Financial Snapshots

I love to read the Sunday comics in the Detroit Free Press.  They are a social commentary on life all around us.  In the January 11, 2009 comics on page one, the Dilbert comic is talking about pay raises.  On page two the Blondie comic has Dagwood checking his lottery ticket before making a decision.  Page three the Luann comic is about exchanging Christmas gifts.  The Candorville comic on page six is about things people collect and hold on to for investments.  The comic I really enjoyed though was Hart on page five.  In this comic Hart tells her friend Dean, there is something he ought to see.  It is her moms post holiday tradition.  Dean asks “taking down the Christmas tree?”  Hart replies, “cutting up the credit cards.”  In the last panel you see Harts mom with a large pair of scissors mutilating the plastic cards. 

Perhaps I like this cartoon because I am a Dave Ramsey certified financial counselor.  Perhaps I like it because I too have had a plasectomy.  I discovered that I could live without my Discover card.  I’m not the only one discovering things.  This is the month when what was charged for Christmas comes due.  This is the month when impulse purchases tally up and the total is put on the table.  This is also the month when while temperatures outside are plummeting, and it is falling below zero with wind chill factors, heart rates are rising and people’s temperatures and blood pressures are heating up.

If the statistics are true, and seven out of ten people are left with too much month at the end of their money, what can be done?  If the television commercial is accurate and the average person has eight credit cards in their wallet or purse how will that affect their new year?  If anger in January has replaced the generosity of gift giving in December how can that be changed?

Believe it or not there is a way. Every year many people sit down and make resolutions that the new year will be different.  And yet gyms will testify to the number of people who start out with good intentions to get in shape, and by March that resolution has dissolved.  Personal finances can be the same way.  Gaining control of your money is actually twenty percent head knowledge and eighty percent behavior.  If you can get the person you look at every morning in the mirror to behave, you can get control of your money.   Managing your money is something you will do until you go to the grave.  Why not make this the year to learn how to manage it wisely?  If you do this, the credit cards won’t be taking up the slack when Christmas rolls around in eleven months.