to get a grip on our finances. It has been a long process of education, implementation, and evaluation, but the change has happened…slowly.
3. What comes easy? Collecting a receipt for every penny that gets spent. The hard part is logging those receipts so we know where our money is going and making sure we are on track for what we planned. Through doing this it has helped us to know what is going on with our money, where it is being spent, and what we need to do moving forward to be better with our money.
Amy…thanks so much for your comments. I really helps others see what it takes, and sometimes it takes a lot of work. The ‘financial freedom’ people make it all seem so simple…