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One of my lowest points financially hit me like a brick. I was standing in the supermarket and I had a choice. I could buy a clearance sale bag of French Fried potatoes or a roll of toilet paper. I could not do both. At that moment I felt helpless, angry and questioning why I was even here. I was not questioning why I was in the supermarket. I questioned how did I get to this point where I had to make this kind of choice?
That was my financial bottom. Like Scarlett O’Hara, I vowed to change the situation. I did not know how I was going to do it but it was going to happen. I was a journey and I made missteps along the way. I did know that my ignorance was putting me in jeopardy of harming my spirit. I’d seen the walking dead; the people who go through the motions of life waiting to die. That scared me more than anything and inspired me to learn what I needed to know.
This series of Women’s History posts came from seeing the 1929 Depression as a metaphor for surviving and thriving in the mist of chaos. The fact is that there have been multiple recessions since 1929 and there will be others.
One of life lessons is that there will be unexpected turbulence. How you handle your personal financial life after the turbulence occurs is within your control. So with a little help from Eleanor Roosevelt here we go; for those of you that don’t know about her this is a very brief introduction.
Empowerment
Part of having control over your financial life is knowing that you can take care of yourself. It might be a hard idea to sell these days, especially if you are having a financial emergency. You have to believe that you can handle whatever you have to face, even if you need to ask for help.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
DJ Nelson knew that a 40 hour work week in an office was not for her. She had others that were trying to tell her that perhaps she was mistaken in her opinion. She wasn’t. DJ knew what was right for her:
Before I graduated from college I knew that I never wanted to work for anyone else. The idea of being stuck in an office for 40+ hours a week was simply revolting. After a few summers of full-time internships, I was simply burned out. I literally felt as if my brain was oozing out of my head and my level of intelligence was dropping at a rapid rate. I knew that is not how I wanted to spend my life.
No disrespect to those who live this lifestyle but it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t understand why I had to sit at a desk for 8 hours each day when I was done with all of my work after 4 hours.
Rowena at Warrior Girl expresses her empowerment thought art. I wished I could fly and maybe I can be inspired by her work to take flight of some of my ideas that have been percolating.
What Is Your Plan?
Don’t have a plan, great! This gives you the opportunity to investigate how other people are doing it the sensible way. I don’t think you have to make yourself sucker bait for any financial scheme that is being floated pass folks now days. There are real people who worked there way out of in deep debt without winning the lottery or a relative dying in the nick of time. You have options.
The world cannot be understood from a single point of view. I keep repeating this because this one of our blinds spots as Americans.
No one plan fits all lifestyles but you have to have something. Even a rebel needs something to rebel against. Now you can call it a budget, financial goals, spending plan or whatever you want to call it
