90 Days to Financial Stability

Why do I, and other debt coaches like me, advise you to keep a spending journal? What is the benefit of that? It isn’t only for you to see where your money is going but also so you will start to think before you spend. If you know that there is a record of every cent you spend, somewhere it is going to be listed that you spent money you didn’t have on something foolish, you may stop yourself. Even if you are the only one who sees it, you may stop. Or course, you   could just not record it but that would be lying and you don’t want to lie to yourself. Another advantage of keeping a spending journal is when you also record how you are feeling when you want to spend money (or do) you may be able to find your triggers. Did you just get into a fight with your significant other and now want to go out and spend a lot of money? If you have sat down and wrote in your spending journal about this experience – the fight, the feelings it brought up and the desire to buy...

If you look back to Tuesday February 13, 2018, you will see that I am discussing the history of women and money. Today, we continue. Next, we move into ancient Rome. The Romans were more liberal than the Greeks were. This culture allowed women divorce, hold property and inherit. Divorces were easy to get and men had the legal right to retain custody of children. In 565 AD, the Byzantine empire, Justinian laws allowed women to be married without a dowry though there were pre-nuptial gifts which, if a woman cheated on her husband, the man was allowed to divorce her and keep the gifts. He was also entitled to keep the dowry, if there was one, and a third of any property she possessed! Some working women, such as prostitutes and tavern-owners, did not have the right to marry Roman citizens and Roman men could only keep them as concubines. Emperor Justinian’s wife, Empress Theodora – a former actress and wool spinner – left her jobs when the Emperor started to court her. ...

Have you ever heard someone say it is easy to stay out of debt – just spend less than you earn. How does that make you feel? When I hear someone say that, it pisses me off!  First, it sounds arrogant and condescending and secondly, it insinuates that people with large amounts of debt are stupid. Those who have debt, realize that they wouldn’t have any debt if they spent less than they earned.  Well, guess what? Those in debt already know that and telling them to do that does not help the present situation. If you can’t give helpful advice then don’t say anything. There are so many reasons people end up in debt. A health issue is a big one even for those who live in Canada where there is publicly funded health care.  Having a stroke, heart attack or a chronic illness comes with extra costs. What do you if the government or health care plans won’t pay for these extra costs?  You find the money somehow.  The same goes for dental issues. Going to the ...