The fact that you don’t have everything you want doesn’t mean that you have nothing.  When you’ve come to focus obsessively on your debts, it’s as if a filter has been placed over your eyes, and all the things you have and all that is good in your life fade and disappear.  You no longer see anything […]

I was trying to think of exactly what it is that I appreciate more but I really think it is EVERYTHING. I appreciate not having to worry about money and all the things that I learned you can enjoy without money. I appreciate how I learned who my true friends are and how you can […]

Eventually, we begin to juggle our money week to week and month to month, trying to stay on top of bills and responsibilities.  We walk a tightrope and live in apprehension of impending disaster, in fear that we’re going to run out, that we won’t have enough, that we’ll be caught in a squeeze, that […]

As soon as we become aware of money, we develop beliefs about it — beliefs we cling to, sometimes for the rest of our lives, often at the cost of our souls.  …This is the trap of Innocence — we hold on to a body of beliefs with such fierceness and misplaced loyalty that they […]

People in debt have cash-flowed their future right into their past.
— alberen, blogger

… I refuse to be anyone’s slave. I want to be free. I want to work for my wages, use my wages to buy things that I can afford, and go to bed every single night knowing that only God controls my destiny. I will not be another man’s slave. I refuse. I will not bow […]

The key to an easy life is to learn to use fear and discomfort as teachers.  Fear may be a sign for you to explore another path.  Discomfort may indicate that you are at the edge of your predictable territory.
— Maria Nemeth, Ph.D., The Energy of Money

It is challenging to face the “dark side” of how you handle money — or the doubts, fears, worries, and thwarted hopes that may appear.  Sometimes it’s hard to see the hidden treasure, but when we tell the truth about what we see, even when we don’t want to see it, we’re given even more […]

We have discussed how the strengths and weaknesses in your life will affect your personal finances, but we cannot leave that subject without dealing with one of life’s dirtiest words — discipline.  You will have conflict, worry, shortages, and general lack of fun until you achieve some discipline in the handling of your funds.  I […]

Financial security isn’t about being lucky, miserly, or the child of well-off parents. It’s about discipline.
— mamessner, Lifehacker commenter 

To think that the handling of your personal finances is merely a matter of math control is naive.  You must get better control of all aspects of your life.  Until you do, [even the best advice] will have little effect but will instead be neutralized by the other habits in your life.
— Dave Ramsey, Financial […]

You must learn to listen to the language of money around you and the words you choose to express your thoughts.  When you begin to do this — and it isn’t very hard, it’s like listening for a song, or a chord, or a word you just learned — you can read your financial future […]

Actually, respect, approval, and admiration — even friendship and love — are given much more freely to people who are confident and secure in their personal finances, who are solvent and who’ve stopped debting, than they are to those who aren’t and who haven’t.
— Jerrold Mundis, How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of […]

Your debts don’t mean anything more than that you owe some people some money.  No one has drawn up articles of condemnation against you.  You won’t be dragged through the streets in a dunce hat and pelted with garbage.  Your picture hasn’t been tacked up in post offices.  You’re not wandering weary, friendless, naked, and […]

You must turn your fear into action, your self-pity into resolve.  You can no longer grant yourself permission barely to get by, to float the debt from month to month and year to year, or to ignore your situation.  Getting out of debt is without a doubt the single most important action you can take […]