Greetings Money Saving Lords and Ladies. Welcome back to this week’s process of changing your mind so you can change your finances. We’re on a 31 Day Journey to Reducing Your Debt. You wouldn’t believe how much debt repayment is a mind over matter venture. It’s a mental battle as much as it’s financial battle. Today we focus on influences.
Day 5: Surround Yourself with Like Minded People
If you’ve followed our story at all, you know that we’re big fans of Dave Ramsey (more on that in the days to come). On his radio show, Dave often asks those who have paid off large sums of debt if their friends made fun of them for choosing to live simply while pursuing financial peace.
Our response to that question? No.
Simply put, we’ve been very intentional about the influences that we let into our lives. Not to go all “Mom” on you, but someone who makes fun of you for paying off your debt isn’t really your friend. And they’re not the type of person you need in your life.
If you’re going to be successful in paying off debt, you’re going to need a lot of people pulling for you. You’re going to need a lot of people who believe that you can do what you’ve set out to do. You do not need naysayers saying things like:
“Well, what would you want to do that for?”
“Debt isn’t that big of a deal. Everyone has debt.”
*or even* “I could never do that, but good for you.”
All of these sentences have a defeatist attitudes that won’t help you win your debt slaying quest. Because these are the same people who convince you that you need that new sweater when maybe you don’t. These are the same people who will scoff or even be unkind to you when you say you can’t go out to dinner. And these are the same people who might stop talking to you if you tell them you can’t afford a big vacation with them.
Bottom line, they will be dead weight and keep you from your goals.
So where can you go to find like-minded people? Perhaps a church. Perhaps in a Financial Peace class or in the forums there. Perhaps even in your family. Perhaps in a virtual community like the Court of the Queen of Free on Facebook (nothing makes me happier than when someone posts that they’ve paid off debt on the QoF wall). Maybe they even live right next door to you.
Best of all, like minded people celebrate with you when you pay off your first debt. They ask you to do budget conscious fun things. They listen to you prattle on about coupons (and maybe even ask your advice). They love you no matter what.
And that’s worth more than money can buy.
